Ink of Blood

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read the first book in this trilogy, I was eager to read books two and three as well. While I don’t have book three on my Kindle, I did have this book.

It was easy to find myself in Sybella’s head. I felt the author did a good job of showing Sybella’s voice as being different to Ismae’s. I liked Sybella as much as I did Ismae… though in a different way.

I had a lot of sympathy for Sybella. Her family made my flesh crawl… even Julian, who was apparently kinder, but his ‘kindness’ was actually worse, in many ways.

I liked seeing more of Beast in this book. While there was a lot of repetition in the narration, especially when it came to Beast’s appearance, I found the way their relationship grew and evolved came across really well. Their relationship was really believable and the fact that Sybella’s feelings for Beast weren’t based on his physical appearance was good.

There were quite a few disturbing things about this book. I didn’t really think much of the abbess in this book. The way she treated Sybella was awful… and I was just glad that Sybella still had Ismae, whose friendship was realistic. It was also good to see more of Ismae and Duval.

I liked seeing a bit of Sybella’s sisters, even though I would have liked to see more of how they viewed Sybella. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about D’Albert; he was an awful person and I had a lot of sympathy for the people who had to be around him.

I liked seeing a bit more of the other convents dedicated to the other Saints. And I liked seeing Sybella interacting with the Duchess. I thought her intelligence came across really well and as I learned more of her past, I could definitely see why she seemed to be half-mad during the first book.

The atmosphere in this book came across really well and I do want to read the third book in this trilogy in the future. I’m eager to see what Annith’s book will be like and what the world will be like through her eyes.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have to say, first of all, that although the blurb of this book sounded really intriguing, the cover doesn’t really fit with the setting of the book. It’s a really nice cover… but it doesn’t seem to fit well with the feel of a historical book.

I was glad to see that the book stuck with one first person perspective. I liked Olivia. She came across as a character who had a lot of depth to her and I found it easy to empathise with her. She was likable and had a lot of depth to her. I also liked reading about how she interacts with the other characters around her.

I do think this book had too much of a modern feel to it. There was too much modern-day slang and swear words used and they kept throwing me out of the book. I was really quite disappointed, as it seemed that, apart from that, a lot of research had gone into building the world in this book. It was the language used that prevented me from being drawn into the book.

I thought Lucia and Marta were interesting characters. I thought it was good that Lucia was the one who was better at working the miracles and not Olivia, since it made Olivia a more well-rounded character.

It was interesting to be able to see more of the different gods and goddesses in those times and it was pretty cool to see the translations for the prayers they used. I liked the hints of some deeper feelings developing between Olivia and Gaius… but there wasn’t really the ‘payoff’ that I was expecting by the end of the book between them.

I thought some of the descriptions came across really well and there were times I was really able to emotionally connect with the characters. I would have liked to see more of Marta in this book… I saw a lot of Lucia and Olivia, but not really much of Marta, which was a shame, since there were hints that she was a character with a lot of depth to her.

I wasn’t sure I liked the ending. In many ways, it seemed rather anticlimactic, considering what went on before. At the same time, I would be interested in reading a sequel to this book and seeing more of Olivia and Gaius especially.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I found the blurb of this book to be really intriguing. I was drawn really easily into the world of this book and I liked Madeline as a character.

It was interesting to see the differences in the separate sections. I did find myself getting confused about the whole charges thing… but I had a lot of sympathy for the Rooless. It sounded like they had a raw deal in the world and I could understand the anger many of them had.

I found Madeline to be a character who was easy to empathise with. Although she did have moments of weakness, I found her to be a realistic character. I did think her description was repeated a few too many times in the narration… the fact that she looked different to the other members of the gentry.

I was a bit surprised to find that I actually liked Cara by the end of the book. Even though she didn’t come across as a nice person to begin with (and I’m not sure she’s a nice person even by the end), she was a really intriguing character and I felt she had a lot of depth to her.

I liked Jude a bit more than I did David. I didn’t know what to make of David half the time… and I couldn’t get over the fact that the emotions between him and Madeline seemed to stem from physical attraction, rather than through getting to know each other.

I also liked Charlie as a character. There was something very sweet and innocent about him, in spit of the horrors the Rootless had to deal with.

There were a lot of disturbing scenes, particularly when it came to the details about the radiation poisoning the Rootless were suffering from. I had a lot of sympathy for the characters like Sarah, living in constant agony and with the threat of death hanging over them.

It was interesting to see how other, supposedly ‘good’ characters viewed the Rootless… such as Jamie, with his comments about the vaccine. I found myself getting quite angry with him and also with Madeline’s father.

I would have liked to learn more about the history of the world, but I had a better understanding by the time I finished the book.

I was drawn really easily into this book. It was entertaining and easy to read… and I’m looking forward to reading book two.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the previous books in this series, but I did find this storyline to be really easy to follow. The characters were quite interesting and easy to understand, despite not having seen them in their previous incarnations.

There was some information dumping in this book and summarising of past events, which didn’t really help a lot. I would have liked to see more of Royal’s relationship with her mother and Asa’s relationship with his. Although the narration makes it clear that both of the mothers have issues, there’s very little of that shown in the book… which is a bit disappointing, since those interactions could add a lot more to the story.

I enjoyed reading about Royal’s and Asa’s relationship. It was good to see that Royal was prepared to push and get what she wanted. I would have liked to see a bit more of her time on the Force, but it was cool to see her interacting with Dom and how much he clearly cared about her. It was also good to see her get out from under the shadow of her partner and have the opportunity to show herself as a competent police officer.

It was good to learn about how Asa viewed himself and his past. While I thought some of what he came out with was quite crude, I thought he was a good hero for a romance book. The series title of Marked Mend definitely applies well to Asa.

I didn’t really like the fact that the chapters alternated between two different points of view, I did find the changes tolerable and the book was entertaining to read. It was also good to have the opportunity to see a lot of the other characters… but, again, it would have been good to see more of the interactions. For instance, I would have liked to see how Royal interacts with the other characters and why she doesn’t make friends easily.

I would be interested in reading more about the other characters in the future, so I can see how many of the couples got together. And it would be good to see more of Royal and Asa in future books.

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

(This review may contain spoilers).

The plot of this book was a really intriguing one. Although it was confusing at first, by the end, everything seemed to fit together.

It was interesting how the events of the book switched between the present day and ten years previous, but it did mean there wasn’t a whole lot of mystery. It was made quite clear exactly how bad some of the characters were before the events of the past revealed that.

I had a lot of empathy for Daina in this book. She really did seem to have an awful time of it, even as a child. And some of what she went through, I could really relate to… such as having an alcoholic mother, but also being bullied and not feeling like she had any proper friends.

The visions Daina was seeing were really creepy, but the most disturbing thing, in my opinion, was the headmaster’s attitude when Daina tried to report something she’d seen. I really didn’t like him at all and I thought he should have been arrested for what had happened in the past and the way he didn’t report what was told to him.

Many of the characters in this book did seem to have quite a bit of depth to them. Hardly any of them were really good or really bad. And although a lot of the mystery wasn’t left really up to the readers to work out for themselves, there were some elements that were a bit surprising. And what was good was the way everything fit together at the end of the book.

The Grey Man was an intriguing character and I think I understood more about him by the end of the book, too.

I wasn’t very keen on the fact that the book slipped out of first person a couple of times. I didn’t think it was necessary to change the style, especially since it didn’t really add a lot that was necessary to the story.

It was good to see one of the characters not as horrible as she was made out to be. I did enjoy reading this book, even though the ending was a bit disappointing, and I would read more books by this author in the future.