House of Earth and Blood

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas | 803 pages | 2020

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.

(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

It's my second time reading this one, and I still feel like it's 4 stars. She built a really cool world, and I think the balance between urban and fantasy works very well. Basically a whole star gets taken for the terrible supervillain info dump that happens at the climax, which is so clumsy and lengthy that it slows down the momentum.

Gather the Fortunes by Bryan Camp

Gather the Fortunes: A Crescent City Novel by Bryan Camp --- 372 pages including Map and Acknowledgments.

Caught in the schemes of a bunch of feuding Trickster gods, Renaissance Raines winds up dead, then resurrected, then abandoned. She's been trapped in the shadows between the world of the living New Orleans and the New Orleans of the dead for five years. Renai has become a psychopomp — a guide who leads the souls of the recently departed through the Seven Gates of the Underworld to be judged before the Thrones and sent to whatever Beyond they have earned. When Renai is tasked to collect the soul of a young man named Ramses St. Cyr she discovers that he has somehow escaped the moment of his death. As Renai attempts to track Ramses down she finds herself once again at the center of a struggle among the gods who rule the Crescent City, living and dead. One of them busted Ramses free of his destiny, but not for any benevolent purpose, Renai is certain of that. Someone is willing to risk the balance between the worlds to snatch power for themselves and damn the rest. And when Renai finds that sorry scheming s.o.b. there’s going to be a Reckoning.

The brilliant sequel to The City of Lost Fortunes.  Urban fantasy at its best, and a must read for anyone who loves New Orleans.

Click HERE to read the * review in Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review in Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the New York Journal of Books.

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp --- 367 pages including an Author's Note and Acknowledgements.

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The fate of New Orleans rests in the hands of a wayward grifter in this novel of gods, games, and monsters.

The post-Katrina New Orleans of The City of Lost Fortunes is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane's destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure that it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known--a father who just happens to be more than human.


Jude has been lying low since the storm, which caused so many things to be lost that it played havoc with his magic, and he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind. A world full of magic, monsters, and miracles. A world where he must find out who is responsible for the Fortune god's death, uncover the plot that threatens the city's soul, and discover what his talent for lost things has always been trying to show him: what it means to be his father's son.

*****

If you enjoy the urban fantasy of Neil Gaiman or Jim Butcher, you might want to give new author Bryan Camp a try. If you love New Orleans, the fabled Crescent City, you should definitely give Bryan Camp a try!

Click HERE to read the review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the New Orleans Review.

Click HERE to read the review from Locus.