Much like Taylor Swift, Sarah J Maas includes twits, turns, and easter eggs throughout her books, and “Crescent City” is no exception.

Crescent City is a high-fantasy series including intense conflict and romance, including 2 books. “A House of Earth and Blood,” released in 2020, and “A House of Sky and Breath,” released in 2022. 

The book community is highly anticipating the release of the third book, “A House of Flame and Shadow”, coming out on Jan. 30, 2024.

The first book introduces Bryce Quinlan, a party girl with a job that she works hard at. One night, after a party, she comes home to her best friend Danika killed by a demon. Bryce pushes herself into the middle of the investigation, having to work with Hunt Athalar, a strong Fallen Angel. Together they work to find the cause of this demon, discovering a dark power that threatens the whole of the city.

The beginning of this book was really slow, due to the fact that you have a completely new world being built with characters I didn’t know anything about. About 50 pages in, it picked up immediately and got intense.

Throughout the book, the intensity was in and out, at points the investigation felt like it was getting drawn out and in general the plot felt very slow.

Although there were these slow points, I absolutely adored the book and felt a personal connection to the main female character, Bryce. She is such a strong female main character, not depending on anyone and she protects herself in a way that makes her build herself up. 

This book could have been shorter, as well as the second book. Some of the investigating that happened was not necessary for the plot, unless she brings it back up in the third book.

I would recommend this series to people who enjoy intense fantasy books. Although this series was amazing, I recommend reading Maas’s first two series, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and “Throne of Glass,” first.

The average rating on Goodreads for the first book is a 4.48, on Amazon it is a 4.7.

Overall my rating for this series is 4.5/5 stars.