Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I was really happy to be able to read the final book in this trilogy. There were things I did miss in this (such as how things went with Tick and Joseph), but there was a lot tension in this book and I kept reading throughout.

I liked seeing Porter and Sarah together, though I didn’t really like how Sarah treated Porter after she was told about her parents. Even though I could understand why Sarah felt like that, I felt her personality became quite sharply contradictory and I could understand how Drake was able to target Porter.

It was interesting to see Granger and Ozzie. I liked Ozzie more than Granger, but it was good to see both of them questioning what they believed. It was sad to see that Misoka was so reluctant to trust that Ozzie was her brother and I felt she came across as very young emotionally in her interactions with Ozzie and Sarah especially.

I would have liked to see more of the secondary characters, such as others in the Mythics and Slayer ranks. It was good to see more of Drake’s past and get some answers about what was going on with him… though I was a bit disappointed with the way things happened towards the end with Drake.

I felt a lot of sympathy for Domino. I did like seeing her with Tick and then later with Porter and Sarah. It was good to see that Porter and Sarah were trying to protect her… and also good to see them trying to do the right thing. I didn’t like Gwinn very much, though. Even though he was Tick’s father, I didn’t feel like he really cared about his son’s emotional wellbeing. At the same time, though, it was good to learn more about Tick’s ability and the potential dangers involved in it.

I found this book to be really easy to read and I also liked learning more about some of the different types of creatures. And it was good to see Glenda and her relationship with Porter, even though he still didn’t have any memories.

While the ending of this book was a bit sad, I did still find it really entertaining and engaging to read. I would love to read more books set in this world in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It’s been a little while since I read the first book in this trilogy, but I found the storyline easy to pick up once more.

Although there was a lot of action in this book, it didn’t seem as widespread as book one. I thought it was good that the story was a bit more self-contained… and it made a lot of sense that Porter wasn’t trusted, even though I felt a lot of sympathy for him.

While it did make a lot of sense that Porter was considered a threat, I really didn’t like Sarah’s parents. I did find Misoko an interesting character, though I was a bit disappointed to get very little foreshadowing about her relationship with Sarah. I would have liked to see a bit more in the way of flashbacks… and also more details about why Sarah’s parents didn’t seem to trust Misoko near their daughter.

I really liked seeing Tick in this book and I thought it was a bit sad to see how he was having to get used to the bad things happening. At the same time, I liked seeing that he was still loyal to Porter… and even though Sarah could have explained things in a better way, I did understand the position she was in and it was good to see her staying loyal to Porter.

I did like the romance between Sarah and Porter, especially since there were hints of that romance in the first book, but I did feel that the reveal was a little bit over the top. Still, I thought there were some very sweet moments between them… even though I did develop a strong dislike for Joseph during the course of this book.

It was interesting to discover more about the organisation of the Slayers, though I would have found them more interesting if there had been more detail about the main leader’s motivations. There was a lot of tension in this book and I was drawn back into the world really quickly and easily.

I didn’t really want to, but part of me did feel a bit of sympathy for Other Porter and it was good to get to know more of Porter’s past. I’m looking forward to seeing how things will be tied up in book three.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It took me a while to read this latest book in the Wing Slayer series… but once I started reading it, I very quickly remembered why it had shot to my favourite paranormal romance series.

Although it has been a while since I’ve visited this world, it didn’t take long for me to be drawn back into the world. I found Linc, in particular, to be a character I could really empathise with. Knowing more about his history in this book helped me to understand him much better… but seeing him struggle so much against the unnatural bloodlust was pretty awful to read about. I had a whole lot of respect for his strength of will by the time I was halfway through this book.

Having experienced so much frustration in their novella, I liked being able to see glimpses of Ram and Ginny’s relationship. And it was good to get some foreshadowing for Eli’s book… plus, I liked seeing more of him and the rest of the Wing Slayer hunters generally.

I found Risa to be a really intriguing character and it was good that I learned bits and pieces about her past along with Linc. It was good to see how desperate she was to save Kendall and I had a strong dislike for Archer… which only grew as I reached the end of the book, even though I got some of the background about the choices he’d made.

