House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

TW: death, fantasy violence, gore, explicit content

Bryce Quinlan had no complaints about her life. She had a job she didn’t hate, and she got to party hard with her best friend. But when a demon comes and kills all her friends, she loses the zest for life she once had. And when she finds herself in the heart of the investigation as to who summoned the demon, she will stop at nothing to find them and avenge her family.

Hunt Alathar is a Fall Angel who finds himself beside Bryce in the investigation. Even though he finds Bryce a prissy party girl, he will do anything to get out of his boss's debt.

While working together, they start to uncover the mystery of Bryce’s friend’s death and a lot more about the City than they bargained for.

This book is far from perfect, I had such a fun time reading it. I wasn’t looking for a perfect story with magnificent world-building. When I read a Maas book, I’m looking to have a good time, and that’s what I got. The world-building was mediocre, the characters were a bit one-dimensional, and the overall story was good.

While the characters were a bit flat, I actually enjoyed them. They were all sassy and ballsy and arrogant. I personally love arrogant characters, so this worked for me. I’m hoping that these characters see more development in the next book because they need it. These characters, especially Bryce, worked well enough for the story.

The world was boring; I’m just going to say it. It was underdeveloped. I found myself not caring about the world. I really only cared about the plot and the characters. Normally, I would be more upset at the lack of world development, but in a story like this, one I don’t take too seriously, I don’t mind as much. There was a lot of info-dumping, which annoyed me. So much about the City was just told in a series of dialogue, and I found it boring. Info-dumping is boring anyway, but it got a bit too much in this book.

I found this novel entertaining. I will be continuing with the rest of the series, and I’m actually excited to see it develop. It was a good time, it got me hooked, and I genuinely want to see how this story develops. If you like Maas’s other work and/or you’re looking for an entertaining fantasy with some fun romance, this is the book for you.