(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
While I was reading this book, I couldn’t help noticing that the main character, Aoife, had a whole slew of ‘fake curse words’… which were quite amusing, but they did actually detract a little bit from the story itself, especially during the scenes where Aoife and Kostya were having sex.
I did find the very first scene to be really intriguing and it did a good job of setting the scene… though I had a strong dislike of Bee right from the start. While I did question why Aoife wasn’t trying to get in touch with her brother and sister at times, I kind of found it understandable why she wasn’t working at it harder.
I haven’t read the books in the other series that takes place in the same world as this, but I did find this book very easy to follow. There were times I actually found myself laughing outright… particularly when it came to Jim. But Jim’s exchanges with Aoife were amusing as well.
I did think there was a little too much in the way of ‘spunky heroine’. While it was good to see that Aoife wasn’t perfect and that she did get captured… I did think some of her decisions were dangerous and naive. There were quite a few moments while reading this book that I wanted to reach into the pages and shake some sense into her.
I thought the idea of the curse was an especially intriguing one, though I didn’t really understand much about how the septs worked and why Kostya and Drake were presumably part of one. Still, I felt an awful lot of sympathy for them and cringed along when they were forced to hurt each other… and couldn’t even understand what each other were saying. (I don’t always get along with my siblings, but I would be devastated if I couldn’t talk to them).
While Jim was finding out bits of information, I would have liked some of that shown to me. Aoife didn’t seem that interested in asking questions. Or keeping herself safe. While I admired her ability to come up with some really random ‘fake curses’… I really couldn’t call her a capable planner.
Ink of Blood 