It was good to see the emotions given a chance to grow between Risa and Linc. And I liked that things moved at something of a more sedate pace… even though it wasn’t that sedate. And being able to see Risa link emotionally with the falcon was really good… especially since the falcon seemed to be a bit different to the other familiars.

I also liked seeing Baron and I would have liked to get a bit more detail of his background. It was interesting to see the two different groups of witch hunters and how they worked together, but were still kept separate.

I did have a lot of sympathy for Risa, considering the effects on her from the souls caught in her shield spell. And the interactions with Nola were really sad to read about.

Having read this book… I’m really hoping to read the next book/s in the series in the near future. The foreshadowing regarding them are really making me want to read and see what will happen with their relationship. Plus, I’d like to see more of the Wing Slayer himself.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although I haven’t read the previous books in this series, I did find this one quite easy to follow. It was good to see something of the society in Rome when the Christian church was beginning to take effect… and although there was a lot more to the plot than just that, I thought it was interesting to see how three of the characters (Cassius, Simo and Indavara) were affected by it.

I did think Cassius was an interesting character. I couldn’t have said I liked him all that much, even though I think his attitude was probably normal for that time period. It was interesting to see there were conflicts between him and Simo and although I felt that his treatment of Simo was wrong, it was better than how many slaves in the book were treated by their master/s.

While the atmosphere of this book was really engaging, there were some uses of modern language and slang that did throw me a bit out of the story. I did find it hard to differentiate between some of the secondary characters, but it was interesting to see some of the conflicts… as well as the fact that Cassius wasn’t perfectly good at his job. I would have liked a bit more detail about his personal life, but it was good to see how he interacted with the other people around him.

I was a bit torn between Indavara and Simo when it came to favourite characters. I admired Simo’s decision to stick to his morals, even in the face of the conflict between him and Cassius. But even though Indavara’s decision to join him with other members of the Faith weren’t for altruistic purposes, I found him easy to understand and relate to. And I thought it was good to see how his memory was triggered by the playing of the flute, although it was sad to see his frustration at not being able to remember.

I think it would have been good to have the book stick only to one perspective and although there was an air of mystery, the action very much overtook the book… although it was inevitable to see the situation come to a head towards the end of the book with the riots.

I have mixed feelings about whether or not I’d like to see more of this world and the characters, as I didn’t connect emotionally to the characters as easily I have in past books. But I did enjoy reading this and there were a lot of good scenes of action and tension.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Knowing that my niece is really into ancient peoples (though she’s currently obsessed with the Vikings), I was happy to have the opportunity to share this book with her.

I thought that it was good to see this book was a bit longer and I felt it engaged with my niece a bit more. While I did notice a couple of errors that weren’t caught, I was reading the book out loud, which meant I could edit those errors as I went.

I especially liked the little snippets about the gods and goddesses and my niece chimed in with a couple of bits she did know, in particular about Ares. I also shared extra bits that weren’t included, such as the contradictory Apollo being the god of healing but also of plagues.

The very first picture did a good job of engaging my niece and allowing her to look at what the ancient world might be like in comparison to the modern-day Greece.

I thought it was especially good to learn about the different customs, such as the fire in the hearth not being allowed to go out. There were some really nice illustrations and although I thought it would have been good to include a few more questions, the ones that were used were a good way of encouraging my niece to think and pay attention.

It was also good to see the use of maps, even though I don’t think it was that interesting for my niece to look at. I also liked the way the different city-states were shown in relation to each other and it was good to get some idea of the culture and how people viewed where they were from.

There was a lot in this book that me and my niece already knew, but I think there were some things that she didn’t know and that engaged her attention, particularly in regards of thinking of things like Horrible Histories, which involved many of the same facts. And my niece particularly liked the mention of potentially being called Theodora.

At the end of the book, my niece declared it would be awesome to live in Ancient Greece and I suspect she would like to read more in the series set in the Ancient World.