Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found this book quite an easy read. The characters were intriguing and likable… at least the main characters, for the most part. I did feel like I was thrown halfway into the storyline, but I suspect that was a similar feeling to the one that Jake was experiencing when he was first thrown into the situation.

I liked Sandy a lot as a character and I felt it was good that the author spent quite a bit of time showing how things went for her. It was really good to see a strong female lead, even though I got a bit frustrated with the fact that she couldn’t do much to begin with. Still, I felt there was a lot with her later on… and I have to say she was one of my favourite characters.

I really wasn’t sure what to make of Victor. There were certain things that made me wonder if there was going to be a twist involving him, but it apparently didn’t happen.

The concept of the different alien races and the humans being the same as the main alien race they interacted with was quite an interesting one and I felt the author provided a good explanation as to why that was the case.

The enemy aliens were quite creepy and scary and I felt the author did a good job of that. I couldn’t help noticing that the ugly/frightening-in-appearance aliens were the ones who were the bad guys, though. Although their personalities made it clear they were bad, I’ve found it a bit disappointing that the ‘good’ guys tend to be the more humanoid aliens.

I did find it interesting to see there were two different sides to the history and that there seemed to be bad things done on both sides. I also really liked the descriptions and usage of the technology.

It was good to see humans fighting to defend Earth and the aliens coming to help right towards the end. I did like the ending of the book, too, even if I was a bit confused by exactly what happened. The danger the characters were in felt real and I would definitely be interested in reading the next book in this series.