House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.

would've been 5 stars but Sarah J Maas' hornyness ruins a lot for me. No sex actually happened but cmon, who tries to have sex after they both died like 20 minutes before?

I feet a bit ashamed. I had so many issues with this book, that it is hard to count. Characters, plot, world-building, literally about anything. And then you what I did? I stayed up till 5 AM because I just needed to finish this book.

What was good in this book:
- parts starting from around 70% of the book. That's where everything picked up speed and all the plot twists were were coming at the speed of a motor vehicle instead of the snail-slow pacing of the beginning. And it was even engaging.

What I didn't enjoy:
- Characters. I couldn't discern between them if not for the color of their hair. Here we have the most beautiful angel, there is a striking medwitch, somewhere over there is the most gorgeous wraith and so on. No matter how small mention of a character we got, it is always the same - He/She was the prettiest male/female ever seen and his/her power was unparralled to any other. Because had I mentioned that god save us the character wouldn't have a special superpower.
- Unnecessary swearing. Like for real. The book would've been a 100 pages shorter if the word “f*ck” was edited out.
- Bryce is such a Mary Sue. Despite being told throughout the whole book that her power level was low, but of course till the end of the book she had more power that any other being in the city. And I didn't even mention what a special beautiful and curvatios snowlake she is. And how every “male” was ready to take her right there.
- That scene where Bryce tried to take Hunt's place. OMG, I so waited for the reveal of some clever plan. I just couldn't believe the sheer stupidity of what she intended to do.
- Portrayal of drug use. Especially in the beginning. That was disgusting.
- No logic in acquainting readers with the world. It was either a blatant infodump (which for me is a preferable option) or we see something, it gets mentioned again in 15 pages, and again in 20 pages and after that it gets explained in the way we already had to understand what is going on. By the way, I still don't know how this planet of Midgard looks and what all the random names belong to, and the author already gone into establishing parallel words and realms.
- If this book had an editor - he did a poor job. This book is overlong but at least 300 pages. And so confusing.

At this point, I'm tired and have no inspiration left for this review.

But you know the worst thing? I will still read a next book.

This one kicked into high gear about half way through and the action really ramped up.
Flew through it to the end.
Loved the twists!

There is a LOT of world building in this one, but the story was so emotional and... well... worth it. I adored this book so much. Sarah J. Maas wove such a fun buddy cop, close proximity adventure into her complex fantasy world and it was a journey that I can't wait to continue.