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xo_babs_ox's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I loved being exposed to a different type of mythology. You were able to learn about it as you read with well placed reminders of important concepts as needed. While love triangles are not my favourite trope, this one was executed well as it wasn’t necessarily the whole plot of the book, I wanted the saving of the world more than I cared about who Dèmi ultimately chose
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Classism
thereadingmarshmallow's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Gore, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Colonisation, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual harassment, War, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Slavery, Vomit, Violence, and Genocide
kendal_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Grief, Death of parent, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape
rhi_'s review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
Moderate: Slavery and Racial slurs
Minor: Confinement, Rape, and Sexual violence
roseleebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This book introduces us to a world on the verge of war, seen through the eyes of Dèmi, a young Oluso (magic user). The Oluso are in hiding, magic is forbidden in their world, and Dèmi is hiding secrets that would get her killed by the rulers of the kingdom.
I loved how strong a person Dèmi is in this story. She is powerful and holds to her identity and ideals. A really wonderful MC to follow and I'm looking forward to seeing how she grows in the next book.
The pace of this book is very fast, and I found myself wishing for some more internal dialogue or reflection to help me frame the information. There is one particular chapter in which there are several reveals about multiple characters and I had to reread it and review a previous chapter to understand what was going on. There was a little more explanation/review of that information later in the book which I appreciated, but it would have been helpful closer to the events as well. I also felt the relationship/love interest subplot could have been developed more, but suspect this will be explored in the next book.We see Dèmi receive some warnings about the love interest so this may contribute to the plot going forward.
Although there were some things I thought could have been developed more, the world building, main character, and setup for the next book were all well done and I'll be looking forward to reading the rest of the story.
I loved how strong a person Dèmi is in this story. She is powerful and holds to her identity and ideals. A really wonderful MC to follow and I'm looking forward to seeing how she grows in the next book.
The pace of this book is very fast, and I found myself wishing for some more internal dialogue or reflection to help me frame the information. There is one particular chapter in which there are several reveals about multiple characters and I had to reread it and review a previous chapter to understand what was going on. There was a little more explanation/review of that information later in the book which I appreciated, but it would have been helpful closer to the events as well. I also felt the relationship/love interest subplot could have been developed more, but suspect this will be explored in the next book.
Although there were some things I thought could have been developed more, the world building, main character, and setup for the next book were all well done and I'll be looking forward to reading the rest of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death, Torture, Violence, and War
Minor: Rape
bookstaash's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This epic fantasy debut follows Dèmi, a magic wielding Oluso, who is trying to survive a brutal regime that murdered her mother and invaded her homeland. She and other Oluso must hide their powers, as capture would mean death or enslavement. When a regional lord offers Dèmi the chance to secure the safety of her people by kidnapping a prince, she embarks on an adventure that will challenge everything she knows about her heritage, her magic and herself.
This debut from Okosun was a really fun and unique read! The Nigerian mythology and cultural setting were new but, very well-explained and illustrated throughout the novel. I liked the author’s writing style and enjoyed the overall story. The love triangle/romance was adorable, and one of my favorite aspects.
My biggest criticism is that I didn’t understand the motives or histories of the “villains” throughout the story. Alastair Sorenson and Mari seemed to have started a war based on Dèmi’s mother rejecting them - ?. It’s possible I just didn’t understand but, their reasoning seemed kind of lame. I also don’t feel like I really understood how Yétunde fit in to their lives before the war. I think some of this is due to the fact that the story is told from Dèmi’s perspective, and I’m sure their will be more details in the next book (as she learns more).
Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest feedback!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual assault, War, and Trafficking
honeycupreads's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The world we get to explore in Forged by Blood is very beautiful. I really enjoyed the world building and the magic system was so interesting to me. I feel like the first half of this book was pretty good, however with the second half of the book we started to receive a bunch of twists all at once. Everytime we were hit with a new shocking piece of information we would get 3 more twists within the next couple of pages and I feel like we never got time to sit with it and really see how Dèmi processes everything. The romance in this book was poorly done in my opinion. The “love triangle” was very odd to me because I felt as though Dèmi didn’t have any chemistry with either of them. There was some fun banter that came from it but overall neither relationship was very convincing. There’s also a lot of things that I felt could be expanded on a bit more and hopefully we will see some of that in the sequel. All in all I did enjoy this book and will be tuned in when the sequel gets released!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Slavery, Confinement, and Death
Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault
hobbithopeful's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Incredibly disappointing, the only reason I pushed myself to finish this is because I kept hoping the writing of the beginning would come back. I was wrong.
