Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read the first book in this series, I was quite excited to get the opportunity to read the second in the series.

It was good to be able to see Aurora. I felt that she was a much more active character in this book and it was good to see her interactions with Finnegan… even though I had to agree with her about struggling with trusting him. He did seem to be working to his own agenda, even while clearly expressing interest in Aurora.

I thought it was good to be able to see more of Aurora’s magic and how it worked. It was good to see that she wasn’t perfect at controlling it straight away and that she had to learn and research about it. It was also interesting to see more of the dragons… though it was very hard to see them as anything other than killer beasts.

I thought it was good to see the differences between the two kingdoms and how Aurora had more freedom when she was in Vanhelm… even though there were some difficulties there. I was, however, disappointed that, when Nettle was treated as an outsider, Aurora didn’t bring up the problems with Finnegan.

I did really like seeing more of Nettle, though I was less thrilled with Tristan appearing again. I didn’t much like him in book one… and I liked him even less in this book.

I was a bit unsure of what to think about Orla and Erin. I would have liked to see more of Erin’s character, but although I could understand Orla’s position and the politics involved, I didn’t feel that I liked her.

I did find Celestine an interesting character, even though she wasn’t nice or good… despite the way she talked to Aurora towards the end. I also thought it was good that there were some elements of foreshadowing that came through really well.

Although this book didn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, I did feel there was a lot more of the story to be told. I hope to have the opportunity to read the next book/s in this series in the future.