Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

The majority of this book took place over twenty-four hours, but there was a lot happening over that time. It was really good to see many of the characters from the previous books in the series. I especially liked seeing how Molly had changed from the previous book to this one.

My favourite part of this book was the relationship between Harry and Thomas. While there was an element of information dumping to it, I really liked the banter between them when it was shown. And it was nice to see a more human side to the characters like Mab.

There were times I felt this book was a bit too much at times. It was good to see Harry having to battle against the mantle that was the Winter Knight…and although it was difficult to see, I liked being able to see Fix and Lily, despite having the idea that both might morph into the same personality their predecessors had.

I really didn’t like Maeve in this book, even though it was interesting to see something of the different figures from mythology crop up in Winter’s Court. Kringle had an especially unique twist to him.

I particularly liked seeing Toot and his interactions with Harry made me giggle. It was also incredibly sweet to see how loyal he was to Harry, even if the rest of his little army was really more concerned about being fed pizza.

I was a bit disappointed not to see anything of Lea, even though she kept being mentioned. While Lea isn’t a ‘good’ character, I definitely found her to be an interesting one.

One of my favourite things about the Dresden Files is the fact that Harry, despite being a wizard, is still human. He gets knocked down and picks himself back up again. That was very evident in this book. Even though he had more power, there was always someone bigger and better.

I did find myself getting frustrated with Harry at times and while there were some good elements of pop culture, I felt there were certain occasions where those weren’t really appropriate. I did recognise there were differences in Harry’s behaviour, but I liked seeing him fight and refuse to become a monster.

I have the fifteenth book in this series and as soon as I get the chance, I will definitely be reading it. This is one of my favourite book series and I’d love to see more of Harry and Thomas interacting especially.

(This review may contain spoilers).

As a Christian, the very first time I read this book, I was excited by it and engaged with it. Reading it again now, though….

The idea behind this book was an intriguing one. No one knows what heaven could be like and while it might be a fun concept to imagine, the chances are heaven in reality will fall thousands of miles short of even the most vivid of imaginations.

While the book was inherently quite powerful, with a strong message, I did think it came across as a bit preachy in parts. The concepts are fairly sound, but the Bible verses indicated by the passages don’t really say anything more than what’s already stated in the book. Certainly not in the kind of language a young person might want to read off their own back. It would be better if the book contained a bit more mystery; hinted at stories and parables in the Bible, rather than outright stating everything. After all, the point behind the book was to engage with people who aren’t Christian.

The idea of the three types of people being judged and two of them as Christians was well-written, even though the characters themselves seemed to just be mouthpieces. Rather than characters readers can identify with, they were just used to identify three types of people in the Bible.

I couldn’t really say this book would resonate with people who aren’t Christians and who don’t have any background in Christianity. The character who wasn’t a Christian was fairly stereotypical and there was really more of a sense of ‘deathbed confession’ about him. And all three of the characters decided to list ten points in the exact same way, instead of considering indicating those points in a more intriguing way. The points in bold really weren’t necessary, as they could have been emphasised in different ways.

I would say that this book might do better as part of a discussion/reading group. Maybe as part of an ALPHA course. The questions at the end of the book fit in well with that…but again, I would say it would appeal more to those already curious about the Christian faith.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Short story collections tend to garner a mixture of different emotions when I read them. I did like that there was a variety of different genres, even if all of the stories seemed to have a recurring theme of death throughout.

The very first story might have actually put me off reading the collection in its entirety, if I hadn’t picked up this book as part of a challenge. I did find the style of the first story to be quite a unique one, as it made use of the second person POV, as if the main character was addressing the reader. However, most of the first story seemed to gloss over a lot of the character development and although there were hints that something horrible had happened, I didn’t really get to know even the narrator well enough to truly care about what the story led up to.

The second story was actually very disturbing to read, but it crossed very quickly from a glimpse into a serial killer’s mind to a supernatural, almost black comedy situation. And, again, there wasn’t any emotional connection for me, the reader.