The beginning sucked me in and I was absolutely in love with the story. Sadly it went downhill immediately. The plot was completely lost after the timeskip. The story changed numerous times, and at no point made any coherent sense or followed any sort of structure. I had absolutely no idea what any of the point was.
By the end Dèmi has become so ridiculously overpowered, and so many twists and reveals happen firmly establishing her a mary sue type character. So many plot events happen to the end that just make no sense and felt more and more outlandish as they occurred. Dèmi gets everything a main character could possibly want: adopted by forest spirits, fights the King, somehow avoids instant death because she's special, can use all the magic LIKE WHAT IS GOING ON HERE! Of course the reveal about her Father was just another moment in the long line of ridiculousness. The plot armor was plot armoring.
Seperate but a huge ick of mine, this happens towards the end by the time I had given up on liking the book.We need to discuss why BIPOC authors love writing love triangles that have the BIPOC fmc ending up with the white guy. Why does this always happen! Especially because they always have to be the son or nephew of some super racist guy. It's just, UGH. The chemistry Dèmi has with Collin and Jonas was fine? I rarely see a book do love triangles well, and this is no different. It's difficult to keep a serious tone when the fmc is waffling between two guys who really aren't that different or special.
All in all it felt like the book had no idea what it was supposed to be about. I liked the setting, the magic, and the different creatures, but everything in terms of plot made little to no sense. I did also enjoy the parallels with colonialism, and all of the food depictions. I did get quite hungry reading this.
I am not going to read the next book, and I don't know if I would read anything by Ehigbor Okosun anytime soon. Maybe further down the line with her next series.
I would personally NOT recommend this book.
Love the cover, the cover is so amazing. The book will likely do pretty well because it is a gorgeous piece of art, the perfect blend between composition and design. People will definitely pick this book up because of it, and truly it is likely the books saving grace.
The beginning sucked me in and I was absolutely in love with the story. Sadly it went downhill immediately. The plot was completely lost after the timeskip. The story changed numerous times, and at no point made any coherent sense or followed any sort of structure. I had absolutely no idea what any of the point was.
By the end Dèmi has become so ridiculously overpowered, and so many twists and reveals happen firmly establishing her a mary sue type character. So many plot events happen to the end that just make no sense and felt more and more outlandish as they occurred. Dèmi gets everything a main character could possibly want:
Seperate but a huge ick of mine, this happens towards the end by the time I had given up on liking the book.We need to discuss why BIPOC authors love writing love triangles that have the BIPOC fmc ending up with the
All in all it felt like the book had no idea what it was supposed to be about. I liked the setting, the magic, and the different creatures, but everything in terms of plot made little to no sense. I did also enjoy the parallels with colonialism, and all of the food depictions. I did get quite hungry reading this.
I am not going to read the next book, and I don't know if I would read anything by Ehigbor Okosun anytime soon. Maybe further down the line with her next series.
I would personally NOT recommend this book.
Love the cover, the cover is so amazing. The book will likely do pretty well because it is a gorgeous piece of art, the perfect blend between composition and design. People will definitely pick this book up because of it, and truly it is likely the books saving grace.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Racial slurs, Colonisation, and Blood
Minor: Rape, War, and Sexual assault
bettysbookishworld's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I would like to thank the publisher, HarperVoyager UK, for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Forged by Blood is a fantasy debut novel isnpired by Nigerian mythology. The mythology is what intrigued me about reading it and it delivered on this front. I enjoyed all the folklore and how it got effortlessly woven into the magic system and the worldbuilding. The story even takes part in a Spirit Realm, which was my favourite part of the book and the most interesting one, too. If this is the reason why you got interested in the book, too, the author does a great job with that and definitely try reading it.
