(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
The concept of life in other parts of the universe is an interesting one and despite the blurb of this book giving away quite a bit of the storyline, I did find it to be a really intriguing plotline. Unfortunately, there were quite a few things that didn’t sit right with me.
I found it really difficult to differentiate the two POV characters. Until the other one was named, I wasn’t actually sure whose head I was supposed to be in. Both of them seemed to have the same thought processes and it was really jarring to suddenly realise I wasn’t in the head of the character I thought I should have been in.
The storyline here had a lot of potential. There were two main romances that could have been really interesting to read about… as well as a love triangle that had the potential to be fairly unique. Unfortunately, a lot of that was lost when it came to insta!love and lack of compassion from any of the other characters for a problem one of their kind was facing.
I didn’t feel like I could get behind the emotions of the two main characters. I was being told what they were feeling… but not shown. There was hardly any foreshadowing – and characters who were supposed to be important were only referenced one.
It was interesting to see that there were differences in Kadan and Earth… but a lot of the things were the same. I would have really liked to see what a different culture would do for proposing, for instance.
The concept about the different powers was quite intriguing, but I felt it wasn’t utilised as much as it could have been. I also felt there were moments in this book that were quite contradictory.
I can’t really give this book any more than two stars. Although it wasn’t massive in length, there was quite a bit of info-dumping and I felt the characters didn’t have individual voices. There was a lot of potential in this book, but I felt the execution fell short… which was a shame, because the plot detail and cover really had caught my attention.
Ink of Blood 