Ink of Blood

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found this book to be quite an intriguing read. It managed to draw me into the world really easily and I thought Maggie was a really intriguing character. She was a good mix of chidlike innocence and at just the right age to be ‘growing up’.

I did get a bit confused by the amount of different characters. I would have liked to see more of Maggie’s relationships with her siblings and her cousins. I found it very difficult to empathise with many of the minor characters, since I felt that they were just introduced through a listing off of the names and attributes.

I did think that the usage of the poem ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’ was a really interesting concept and did a good job of linking in to the other world.

I felt that the dream of St. Nicholas falling from the roof did a really good job of showing elements of tension right from the beginning.

It was interesting to see something of a contrast between the world Maggie inhabited and the world she found herself in. I was a bit disappointed by the whole love-triangle-thing with Maggie, Catherine and Henry, though. I thought Catherine came across as very much ‘so pretty it’s almost a curse’. I did like the fact that she came across as a strong character even so, despite the fact that I didn’t find her as interesting as Maggie.

I did like being able to learn more about their families, even though I did find some of the background a bit confusing. It was also good to meet the Foundlings… but I didn’t really know all of them, either, even though I thought the timing part was really interesting.

I was a bit disappointed that Krampus didn’t really show up until much later, but I was intrigued by what was going on in the house and I would like to know if my theory about Krampus is correct. I probably would read the other book/s in this series at some point in the future, since I would like to see more of Maggie especially… but I’d also like to get to know other members of her family.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although this book did hit one of my pet peeves in the switching between first and third person, I did find this book to be an entertaining read. It drew me in and I liked the fact that most of the characters had darker sides to them and that I had the opportunity to learn more about their pasts.

There were a lot of really disturbing scenes in this book. Larque especially was a really hard character to see any redeeming qualities to… and although the majority of the troll characters were really disturbing, I liked the fact that not all of them were bad. And I did feel a lot of sympathy for Hhaak. While most of the romances in the book didn’t seem to be explored in the way they could have been, I didn’t find them irritating… and despite there being a lot of characters, I was able to get to know most of them.

I liked seeing Fane’s relationship with his father and brother… and also his friendship with Jink. It was interesting to see that there was a lot of tension between Jink and Kael, even though Fane was obviously really close to both of them.

I didn’t really like the fact that the book slipped between past and present tense… I thought that it would have been better for it to just stay in the past tense.

I didn’t like Fith as a character. I didn’t think he gave Fane all of the skills he needed to go to Skur. I was also interested in the Shadowland… though I would have liked to see more details of the place. I was confused about whether it was another realm or something else.

I did like the fact that Kael’s relationship with Alyn was allowed to develop and I thought both of them were really sweet while interacting with Elva.

I did think that the descriptions in the book came across really well. I was able to picture a lot of the characters and the events in my mind. I didn’t really like the glossing over of time, though… I was confused about how much time had passed.

I probably would read the sequel to this book at some point in the future. I’d like to see more of Elva and the people she interacts with.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d really give this book 2.5 stars out of 5. I really liked the concept… but to be honest, I found the book really hard to read. The beginning was intriguing and I had a lot of sympathy for Kahl. I liked seeing his relationship with Mirra and his adopted mother’s other son… but with the sudden jump forward in time, I found it really hard to reconcile the Kahl from later with the one at the beginning. I felt like I kept being beaten over the head with the fact that he was a really awful person… but from the sounds of it, his previous family forgot about him; and he wasn’t exactly treated well when they were seeking protection.

I found it very hard to care about most of the characters in this book. I felt that there was a lot of telling rather than showing. It was very hard to differentiate between the different characters when, most of the time, they were just listed off.

I was intrigued by the mythology about the world, but there seemed to be little in the way of conflict. It was made quite clear who the bad guys were and I felt that the characters seemed like vastly different people depending on the area of the book.

I think this book could have done with being expanded upon and having more of Kahl’s childhood and growing up shown. I wasn’t rooting for any of the characters and I actually felt very close to giving up on this book. I felt it moved slowly and although there were some instances of action, those were few and far between… and not very effective, especially when I didn’t get a chance to experience that action through the characters; only through someone else watching them. There were too many POVs that made it difficult to figure out exactly what was going on.

Quite apart from having a strong dislike of love triangles, I felt that the one in this didn’t work at all, since I couldn’t see any chemistry between the characters. As it stands, I won’t be reading the next book/s in this series.