Ink of Blood

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I actually found this book to be quite a good, interesting, entertaining read.

I can’t speak for the historical accuracy of this novel. I only know bits and pieces of the time this novel is set in. But I found the characters to be interesting and well-written and the storyline to be engaging, one that kept me reading.

The amount of characters with similar-sounding names was a bit confusing, though. By the end of the book, I was struggling to differentiate between the different people.

I really liked the relationships between the characters, especially Leofwine and his wife. The scenes between them were particularly sweet and it was nice to see that real love had grown from the arranged marriage.

I felt that the author did a really good job of showing the politics that was in the kingdom. I also thought that it came across really well how difficult Leofwine found his injury and partial blindness – as well as how he learned to compensate for that disability. Of course, anyone who wasn’t whole in that time would have a much more difficult time of it than someone with that kind of injury in modern day.

The descriptions in the book were really good and I was able to see a lot of the events happening in my mind, especially when it came to the fighting scenes. I did, however, notice quite a few errors in the books – apostrophes used when something was supposed to be plural; and Hunter changed gender at one point.

I think I’d definitely be interested in reading more books in this series. It would be good to see what else is going to happen.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have a few mixed feelings about this book. Ideally, I would have given this 3.5 stars. It’s not quite at four stars, I’m afraid.

The blurb of this book sounded really good and interesting, but I couldn’t quite get into this book as easily as some of the other books. I liked the different powers, but I didn’t think there was nearly enough information about it.

I was a bit disappointed in Mara’s interactions with the guys. She kind of seemed to lose her mind when she was around a good-looking guy. I did think that a lot of the other characters weren’t as well-developed. I kept getting confused with some of them.

Some of the interactions between the different characters were really interesting and I did like the whole Keeper-thing. I just… had no idea what the point was. It seemed really cruel to just abandon the children – and also a bit silly.

I think I would have liked to see a bit more explanation about everything. The amount of characters and their motivations were still confusing. I think they could have been combined into a fewer amount of characters.

I would be interested in seeing what will happen to the characters in this book in the future. This was an entertaining read, even though there were quite a few errors in the book as well. I think there could have been a bit more proof-reading.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I tend to feel that thriller books, like horror, can be quite difficult to sustain the level of suspense throughout. I often find myself growing bored, because sometimes things can get pretty ridiculous.

That actually wasn’t the case here. I felt that this book was more about the mystery – and it was very much more character-driven than just plot-driven.

One of the things that came across really well in this book was the fact that a lot of the characters seemed to have secrets. Pretty major ones. I did get a bit confused with some of the characters, but for the most part, I found them easily relatable. And I did quite like Emma and her friendship with Lizzy – though I would have liked a bit more detail about Emma’s relationship with Dan.

I did think that this book doesn’t portray journalists and the police in a great light. In a way, the police come across as quite uncaring. It seems strange that all they’d do is give a ‘talking-to’ to someone who was stalking a person enough to take a lot of pictures of them. If it’s just one person’s word, I could see them having to have more evidence… but when they have actual photographs? I admit, I don’t interact with police, but I’d like to think police officers in reality are better than that.

I thought that what happened with Richard came across really well. I couldn’t stop myself from reading this book and I really enjoyed it. I did think that the hospital could have been a bit more secure with Richard, though.

I think I’d definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future. It ended on a cliffhanger and I would have liked to see the aftermath of everything that had happened. I felt that there was a lot more of the story that could have been explored.