Sarah J. Maas is entering the New Adult fiction world with her release of Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood on March 3rd. If you’re not familiar with her, she is the author of the very popular A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass YA series. I have reviewed both of those series and I have very mixed feelings about Maas’ writing style. She has really interesting ideas. Her writing is fast paced and typically action packed with a healthy dose of romance thrown in. However, she has many annoying writing “quirks.” I have complained about this in every review for her books but she tends to REALLY overuse certain words, phrases and the blessed em dash. Seriously, every other sentence contains an em dash…

Anyways, Netgalley sent me a five chapter excerpt from her newest book and I thought I would share how I feel about it, no spoilers. Here’s the synopsis:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas launches her brand-new CRESCENT CITY series with House of Earth and Blood: 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.

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.

My Thoughts:

To be blunt, chapters one through four were awful. Maas has clearly not listened to any of the criticisms about her writing. The em dash was back in full force and certain cringy phrases, such as “loosed a breath,” were used in abundance.

Maas also apparently thinks that writing an adult novel means yours characters need to curse every other world. It was so irritating and unnecessary. These are adult characters but they speak like teenagers who just discovered bad words. There’s also at least two drug references in just the first few chapters. That is technically a part of some peoples lives but I personally don’t care for it, especially when it’s given a tacky name, such as…There’s also this um, creative take on the common word “Hell”:I literally thought it was a typo until it was repeated like three times. I guess just taking an “l” off makes it a new place and not the regular Christian Hell *shrugs*.

After four chapters of pure garbage and annoying characters, I didn’t expect much from the last chapter in the excerpt. However, in chapter five, things got really interesting. Not interesting enough to make me give the first four chapters a pass but good enough to make me preorder the Kindle edition. I might end up regretting spending the money on it but I need to know what happens.

Final Thoughts:

March 3rd falls on a Tuesday and my book reviews typically go up on Wednesdays. This book is over 800 pages long so there’s no way I can finish it in one day. I’ll either move the review to Friday, the 6th, or it will be on Wednesday, the 11th. I know a lot of people are really excited for this book and I hope it ends up being good because I definitely don’t want to waste my time. Is this one you’re picking up? Let me know! Thanks for reading and have a great day!