(This review may contain spoilers).
Having read the second book in this series, I was quite eager to read the first book in this series.
It was good to read about the characters I’d already grown to know. I found Mira an easy character to empathise with and although I didn’t like the fact that there was a love triangle, it didn’t irritate me so much… and her emotions towards the other characters came across really well.
I wasn’t really sure of what to make of Blue at first, but as the book went on, I felt able to understand him much more easily. It was interesting to see how he and the other teenagers had to deal with their cursed lives… though I have to say, seeing Viv in this book and how she was with Henley, I lost some of the sympathy I’d had for her in the sequel to this.
I liked Freddie’s character, even though I did think he was a bit too naive and innocent. It was good to meet his brothers and I was very intrigued by Caspian’s legend. Since they would presumably know how the story of the Little Mermaid ended, I found myself wondering how things would go with him.
It was really interesting to see glimpses of how damaged people were even after their curses had been ended. For instance, Gwen had a really awful time of it… so it was good to see that happily ever after maybe wasn’t so much happily ever after.
I do think there were some issues with this book. For instance, I felt that Mira’s intelligence was shown towards the beginning… but later on, she seemed really lacking there. And she didn’t seem to spare much thought towards her godmothers… not to mention the fact that, although I thought her feelings for Blue came across naturally, I couldn’t see any real love towards Felix.
I did think Jewel was a really interesting character and it was sad to read about the Match Girl… though at least she did get saved. It was good to see why Mira didn’t put two and two together, since I felt the brothers’ curse was obvious.
I do think there were some things that could have been changed about this book and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for younger/more sensitive readers. But I did enjoy reading this and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.
Ink of Blood 