However, I could tell this is a debut novel. The story was missing some sort of nuance. I feel like everything was happening at once without any room for a reader to actually get connected to the story and characters. Events were rushed, plot points got resolved too quickly and characters didn't have much time to actually develop further. It's also supposed to be an adult fantasy, however, the characters and their reactions felt very juvenile. There was also a romance aspect to the book, which consisted of tropes I don't enjoy. I think the love "triangle" was unnecessary when having fated mates/souls, because of its predictability.
I really wanted to enjoy this story, but it just didn't work for me at all. On more positive note, I definitely want to read more fantasy inspired by African mythology and folklore, as I loved it in this book.
Forged by Blood is a fantasy debut novel isnpired by Nigerian mythology. The mythology is what intrigued me about reading it and it delivered on this front. I enjoyed all the folklore and how it got effortlessly woven into the magic system and the worldbuilding. The story even takes part in a Spirit Realm, which was my favourite part of the book and the most interesting one, too. If this is the reason why you got interested in the book, too, the author does a great job with that and definitely try reading it.
However, I could tell this is a debut novel. The story was missing some sort of nuance. I feel like everything was happening at once without any room for a reader to actually get connected to the story and characters. Events were rushed, plot points got resolved too quickly and characters didn't have much time to actually develop further. It's also supposed to be an adult fantasy, however, the characters and their reactions felt very juvenile. There was also a romance aspect to the book, which consisted of tropes I don't enjoy. I think the love "triangle" was unnecessary when having fated mates/souls, because of its predictability.
I really wanted to enjoy this story, but it just didn't work for me at all. On more positive note, I definitely want to read more fantasy inspired by African mythology and folklore, as I loved it in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Slavery, Genocide, Colonisation, Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: War and Suicide
Minor: Pregnancy and Rape
skylarkblue1's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
CWs: blood, parent death, racism, rape and sexual assault (off page), child death, parental death, murder, death, torture, slavery, forced pregancy, misogyny, classism,
Thank you to Ehigbor for a free physical proof! (Sorry I didn't get around to this for so long 😭)
I absolutely adored this world! It's so rich and well described, it really does feel alive.
I'll try not to go too deep into this synopsis as it's best to kinda just go into it. Its pretty fast to get into the main story beats and it doesn't dawdle. Essentially Dèmi and her mother live alone, her father is dead and they live in a world ruled by colonisers who kill or enslave any magic user (rightful owners of the land) that's found. Unfortunately, both Dèmi and her mother have magic. When tragedy strikes and her life is splintered even further, she takes up the task of attempting to change the fate of the lands and her people.
I loved Dèmi as a character a lot. She strong, but fallible - though it does fall kinda into the trope of the female MC needing to lean a lot on the male love interests (alongside a love right-angle). I did get a tad confused at the cast for a bit, there's so many background characters that's given a decent chunk of info each that for my brain wasn't sticking too well in my memory.
The world building is "book 1" world building, there's a ton of questions but a very good base has been made. It's creative, vibrant and full of life. I can't wait for the next book to learn more about the world, the magic system and how it'll all come together!!
Thank you to Ehigbor for a free physical proof! (Sorry I didn't get around to this for so long 😭)
I absolutely adored this world! It's so rich and well described, it really does feel alive.
I'll try not to go too deep into this synopsis as it's best to kinda just go into it. Its pretty fast to get into the main story beats and it doesn't dawdle. Essentially Dèmi and her mother live alone, her father is dead and they live in a world ruled by colonisers who kill or enslave any magic user (rightful owners of the land) that's found. Unfortunately, both Dèmi and her mother have magic. When tragedy strikes and her life is splintered even further, she takes up the task of attempting to change the fate of the lands and her people.
I loved Dèmi as a character a lot. She strong, but fallible - though it does fall kinda into the trope of the female MC needing to lean a lot on the male love interests (alongside a love right-angle). I did get a tad confused at the cast for a bit, there's so many background characters that's given a decent chunk of info each that for my brain wasn't sticking too well in my memory.
The world building is "book 1" world building, there's a ton of questions but a very good base has been made. It's creative, vibrant and full of life. I can't wait for the next book to learn more about the world, the magic system and how it'll all come together!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Genocide, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Slavery
Moderate: Death and Confinement
Minor: Sexual assault and Rape