Ink of Blood

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d give this book 3.5 stars out of 5, ideally. It was good to see Lena and her friends appear again, but I did think that she was a bit too obsessed with getting back to see her boyfriend. While it was clear she missed him, I felt that she considered seeing him more important than her family members. (Not so much her dad… but definitely her mom and ‘adopted’ family members).

I really liked seeing Wilma again in this book. It was good to see her not taking nonsense from anyone… and yet also wanting to protect Lena and keep her safe. I also liked seeing Lena’s friendship with Belva… and how Belva and Farren were clearly romantically interested in each other. I also liked the fact that there were things about Belva that were special, instead of it just being about Lena.

It was good to see Lena’s feelings towards her past self and I felt the author captured her resentment/jealousy really well. Although not an attractive trait, it did help her to appear more human and enabled me to become more sympathetic towards her. I also liked being able to meet Winston and see how good he was… and the fact that he didn’t match Lena’s mental image of him at all was amusing and, I felt, really worked for the story.

I wasn’t especially fond of the fact that there were two occasions where the first person perspective slipped into third. I felt that was unnecessary and revealed plot twists earlier to myself as a reader, which made them lose their effectiveness.

I liked being able to see more of Arcas and the fact that the inhabitants of the world weren’t the scary creatures they came across as in the previous book. I would have liked the opportunity to get to know some of the other characters more, although I did think that Lena went through a good character journey through the course of this book.

I don’t know if I’d read book three as it stands. This was entertaining and easy to read… but there were a few issues I would like to see addressed.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found this book to be an intriguing fantasy read. At first, I didn’t know how the different storylines all fit together… and I’m still not sure how the very first chapter fit in with everything, although it was intriguing and did a good job of drawing me into the book and making me want to learn more.

It was good to see quite a lot of this world and the different cultures there were, though there were several occasions where the story skipped over scenes that were probably important that I felt should have been expanded.

I liked seeing Sume’s relationship with her nephew and it was sweet to imagine them as children playing together. Although I did feel some sympathy for Hana, after losing Oji and any money from his work, I didn’t much like her by the end of the book. There wasn’t enough about her to make her a more sympathetic character.

I didn’t like the fact that there were several chapters that slipped into present tense. I felt that was unnecessary and caused me to keep slipping out of the storyline.

I really liked Kefier’s character. I found him likable and sympathetic… and it was good to see that there was a lot more depth to him as the storyline went on. I did find Ylis an interesting character, though the switching between different POVs did confuse me, since it wasn’t always clear whose head I ended up in.

It was good to learn more about the history/mythology in this book and how it came up during the present time of the book. I did think that Dai was less of a sympathetic character. The first thing with Ylis, I could understand… later on, he just seemed to make even worse choices.

There were some quite creepy moments in this book and some very disturbing imagery. I thought it was interesting to see just how much was going on and that there seemed to be a lot of layers to this book and world. In the future, I’d like to read the next two books in this trilogy.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having had the opportunity to read the previous two books in this trilogy, I was really eager to read the third book. And it was good to be able to see the characters I recognised from the previous two books, as well as to meet new ones.

I really liked seeing more of the stark contrast between Rebecca and the other characters and in particular in contrast to her as a child in book one. I thought it was good that Rebecca was a capable person… but that the way she was raised meant that she had weaknesses that were clear and that there were things she couldn’t do. It was good to see that her issues with trust meant that she was second-guessing everything about the people she didn’t know well.

There was a lot of good tension in this book. I didn’t trust Betty at all at first, though I hadn’t trusted Mary in the previous book. I was able to understand her a bit more during this book, but I still didn’t trust her until towards the end.

I liked seeing more of Priest, though it was a bit strange to see him talk so much during one of the scenes. I would have liked to see more details of him and Rebecca. I wasn’t completely sure how Priest felt about her, even though it was obvious towards the end of the book that he did care about her more than himself. I would have liked to learn a bit more of him, but it was good to see his appearances during the book… even though I didn’t understand how he could live through everything that he did.

There were some really intense moments in this book and parts where I was reading frantically to see what would happen next. I liked seeing George and Rebecca interacting together and it was good to see how George was still strong, despite being laid out with a fever. There were some twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting and there were quite a few characters that I did like and who made this book easy to read, since I cared about what happened to them.

In the future, I would like to read more books by this author… but this trilogy was a good read and drew me in. I’m sad to see it finished, but I did enjoy it.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I first read the blurb of this book and saw the front cover, I was immediately drawn towards it. It took me a little while to get to reading this book, but I did find it easy to read and although Smitha wasn’t a likable character at first, I thought that she went through a real journey through this book.

