(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
It’s always good to read a young adult book that isn’t the cardboard cut out of, ‘Mary Sue meets two hot guys and has to decide between them who she’s going to end up with’. Yes, there was a love triangle here… but it was handled in a slightly different way, so although it was a bit irritating to see again, I felt it wasn’t as annoying as some of them.
I did think of Daughter of Smoke and Bone a lot while I was reading this, but although there were some similar elements, I did feel that the storyline was unique enough to keep and hold my attention. And to be honest, pretty much every plot has elements that can be traced to others.
I also really liked a lot of the characters in this book. Echo was particularly interesting and it was also good to see the two different species. I would have liked to see a bit more detail about how they co-existed with humans. There was a bit, but when the action picked up more, I was left wondering how humans kept missing everything going on.
I did like how the author acknowledged that there was a cost to magic. I find that more realistic than the whole myriad of Mary Sues who use power without even a single consequence, even though other characters have spent whole years training. (Am I bitter? Yes. A whole lot of reading time wasted spent on cliched young adult paranormal romances).
I was particularly fond of Dorian and Jasper. I would have loved to see more of them interacting. I’m also curious to see how Ivy will fit in with these relationships.
I REALLY like how the romance wasn’t some perfect, insta!love. I felt that the characters still had lives outside of each other and that’s always a good thing. I also really liked that the author wasn’t afraid to let the characters suffer consequences. And that most of them couldn’t just fight their way out of trouble without some kind of help.
Although this book did end with some kind of resolution, I would like to see more of the world and the characters. It would also be nice to see other members of both of the races, but I’d particularly like to see how certain situations are resolved.
Ink of Blood 