(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
This is another book I have some mixed feelings about. The blurb on the back of the book was really intriguing and I particularly liked the front cover.
This book definitely fell into the category of dark fantasy. Out of all of the characters, I think Rook was the only one that I really liked. There were a couple of other characters I was interested in, especially the wolf, but I didn’t see enough of them to really get drawn into their plot. I did really like the brother relationship shown, though, especially when there was the flashback to Branrir and Dagrir’s past. I’ve always liked reading about brother relationships and I felt this one was shown really well… even if I did originally think that their relationship wasn’t a good one.
Both Nuriel and Celacia were intriguing characters, though in quite different ways. By the end of the book, Nuriel had fallen a lot in my estimation… though I did feel that the author did quite a good job of showing how what she’d experienced caused her to fall so far. In a way, it was good that she had ideals… but I really felt that she was clinging to the wrong kind of ideals. It would be interesting to see more of her doing the right thing, instead of just accepting and reveling in it like the other Saints did.
I liked learning about the mythology of the world, but I felt there were a few too many flashbacks that weren’t really separated from the story well enough. The world itself was really quite intriguing and it was clear a lot of work and effort had gone into building everything.
The concepts of the demons and angels were quite interesting and by the end of the book, I have a lot of theories. I didn’t get very many questions answered throughout the course of the book, though, and I still have a lot of confusion by the end. I felt that Rook proved himself to be a very resourceful character throughout and I would read the next book following on from this one… if only to see more of him.
Ink of Blood 