La Casa di Terra e Sangue

The beginning is definitley hard to invest in. But once that ball gets rolling it just won’t stop. Two words. Chapter. Five. 🤯

Sarah J. Maas was how it all started back in September 2025. My love for reading, my book collections, it all started with that red book, A Court of Thorns and Roses. I recall being so into both ACOTAR and TOG last year, choosing the next chapter over sleep at night from being much too eager to find out what happens next. And since then, I have read 50 books so far this year from countless other authors in countless magical and non-magical worlds. Many I have loved--stories that devastated me and/or challenged me intellectually, made me laugh, cry, fall in love. But rare was it that I felt that almost obsessive excitement as I had with those early Maas' books. I told myself, perhaps it was simply a phase where everything felt more magical when I was rediscovering immersive fantasy early on. And maybe perhaps after nearly a year of daily reading, I had grown as a reader, and have become more analytical and harder to satisfy. I was so wrong. LOL. So, so wrong. I should preface by saying that I had gone straight to Crescent City after finishing the TOG series--or, so I tried to. I had made two separate attempts at this particular book, and for both times, I was unable to get past the first chapter with its overwhelming information, unfamiliar hierarchy, modern technology, and an urban world so vastly different from Prythian and Erilea. This time, with ACOTAR 6 releasing in 2 weeks however, I gave CC a thrid chance with an open mind to let it be unfamiliar. I treated it like I would for a different author. In doing so, I unknowingly zipped through 800 pages in 6 days. Key word: Unknowingly. This is now a proff of my realization that Sarah J. Maas is simply an extraordinary story teller of this generation. In House of Earth and Blood, there was mystery surrounding Danika's murder that gave me a central focus, while every character dynamic and relationships provided the right amount of emotional weight that made the following occurring events matter. Smaller characters, minor characters were all distinct and memorable, and our FMC MMC were both intelligent, resourceful, charismatic, and just only a tiny bit reckless. It was Bryc's grief over Danika (and even Connor) that had pitted her to the ground yet Hunt hadn't erased that grief--they were two broken people, mirrors of each other, that had found reasons to live beyond their pain. Together. With every chapter, the world and politics became clearer to understand. The characters became more meaningful, and the mystery became more compelling. There was just always a reason to keep turning the page. I think this book made me realize (gratefully) that it's not that I've outgrown that feeling of obsessive excitement, that "one more chapter!". It was simply that it takes a certain exceptional talent of a writer and a particularly exceptional form of storytelling to come together. And I as a reader to encounter it. What a gift it is, knowing this is now only the beginning of Bryce and Hunt... I love it when I'm reminded of why I fell in love with reading so much.

A #1 New York Times bestseller! Sarah J. Maas's bestselling Crescent City series begins with House of Earth and Blood, which follows the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance.