Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d like to give this book 4.5 stars – not quite 4; but not quite 5, either.

It did take me a couple of pages to properly get into this book. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at the beginning, but I was eventually able to empathise with the characters and felt better able to understand them.

This book is part of a series, a fact that I didn’t realise until after I began reading and saw there were references to past events. Even so, though, this book was fairly easy to read as a standalone work.

This was a fairly entertaining read. I liked the use of fairy creatures in this book and the characters were really intriguing. There were some bittersweet, slightly emotional scenes that affected me even though I hadn’t seen the events leading up to them.

There were a few things that I didn’t understand – the whole wolf thing was a bit confusing, though by the end, it did make a bit more sense.

I did like the religious allegory in this book, though that might be more because I am a Christian. There were quite a lot of relationships that I liked and would have liked to see further explored – Foxbrush’s relationship with his cousin, for instance.

The wood almost seemed like a character in itself and I quite liked that. The creatures were interesting and diverse and this book has made me want to read the other books in this series. When I looked on Amazon, I realised I had book one in this series already on my Kindle. I will read it at some point – and in the future at some point, I intend to buy the other books in this series.

If you like this type of book, I do recommend it. There are some recognisable fairy tale scenes, but nothing that detracts from the story itself. It was definitely a good, entertaining read and one I expect I would be prepared to read again in the future, which is what I do with books I particularly enjoy.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have to be honest and say… I really found this book hard to read. It wasn’t the plot so much as the writing itself.

I’ve personally found it really hard to read blocks of text and there were a lot of those in this book. Paragraphs weren’t used in the correct way – several characters were speaking in the same paragraph. There was also a lot of switching between tenses. That really throws me out of a story and I almost considered giving up on this, despite the commitment I make to read books I receive advance copies of.

It took me a little while to fully work out what side the characters were on, or even to fully relate to them. I liked Daniel’s relationship with Jeff and I would have liked to see more of it. However, a lot of things were skipped over. There was one line in particular: ‘He talked to his nephew about things an uncle talks to his nephew about’. I’m sorry, but that’s a big turn-off for me with books. For one thing, people aren’t going to have the same conversations all over. For another… that was character development that was missed completely.

I think there are a lot of improvements that could be made. The plot – or what I could understand of it – was well-thought-out. But the blocks of text and lack of character development really made it difficult to read.

(I received a free copy of this book from Victory Editing, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was a book that grew on me as I read it. It started out as fairly hard to read, but by the end, I found myself pulled into the book, better able to connect with the characters. They did grow on me quite a bit by then.

Annie was an interesting character from the beginning. Although she’s clearly quite a strong character, I felt that she had good, realistic weaknesses. That was clear right from the start, even though I wasn’t very sure of her.

Nick and Derek were both interesting characters in their own way. Most of the characters came across as fairly well-balanced, but a few of them seemed evil for the sake of evil and I couldn’t quite figure out anything even remotely good about them.

I did really like Kevin as a character and I would have liked to see more of his relationship with his brother.

The powers thing was a pretty interesting idea and actually one of the things I felt gave me answers to all my questions by the end.

I do think that there was a bit too much skipping over of passages during the book. One of the things that made it difficult at the beginning was the fact that I felt most of it was being summarised. I really struggled to picture anything happening in my mind.

I did see some errors in this book, but not a huge amount. I would be interested in reading more books in this series in the future and checking out other books by the same author.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I do like thriller books and I felt this one was a particularly intriguing one, although the constant changes between the characters did get a bit confusing at times.

I thought it was good that this book was as much about the characters as about the mystery going on. I particularly liked Tom’s relationship with his son. I didn’t like Cecilia at first, but as the book progressed, I found it easier to understand her as a character.

All of the characters were interesting in their own way, but I wasn’t sure about Richard. He seemed a bit young mentally, but it wasn’t very clear whether that was the case or not.

The mystery did work quite well in this book and I did like how Cecilia bonded with Maisie. The characters were different enough from each other to make sure there was no confusion and they were fairly likable.

I did figure out some things before they were revealed. I didn’t think there were many red herrings/false leads. At the same time, however, I felt able to empathise with the characters and understand them.

I did notice that the book kept switching tenses and slipping into past events without warning, which did make it a bit confusing to read.

This was a fairly tame mystery, but still fairly good. I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book from All Night Reads, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

For some reason, I get through Kindle books faster than I do print books. I have no idea why that is, but I was surprised at just how quickly I read this book, considering I thought that, due to a wedding and my night shift, I wouldn’t be finished this until tomorrow.

The blurb of the book sounded really intriguing, especially because I’m sick of demons being used in books. (Of course, that didn’t really work with the book later on, but still…)

The first person POV worked really well and I did like the main character. There were parts of her that I could relate to and there were a few things that did make me smile.

The paranormal elements were fairly mild, in my opinion. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I would have liked to see a bit more. The appearance of the spirit was creepy, but there was only the one showing and I would have liked to see more of the ghost.

I did like Chira’s and Ben’s relationship, but I’m not really sure about the whole thing with Matt. I didn’t find him nearly as well-developed as a character and I don’t understand what his whole game was.

I would have liked to see more of Tasha in this book. She was probably my favourite character in this and I hope that she’ll appear more in the later books.

I did find this book to be really well-written and there were very few mistakes that I noticed. I would definitely be interested in reading more books in this series in the future. It would be great to see the characters’ storylines further explored.

If you’re as sick as vampires as I am, this is a welcome change.