Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found myself very quickly drawn back into the world of Landry Park. It was good to see that things weren’t perfect, even with Jack now in control of the house. I thought it was really realistic to see that the Rootless were suspicious… of Jack and of all the gentry. In many ways, they were probably right to be.

I did have a lot of sympathy for the Rootless… even those like Smith. While I thought his perspective could only cause more problems all round, I could see where he was coming from. Violence isn’t the answer, but I could easily understand why people in that situation would make that kind of call.

It was interesting to see that Madeline’s relationship with David wasn’t anything like perfect and that they still had problems. I found Madeline particularly interesting because there were times when, despite trying to do the right thing, she did come across as a bit self-centred. She wasn’t perfect and that made her a much more intriguing character.

I liked the opportunity to see Madeline with some of the other gentry. It was good to see that there was a mix of opinions about the Rootless. I liked Philip’s character a bit more in this book… and it was good to see Madeline being able to spend time with people who actually were friends… not including Cara, who I think wasn’t exactly a friend, but close to. I would have liked the opportunity to see more of Cara and Ewan together.

It was good to see Madeline with her parents. There were some hints of a deeper relationship between Jack and Alexander and it would have been good to see more of them as brothers. I especially liked Charlie. It nearly made my heart break to see how scared he was of Alexander. And while I didn’t like or agree with many of Alexander’s morals… there were times I thought a good person could eventually come out.

While there was some mystery to this book, there was very little surprise involved towards the end. I did get the impression that Madeline was in real danger and it was good to see that even the ‘good’ characters weren’t perfect.

It’s a bit disappointing that this book is the end of the duology, since I feel there’s so much more of the story that could be told. I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future, though. I enjoyed this book a lot… and while there are dark moments, there’s just as much hope and light during the course of this book.