Crescent City Series Review

I almost didn’t read Crescent City.

After finishing Throne of Glass, I had no plans to pick up Sarah J. Maas’s other series. Almost everyone I talked to told me they didn’t like it. My best friend was basically the lone voice telling me otherwise. She loved it.

Then Christmas came, and my dad gifted me the entire Crescent City trilogy.

So, there they sat on my bookshelf.

A couple of months later, I finally picked up House of Earth and Blood. And for the first ninety pages or so, I thought everyone had been right.

I was not feeling it.

The modern world threw me off after the fantasy settings I was used to from Maas. Phones? Clubs? Technology? And Bryce Quinlan? The partying, drinking, seemingly carefree main character was annoying me. I remember wondering how I was possibly going to get through a book this massive when I already wasn’t connecting with its world or its main character.

And then something happened.

Something so unexpected, and so early in the book, that my immediate reaction was essentially:

There is no way. We are way too early in this book for this to be happening.

That was it. Maas had me.

And I am so glad she did.

Because the further I got into House of Earth and Blood, the more everything I initially disliked started working for me. I grew to love the modern fantasy setting. I understood Bryce more and more, and eventually realized just how clever she really is. There is far more happening beneath that party-girl exterior than I initially gave her credit for.

And then there is Bryce and Danika.

Their friendship became one of my favorite parts of the entire series. The love, loyalty, grief, secrets, and sheer weight of that relationship run through Crescent City in ways I never expected when I first picked it up.

Add in a painfully good slow-burn romance, a cast of characters I became ridiculously attached to, secrets layered on top of secrets, and a story that continually becomes bigger than you thought it was going to be and suddenly the series I almost refused to read had me completely invested.

I actually think House of Earth and Blood is one of Sarah J. Maas’s best-written books.

And somehow, for me, the series only gets better.

House of Sky and Breath and House of Flame and Shadow expand the world, deepen the relationships, and uncover even more of what has been hiding underneath the story from the beginning. There are so many characters in this series that I genuinely love, and their friendships, romances, loyalties, and sacrifices are a huge part of what made Crescent City work for me.

And then Maas does something that makes this series impossible to treat as completely separate from her other work.

Crescent City connects to A Court of Thorns and Roses.

I will not spoil how, when, or what happens. But the connection is there, and there are also details that have me very suspicious that Throne of Glass may eventually find its way into this larger story too.

Which makes it especially funny that I almost skipped this series entirely.

I listened to everyone telling me they didn’t like it. I judged the modern setting almost immediately. I judged Bryce almost immediately. I nearly let those first ninety pages convince me that Crescent City simply wasn’t for me.

Now?

Every time I walk past those three books on my shelf, I smile.

And every once in a while, I look at House of Earth and Blood and get that little ache you get when you wish you could erase a story from your memory just so you could experience it for the first time again.

So if you’ve been avoiding Crescent City because someone told you it wasn’t as good as ACOTAR or Throne of Glass, I’m going to be the annoying friend who tells you what my best friend told me:

Give it a chance.

Give yourself time to adjust to the world. Give Bryce time to show you who she actually is. And when you think you know where the story is going?

You probably don’t.

You are in for one hell of a ride.

And I cannot believe I almost missed it.

My Rating: ★★★★★

Storykeeper’s Verdict: A Story Worth Keeping

Have you read the series? Did you start it and DNF? Please let me know what you thought in the comments below!

Love, Chelsea

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