The emotional connection, for me, really hit when it came to the story about the twins. I felt a lot of sympathy for the two of them and I could completely understand why things came to a head and such a drastic action ended up being taken.

The story about the soldier was one I found easy to engage with as well. I liked his interactions with Death and even though the subject matter was a really dark one, there were some nice moments of humour that did well to lower some of the tension.

Probably my favourite story in the collection was the one about the garden. In comparison to the rest of the stories, that one seemed to be more developed and although there were long periods of time glossed over, there were some very sweet moments in it.

Also, of course, I enjoyed reading the Spartan king who was brought back for vengeance by the Furies. While it was just a revenge storyline, it still kept me interested.

I don’t think I’d read this book again, but I wouldn’t mind reading more books by this author in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. Out of this series, this book is probably one of my favourites. While there are a lot of recognisable elements in this book from the Dark-Hunter series (and Zarek, of course, has the stereotypical majorly tragic past), there was more focus on the romance and less on making Zarek have the worst possible background.

I liked the link-ins to the Greek mythology and although there was a bit of information dumping, in particular when it came to Astrid’s past with Acheron, it was good to have the opportunity to get to know Astrid and to see something of her relationship with her sisters and Sasha. I loved Sasha…but I don’t want his character to be ruined like many of the others have been when they’ve got their own books.

I liked the fact that Astrid, despite being a nymph, was left not being able to see. It was good that, although she could look through Sasha’s eyes, there were still limitations to that. And she didn’t have some sixth sense for objects.

Zarek might be one of my favourite Dark-Hunters, for the simple fact that his personality doesn’t take a swan dive. This book showed more depth to him and made it clear that his prickles were a part of him. Finding his love didn’t magically change him, even though he did become a little better.

I love Simi. I’ve said this before, but this book just made me even more aware of that. Acheron went down in my estimation, but Simi became my favourite character from this book. I love her almost childlike innocence…and I definitely would have liked to see her attempt to barbeque Thanos. Even though I ended up feeling sorry for him by the end of this book.

There were some good elements of humour and banter in this book. While some of the characters from previous books did crop up, I didn’t feel like they detracted from the storyline. I do feel a lot of sympathy for the Apollites and Daimons. Even if the Daimons are the bad guys, I can’t fault them for wanting to survive. For not wanting to watch their friends and family die such an awful, horrible death.

I’m hesitant about picking up the newest books in this series, but I would very much like to read them and hopefully see a return to what drew me to this series in the first place.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read another book set in this same universe by this author in the past and struggled a bit with it, I was a bit hesitant to read this book, even though I enjoy fantasy. I gave it a chance…but I struggled to get into the book and didn’t really find it easy to engage with until quite far into the book, after Bee was born.

There was a lot of information dumping in this book that I felt bogged the narration down. For someone trained as an assassin, there were areas Fitz seemed to make some amateur errors. I did like the hints of his relationship with his daughter, but I found it hard to differentiate between the different characters of his stepsons. Their characters and skills weren’t really explored very much and I wasn’t given the chance to get to know the characters myself and form my own opinions of them.

I did like the relationship between Fitz and Molly and I felt myself getting frustrated with Fitz at times, considering his actions and decisions to hide things from his family. While I could understand his reasons at times, I felt that he didn’t really help himself and even though there were some hints he wasn’t really that civilised, those hints didn’t really become full-blown until much later in the book.

The switching between two different first person POVs were extremely disconcerting and I couldn’t figure out whose head I was in. There was too much telling rather than showing when it came to Fitz’s perspective and although I did feel quite a bit of sympathy for Bee, there was too much repetition about her. To be honest, by the end of the book, the cliffhanger didn’t really affect me so much. I was expecting it and I felt that the foreshadowing became fairly obvious. Also, by the end, the characters who died were people I didn’t really care that much for.

The world of the book was intriguing, but I found the characters hard to connect with. As this is the second book by this author I’ve read and struggled to enjoy, I don’t think I’ll be reading any more books set in this universe in the near future.