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amkozy23's review
I just wasn’t as invested in the story as I thought I would be. I tried to pick it up again and couldn’t
emuhly's review against another edition
2.0
judging by other reviews, not clicking with this book was clearly a me problem. sorry ☹️ / 2 stars
booksirl's review against another edition
3.0
What a ride.
Blood On Her Name was sent to me by the lovely B. Nacole herself. I don’t usually read mafia books. This was my first introduction into the genre and I wasn’t disappointed by the results.
My favorite thing about the books is that it gets right into the action. Like, let’s not waste time. The main character, Anya, goes through A LOT in this book. For someone so young, I don’t see how she managed to keep herself together.
Anya is better than me because between all the lies, death, secrets, and betrayals, someone would’ve had to pick me up off the floor. Anya’s strength and bravery are one of the main selling points of the book. I really liked Liam, too. He was really sweet.
One of my biggest pet peeves with Blood On Her Name is the amount of characters. There were so many in the book, I genuinely don’t remember all of them. I needed a family tree or an outline of the characters. I had so many “who the hell is this again?” moments. It was overwhelming at times.
Overall, I thought Blood On Her Name was a solid debut and a nice introduction to a genre that’s unfamiliar to me.
Blood On Her Name was sent to me by the lovely B. Nacole herself. I don’t usually read mafia books. This was my first introduction into the genre and I wasn’t disappointed by the results.
My favorite thing about the books is that it gets right into the action. Like, let’s not waste time. The main character, Anya, goes through A LOT in this book. For someone so young, I don’t see how she managed to keep herself together.
Anya is better than me because between all the lies, death, secrets, and betrayals, someone would’ve had to pick me up off the floor. Anya’s strength and bravery are one of the main selling points of the book. I really liked Liam, too. He was really sweet.
One of my biggest pet peeves with Blood On Her Name is the amount of characters. There were so many in the book, I genuinely don’t remember all of them. I needed a family tree or an outline of the characters. I had so many “who the hell is this again?” moments. It was overwhelming at times.
Overall, I thought Blood On Her Name was a solid debut and a nice introduction to a genre that’s unfamiliar to me.
dc_guevara13's review against another edition
5.0
BLOOD ON HER NAME is an exhilarating and thrilling debut!
The novel trajects the story of Anya Baskova, a 17-year-old mafia heiress whose life gets yanked away from her when she wakes up in a nightclub she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know, and her one link to any sort of help is a boy with a feather tattoo on his arm.
I am not a YA reader-- I've considered myself as having outgrown the genre and simply moving on to more adult-centric things, but B. Nacole proved to me that YA can be just as complex and intricate as any adult novel and if I must be proven wrong, I'm glad it's like this!
Nacole's writing style is crisp and to the point, much more interested in keeping itself action and detail-oriented. It's the best sort of writing style to help guide readers through the entangled web of families and mobsters that this seedy underworld entails. Nacole has managed to create a world fully lived in and immersive, making it feel not only as real as it can be but also something that could actually be happening right under our noses.
The cast of characters is fantastic! They all have electrifying and, oftentimes, complicated relationships with one another but there is no doubt that this book manages to get its point across splendidly: family is family-- whether blood-related or not.
But honestly, my breakout star has to be Anya Baskova herself. She's feisty, she's brave, she's reckless and an all-around bad bitch-- but she's also sad, angry, and swallowed by grief. I love the dichotomy of these aspects and how they can all co-exist in one person. It makes Anya feel whole and complete, a real person made of ink and paper. If this book had existed during my YA phase when I was younger, Anya would have been (and is now), among my favorite YA heroines alongside Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy) and Isabelle Lightwood (The Mortal Instruments).
My only advice for the future would be to include some sort of family tree at the beginning of the book because there are a lot of characters and a lot of crime families, and while they are all fun and exciting, a barrage of names can be a tad bit overwhelming. But honestly, this is just me nitpicking, and thankfully it's something that can be easily corrected in Nacole's future works, which I am definitely looking forward to.
