Blood Heir

"4.75 - "She'd spent months searching for this man. She'd pinned all her hopes--and more--on him." (Pg. 61)<br/><br/>This was much better than expected. The prose is gorgeous and the story is actually really dark but super compelling.<br/><br/>Our story starts out with Ana visiting a prison. It is sort of an abrupt start because it seems like you should know stuff before but it catches you up to speed throughout the book, which is an interesting way to do it. The overall story is similar to others that I have read but the characters help make the book unique. <br/><br/>Before I say anything else, I have to say how gory this is. There is blood and/or violence in nearly every chapter. It is fairly graphic (sometimes it describes it, others it just says it's there). There is also mentions of torture and a brief description of torture. And there is a lot of death. Like... a LOT. <br/><br/><br/>The cast is very well done. They are very detailed and quite fleshed out. There is quite a few of people so I'll just talk about the two people whose perspectives we read in.<br/><br/>• Ana, our MC. She's very powerful but she also properly uses her emotions in battles, which is something I don't really see done a lot. (Ex. She's deathly scared of a bandit so she uses her power to save herself.) I read in other reviews that she is a morally grey character, which I agree with. She does kill people. She is selfish. But she is kind and witty.<br/>• Ransom. He is pretty epic. I've seen characters similar to him before but not with all the details that this author has for him. He is a tortured soul which works perfectly with the story and Ana. <br/><br/>There is an element of romance within this book. But it really only emerges later. It seems quite natural and it absolutely is not insta-love. (Thankfully! I'm so glad.) I think it works for the story. I just hope it doesn't ruin the story in the next books.<br/><br/>The prose is so on point. *chef's kiss* It has a perfect balance of showing and telling. Good stuff. <br/><br/>Can't wait until the next book because I have so many questions! <br/>"

"I LOVE THIS BOOK (series). Its the first in a trilogy and literally each book is better than the one before. Strongly recommend this book. It has a strong female lead, enemies to lovers (but the romance is kept to a low!) amazing side characters, great plot and magic system. While I do admit it was a bit hard to get into, I am so happy I did. "

"Unfortunately I DNFd at about 75%. I really really liked the first part of this book, but it quickly started to get very formulaic and predictable. I just anticipated everything about to happen and the relationship between the two MCs felt less real and more like it was just following a script. I probably would have finished this if I didn’t have a million other books at my fingertips.<br/><br/>I did really like that even when the MC Ana thinks of how her brother would choose forgiveness for the slave broker who had stolen her young friend, she does not. She didn’t want forgiveness, she wanted justice and revenge. I am loving seeing this more in femme characters! “Sometimes it takes a monster to kill a monster.”<br/><br/>But alas, there are just too many books waiting to be read to spend time bored with a predictable plot."