Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having been approached by the author about reading a copy of this short story, I gave it a try and found myself drawn into the story really easily.

Although the story was written in a letter, I found it easy to empathise with the father… though I’m not sure if what he was describing was real, or if everything was just in his head. The first person perspective worked really well, but I wasn’t sure if the character was a reliable narrator or not.

I wasn’t sure how the father had truly felt about his wife. It would have been good to get more glimpses of their lives together, since his wife seemed to come across as quite a hard woman and completely opposite to her husband. In some ways, it seemed like he might have been bewitched by her.

It was easier to see that the father cared about his son and there was an obvious contrast between the beginning and towards the end. I did pick up on what was apparently going on quite quickly.

I found the motivations of the father’s wife quite hard to understand. I really didn’t find her a very sympathetic character and it was hard to empathise with her. While the letter worked as a short story to pique my interest, I felt it would work really well as a longer story and therefore enable me to get to know the characters better.

The paranormal hints in the short story were interesting to read and I was interested in discovering exactly what was going on. Despite knowing that things probably didn’t end well, I still found myself drawn into the storyline. There was a lot of tension in the short story that made me want to see how it would have all ended.

The ending of this story wasn’t a completely satisfactory one, but I’m definitely interested enough to read an expanded storyline set in this world… and it would be good to get answers to the questions raised by this short story. In many ways, I felt this could be an introduction to a much larger world – it certainly would have made me want to read more if used as a Prologue.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although I was a bit confused by how everything fit together at first (there were a lot of different storylines that didn’t seem to fit together), I did eventually find myself drawn into the lives of the different characters.

I found it easy to empathise with Felt and it was interesting to see the different guilds of magic users and how the politics worked. I wasn’t really sure if I trusted Karan… Maria clearly had her own agenda to work towards, but in many ways, I could understand why she didn’t like the other Guild. Hyna was a bit confusing, though. I couldn’t work out if it really existed, or if it was just made up as a front for another organisation.

It was interesting to be able to learn more about the magic and how it worked, though I’m still not sure I understood everything even by the end of the book. I felt that the amount of POV characters could have been condensed down, to make it easier to follow everything that was going on.

I liked Hans and his interactions with Felt. It would have been good to see more of how they’d known each other in the past and how their lives had taken such different turns.

I liked being able to learn about the Demon, though it did give me the creeps. I also would have liked more answers about the artifact and how the disappearing Guild fit into everything. The ghasts of the spiders were especially disturbing and I was glad to see that the Lances were able to deal with them.

There were a few occasions where I found myself forgetting what was going on in the book, since there was so much happening. I would have liked to be able to learn more of the pasts of a few of the characters, since I felt that a lot of them, especially members of the Lance, weren’t explored as well as they could have been… and I had no idea how the Whisper fit in with everything.

There was tension in this book that succeeded in keeping me reading and I would like to see more of the world and characters in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

After having been drawn into the lives of several different characters, it was nice to have a return to Yelena. I particularly liked being able to see her interacting with Valek at the beginning of the book… even though I found that the book was really tense to start off with.

I really liked being able to see the characters I recognised from the previous books… and in particular Ari and Janco. I didn’t like the switching between third and first person, though. I found it particularly hard not to be pulled out of the story.

At the same time, it was interesting to see what was going on in both kingdoms. And I really liked seeing Valek’s past. It made him more of an interesting character and I couldn’t help feeling a lot of sympathy for him as a child. It was awful to read about his brothers being killed and I could definitely understand why he was so bent on revenge.

I didn’t much like Ambrose in this book. He seemed to be growing paranoid… and there were certain things that were revealed that made him seem really untrustworthy. I did find Onora to be an interesting character and it was good to note the similarities between her and Valek.

I thought it was good to see Yelena have to cope without her magic. While she didn’t come across as a weak character, I liked being able to see her have to come up with different ways of handling the situations she found herself in.

I really liked seeing the Sandseed horses and although it was disappointing not to see much communication from them, I felt that their intelligence came across really well. There was quite a bit about the politics in the two kingdoms and although there were a lot of different plotlines going on, I thought they all came together really well by the end.

I found this book really easy to read and although I would have liked to see more of Yelena and Valek together, it made sense that those scenes were few and far between. Janco made me laugh… although I did feel for him towards the end of the book. I didn’t get to see nearly enough of him and Ari, though… but I did enjoy seeing Opal and Devlen again, along with Leif and Mara.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Since I was given the opportunity to read one of the other books in this series with my niece, I did the same with this one.

It was good to note that the style was the same as the previous book I read. I liked the fact that the book addressed the reader directly and it was also good to see the pronunciations given for some of the words.

My niece was engaged while we were reading the book and enjoyed being asked some of the questions, though I think it would have been good to have some more details. She did like being able to learn some of the Italian words and there was quite a bit of information in the book that I myself hadn’t known.

I thought that the use of the pictures worked really well, although some of the pictures did make a few of the guesses obvious. Since there weren’t any answers in the back, though, I felt that worked particularly well.

It was good to be able to see something of the food people would eat in Italy and I found myself curious to try some of it… although there was other food mentioned I didn’t think I’d find so appetising.

There’s quite obviously been a lot of research gone into this book and although it’s probably a bit too juvenile for my niece, she still enjoyed being able to read it with me.

The book was good enough that I’d like to also read it with my nephew when he’s a little bit older. I felt the author did a really good job of sparking an interest in learning more about Italy. There were a lot of interesting facts and it’s a really good series of books. I think there could be some more information involved, but it works as a really good introduction with writing and pictures that engaged my niece and I felt it was written well.

I think that, in the future, it would be good to share other books in this series with my niece and my nephew, so that they can both get to know more details about other countries around the world and learn about more than just local places.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read the second book in this series, I was quite eager to read the first book in this series.

It was good to read about the characters I’d already grown to know. I found Mira an easy character to empathise with and although I didn’t like the fact that there was a love triangle, it didn’t irritate me so much… and her emotions towards the other characters came across really well.

I wasn’t really sure of what to make of Blue at first, but as the book went on, I felt able to understand him much more easily. It was interesting to see how he and the other teenagers had to deal with their cursed lives… though I have to say, seeing Viv in this book and how she was with Henley, I lost some of the sympathy I’d had for her in the sequel to this.

I liked Freddie’s character, even though I did think he was a bit too naive and innocent. It was good to meet his brothers and I was very intrigued by Caspian’s legend. Since they would presumably know how the story of the Little Mermaid ended, I found myself wondering how things would go with him.

It was really interesting to see glimpses of how damaged people were even after their curses had been ended. For instance, Gwen had a really awful time of it… so it was good to see that happily ever after maybe wasn’t so much happily ever after.

I do think there were some issues with this book. For instance, I felt that Mira’s intelligence was shown towards the beginning… but later on, she seemed really lacking there. And she didn’t seem to spare much thought towards her godmothers… not to mention the fact that, although I thought her feelings for Blue came across naturally, I couldn’t see any real love towards Felix.

I did think Jewel was a really interesting character and it was sad to read about the Match Girl… though at least she did get saved. It was good to see why Mira didn’t put two and two together, since I felt the brothers’ curse was obvious.

I do think there were some things that could have been changed about this book and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for younger/more sensitive readers. But I did enjoy reading this and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.