House of Earth & Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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I will do my best to write a coherent review. I have a major book hangover from this book!! It was SO good. It did have a couple issues but the plot and world building were so amazing that I had to give it 5 stars! It took me a while bc I was between 4/5. I just was so caught up in the story that I cried, I laughed and the last 300 pages are AMAZING. Maas did not disappoint with this one!

My biggest issue with the book is the first ~150 pages or so. There are so many information dumps that it was completely overwhelming. The world building was absolutely fantastic though. I understand that she was really trying to convey how this world worked and all the different systems and all the magic. It was a tough and slow start though. Once you get past this part, it was FANTASTIC! The plot moved along so fast and I just had to know what happened next. The last 300 pages are pretty spectacular and really made this book for me.

I’ve already mentioned the amazing world that Maas has created here. You have so many different paranormal creatures in a modern world. You name it, she’s got it. It was so awesome to see them all living (kind of) together.

One of my favorite things about this book are the friendships. There are many in this book that really pack a punch. This book is basically about the strength, love, and bond of one friendship in particular. It is beautiful. I don’t want to give away spoilers but I cried many times!

Bryce… wow.. She might be my favorite MC to date. I know, I know.. it’s crazy talk. She is BRAVE and awesome. Her whole life she has been pegged a certain way and it’s not great. Yet, she’s one of the fiercest and funniest characters I’ve read about in a long time. She didn’t care what others thought about her and she just went on with her life. The comebacks she has are hilarious and it was good. We needed the comedic relief at times because this book got dark and intense in places. By the end of this book, I was completely smitten with her!

The romance was such a slow burn and so fun. They didn’t want to be around each other at first but then.. guess what? It was fantastic and I loved every minute of it!

Besides the fact that this book is really long and there’s a lot of info dumps it was a wild ride! I loved this book so much and I cannot wait for the next one!

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