(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Okay, so… I actually have some mixed feelings about this book. I’ve wavered over how many stars to give it… but the four stars come from how I felt by the end of the book.
Although I didn’t like seeing yet another love triangle, the fact that it was a guy and two girls involved meant it was somewhat more bearable… even if there were times I wanted to shake Kaylyn due to the fact that she clearly had feelings for Jorrin and wouldn’t acknowledge them… or talk to her friend about them.
I was intrigued by the concept of this book. It was interesting to see a world where good and evil were clearly defined… at least in the good people’s minds. It wasn’t very clear about what the exact relation was, though. The ‘evil’ people were referred to by a different name, but although Kaylyn senses their nature, there isn’t anything shown about *why* they’re evil. Apart from the last one killing her adoptive mother… but with only seeing it from Kaylyn’s perspective, it could be argued that he was acting in self-defence.
Another interesting aspect to this book was how things changed when the last evil person was killed. There were a lot of scenes that were really tense after they went to the other village and I did care about what happened to the characters. Although Kaylyn was closed off, I found her easier to understand. It would have been good to see the storyline from the perspective of one of the other characters, though. Marsa would have been a good choice.
I was confused about why there were other warriors being trained when Kaylyn was supposed to be the one to defeat all of the evil. I have to admit, there were a lot of unanswered questions in this book. I think a bit of expansion of the world wouldn’t have gone amiss.
There were some elements of self-sacrifice, which came across really well. The ending was sad, but it was good to see hints dropped that everything might not be as black and white as it seemed.
I’m not sure if I’d read a sequel to this book. I’d like to see some questions answered and the world expanded upon… and I’m worried the romance would take over the whole book, considering how much it cropped up at inopportune moments here.
Ink of Blood 