Filled with action, a budding romance, excitement, and crime, BLOOD ON HER NAME will prove to be a novel with staying power and will cement Nacole as an author to be on the lookout for. Check it out, you don't wanna miss it!
5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The novel trajects the story of Anya Baskova, a 17-year-old mafia heiress whose life gets yanked away from her when she wakes up in a nightclub she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know, and her one link to any sort of help is a boy with a feather tattoo on his arm.
I am not a YA reader-- I've considered myself as having outgrown the genre and simply moving on to more adult-centric things, but B. Nacole proved to me that YA can be just as complex and intricate as any adult novel and if I must be proven wrong, I'm glad it's like this!
Nacole's writing style is crisp and to the point, much more interested in keeping itself action and detail-oriented. It's the best sort of writing style to help guide readers through the entangled web of families and mobsters that this seedy underworld entails. Nacole has managed to create a world fully lived in and immersive, making it feel not only as real as it can be but also something that could actually be happening right under our noses.
The cast of characters is fantastic! They all have electrifying and, oftentimes, complicated relationships with one another but there is no doubt that this book manages to get its point across splendidly: family is family-- whether blood-related or not.
But honestly, my breakout star has to be Anya Baskova herself. She's feisty, she's brave, she's reckless and an all-around bad bitch-- but she's also sad, angry, and swallowed by grief. I love the dichotomy of these aspects and how they can all co-exist in one person. It makes Anya feel whole and complete, a real person made of ink and paper. If this book had existed during my YA phase when I was younger, Anya would have been (and is now), among my favorite YA heroines alongside Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy) and Isabelle Lightwood (The Mortal Instruments).
My only advice for the future would be to include some sort of family tree at the beginning of the book because there are a lot of characters and a lot of crime families, and while they are all fun and exciting, a barrage of names can be a tad bit overwhelming. But honestly, this is just me nitpicking, and thankfully it's something that can be easily corrected in Nacole's future works, which I am definitely looking forward to.
Filled with action, a budding romance, excitement, and crime, BLOOD ON HER NAME will prove to be a novel with staying power and will cement Nacole as an author to be on the lookout for. Check it out, you don't wanna miss it!
5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
facebehindabook's review against another edition
4.0
This started with a sleaze and ended with a dead sleaze, not the same sleaze though. This story tells the life of a teenage girl right after she finds herself about to be sold and follows it right over the cliff of drugs, guns, death and Mafiya.
It's a great story set at a great pace. The characters are your typical melancholy, worried, messy teenage soul of hormones. The adults are no better, they understand one thing and one thing only power and the name you carry.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
It's a great story set at a great pace. The characters are your typical melancholy, worried, messy teenage soul of hormones. The adults are no better, they understand one thing and one thing only power and the name you carry.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
rach94's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
*I won a digital copy of this book in a giveaway.*
I can see the author's potential with writing, but this book needs lots and lots of editing. The sensitivity and beta reading was very much not enough. (And I say this as someone who's currently studying with a publishing company.) For the author: if you need to, make sketches of where the characters are in certain scenes, of the rooms (stick figures are enough), there were just too many of them that I had to re-read quite a few times because I kept getting lost until I just started skim-reading those scenes and that's a pity. But I get it, this was self-published without a team behind, so I won't be giving it a rating.
I can see the author's potential with writing, but this book needs lots and lots of editing. The sensitivity and beta reading was very much not enough. (And I say this as someone who's currently studying with a publishing company.) For the author: if you need to, make sketches of where the characters are in certain scenes, of the rooms (stick figures are enough), there were just too many of them that I had to re-read quite a few times because I kept getting lost until I just started skim-reading those scenes and that's a pity. But I get it, this was self-published without a team behind, so I won't be giving it a rating.
captainwinter's review
I can’t get into it… The dialogue doesn’t read natural to me, it hasn’t been edited properly (as in: there are grammatical errors, comma’s where there should be periods, sentences that don’t run smoothly, etc), there’s too many names/families to keep track of, and I’m not a big fan of the main character.
joelreads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0