In some ways, Smitha reminded me of the character of the Star Child. It was interesting to see how she viewed herself and the people of her home at first. I didn’t really like her as a character, even though there were parts of the narration that indicated she was looking back on her life and had gone through hardships that had changed her.

I did like the fact that Smitha’s ice did affect her, not just the people around her. It was interesting to see that she had to figure out how to eat and drink… and I felt bad that she found things so difficult, even early on.

While I could understand why people were so distrustful of her, Smitha’s experiences with people pursuing her weren’t nice to read about and helped me to empathise with her really well. I also thought her conversations with Death were really interesting to read. Although there were some parts of her life after the curse that were summarised, I felt that I was given the opportunity to get to know her as a character and have glimpses of the world around.

It was interesting to see the contrast to the different country Smitha found herself in. I thought that she was pushed right down, but it was good to see her able to push herself back up again. I enjoyed reading Smitha’s growing friendship with Lo, though I wasn’t sure he treated her very well for a lot of the book. I did feel an intense amount of sympathy for Smitha with how some of the others treated her, though.

I found this book a quick read, though there were some difficult parts of it. It was nice to see more of the wider world around Smitha and how she interacted with other characters both before and after the curse. I’d be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have some very mixed feelings about this book. I was really intrigued by the plot and I thought it might be a good coming of age story.

Angevin came across as very much a wild child, vastly different to the sophisticated appearance on the front of the cover. I wavered between feeling a lot of sympathy for her and feeling that she came across as a bit of a caricature at times.

It was interesting to see Angevin’s relationship with her mother and grandmother. I couldn’t figure out why either of them kept her around, since they obviously didn’t like her at all. Dima made my skin crawl, since I thought she was strange and I couldn’t figure out what to think about how she saw Angevin. I felt a bit of sympathy for Angevin’s mother… but I thought the way she treated her daughter was awful.

I thought it was interesting to learn about the witchcraft and how it worked, though I would have liked some more details about the kinds of spells the characters were able to do. I would have liked to see more of the other witches, too, since Angevin’s mother and grandmother were supposed to be part of a coven.

I thought that Angevin was clearly very lonely. I would have liked to see more of her with her cat, since I felt that there was a sudden shift with what happened with the cat compared to the short amount of time Angevin had with her.

I didn’t really like how Angevin became when she saw Constantine. I couldn’t believe that her feelings were anything like real, because all she noticed about him was his appearance. I also didn’t like Constantine at all… and much less so by the end of the book.

I did like the idea of the shapeshifting stone and it was interesting to see Angevin’s interactions with it. I also thought it was good to see how some of the other characters viewed the stone and how much they wanted it, despite it being an illusion.

I did like that Angevin had goals to work towards outside of Constantine and I did think she was an interesting character. Despite the overall feel of the book, I would like to see more of her in future books in the series.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d probably give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. The book was short and didn’t take me long to read, but I can’t say it was an easy book to read.

Tobias and Sara were both interesting characters. As the book progressed, I couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for both of the characters, even though I didn’t much like either of them by the end of the book.

I thought it was good that the story was very self-contained, at least to a certain extent. However, it did mean that I didn’t get to know most of the characters. For instance, I would have liked to learn more about Johan. I was interested in how he interacted with both Sara and Tobias, but I found it hard to understand his motivations and how he saw both of the suspects.

I didn’t like Joakim very much, even though there were some intriguing aspects about him. I would have liked some more details about his relationship with Tobias and why things changed so much between them, considering that Tobias seemed to look up to Joakim as a child. I thought that their relationship changed very abruptly… and I would have liked to see more of the tension in their relationship later on.

I was very confused about what both Tobias and Sara were trying to achieve. Tobias clearly showed a darker side to himself, but I felt that the three main characters all did that… and I was disappointed, since I couldn’t get behind any of them.

I would have liked to see the book expanded upon a bit and more details about the area they lived. I didn’t think much of Joakim’s and Tobias’ mother. She didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities to her and I felt she treated her sons very unequally, even though she seemed to be making an effort in the very first scene.

I did think the book ended quite abruptly. I felt that there was more to the story and the characters’ fates that could have been expanded upon. I’m not sure I’d read a sequel to this book, though. I was expecting it to be dark… but I didn’t much like the characters, despite feeling empathy towards them.