Ink of Blood

 (I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I originally read the blurb of this book, I thought it sounded really intriguing. The plot really grabbed my attention… and although I was irritated by the dual first person POVs, I still found it relatively easy to follow the storyline.

It was interesting to see the contrasts in Bridger’s and Alora’s lives. I thought it was particularly good to see how society had changed by the time it got to Bridger’s time; and how he and the others viewed the people of the past. I also liked seeing the differences in the kinds of technology that the future had, such as the DataLinks and the way people’s talents were utilised.

For quite a way of the book, I did think that Alora met a lot of the cliches of the young heroine, such as being raised by someone other than her parents and having people at school be really awful to her. I was disappointed in Trevor, though.

Although I did like Grace, there were times she did really annoy me… particularly with the way she pushed for information from people and how she kept Alora’s past a secret from her. As much as she probably meant well, I couldn’t help thinking she was just trying to stick her head in the sand.

I liked the future supporting characters better than the past ones, in particular Bridger’s two friends. I had some very mixed feelings about his mother, since she did come across as a really awful person most of the time… even if she did seem to care about Bridger at times. I would have liked to see a bit more of Bridger’s relationship with his brother.

There was quite a lot of tension in this book and even though I felt the writing gave a lot of the mystery away, there were a lot of intense scenes that helped to keep me reading fast throughout. The romance was light and didn’t take over the storyline like I’d been expecting it to.

I’d definitely be interested in reading a sequel to this book at some point in the future. I felt like there was a lot more of the story to be told and it would be good to see more of the characters and, in particular, the problems they’re now going to clearly face.