Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Blood Trials

I struggled to get into this at first and then it kicked off about a third of the way in and I was completely hooked. And that ending! I'll have to get to the second one soon because I need to know how on this is all going to play out.

My only thing I wasn't so keen on is a huge plot spoiler so proceeded with caution.

I felt like thete were a lot of character deaths that just didn't draw a lot of emotion from me as I felt like I didn't really know them. This is particularly true for Zayne. I felt Ikenna's emotion but I didn't feel much for Zayne as he was kind of pushed to the side for a lot of the story, which just made me feel like some of the impact was lost. But at the same time I don't know how much of this is just me. I think I just wanted to know them more before we lost them.

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squids_can_read's review against another edition

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DNF (46%)

Kenna's grandfather is dead. Died of a heart attack or so the corner says. Suddenly information comes to light that her grandfather's death might not have been an accident like everyone says it is. Now Kenna has to fight for her place among the ruthless Praetorians along with finding out what actually happened to her grandfather.

Doesn't that sound great? It would have been if the author had developed the world at all. This is a mix of science fiction and fantasy but neither of these aspects are explained at all. There is random technology that simply exists with no information of how long it's existed or if people are still trying to create new technology. Similar to the fantasy element. Gods are referenced but are not described whatsoever in their effect on the world except for giving some people powers. And these powers aren't explained either. It seems like people with powers are much stronger than everyone else but they get beat up by people without powers. It also doesn't explain all of what they can do. Do they have one power depending on the god or do they have all of them? I was just really confused.

I also didn't like how focused the world was on racism and bigotry. This was a big part of the point of the book and I didn't have a problem with using those ideas to make a commentary on our world. I had an issue with how much was shoved in the reader's face that absolutely everyone where Kenna lives is a terrible person except for her friends, one of whom is from there. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me, especially in terms of the timeline of when these ideas started and where they came from.

As for the characters, I thought that they were okay. All of the characters seemed kind of two-dimensional to me. It didn't feel like they were very complicated, including the main character. But the characters were not why I DNFed this book.

PSA- Despite the fact that this book cover looks YA, this is definitely a book for adults. There is heavy graphic violence that took me a little by surprise. I did get used to it but it was a lot in the beginning, just so you know.

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yessicookie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-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

4.5

A great fantasy scifi book with interesting characters and a relatable main character.
(some parts were a little bit predictable to me, however i did not mind bc there were some plot twists that even i couldn't predict)

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marinaaurelia's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-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? Yes

4.25

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emerentina's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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blizzardthecoolwizard's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book was so good! The world building isn't too complicated, but just enough to make the conflicts/war interesting. The main character goes through a lot of personal growth and there are so many fantastic plot twists that make her question everything. I think my only complaint is that sometimes the main character does random out of pocket things that just don't make sense with her character growth or the story...but I'm hoping that I am just missing something. Other than that, it would be 5 stars! I can't wait to read the next book!

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