Reviews

The Blood Gift by N.E. Davenport

whosbradpitt's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

An enjoyable (if not quite as compelling) sequel to The Blood Trials. Ikenna is rogue now, with her band of misfits trying to topple an empire, and she has learned little from the trouble her hubris has gotten her into before. While she becomes less tolerable, the world expands and becomes more interesting in several ways, helping to make up for the main POV. Honestly, though, I finally gave up and fast-forwarded through the couple of sex scenes. It wasn't what I was here for and it just felt cringey. 

cliffrcarlson's review against another edition

adventurous tense 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? Yes

4.25

birdyinthewild's review

3.5

Dear our favorite murder girl,

This series went from brutal war college that raised my blood pressure to complicated political fantasy (so much talking!) that I had to check to see if I was reading the right book. Oh there is still the gore but the tone was completely different. The first book shocked me but this one gave me time to breathe, and also miss the stabbing (at least for a little while.)

The stabbing shows up and the war happen- Ikenna is and will always be unapologetically vicious and a complete badass. 

Though I enjoyed the first book more, this series overall was well done. 

Highly recommend this as a YA fantasy. 

legallyhot's review against another edition

4.75

Ikenna Amari is a total badass!
I loved this book! Such an interesting and unique world! 
I love a woman out for revenge!🩷

caleyr94's review

3.5

I’m glad I read this sequel to The Blood Trials. I didn’t know how I felt about the first one, but I liked this one better.  I think there was more story and less world building in this one? Also less betrayal and more forward movement??

I will say the first half was slower than the second. And it really jumps right in where book 1 left off, so a refresher is necessary. 

I loved how there were multiple things to be resolved and how they happened over the entire second half. It felt more realistic than a typical final battle and everything’s perfect. There was still a little of that, but definitely one of the big conflicts was handled earlier than I expected and it engaged me more. 

This is definitely YA so still very little spice. And honestly not much “romance.” For over half the book I forgot there was a love interest there. I wouldn’t have minded but I was expecting more romance especially given how I felt the first one ended? Even though the first one also had mostly build up. This one didn’t live up to that build up for me. 

I would recommend to any fantasy lover who wants a quick easy read with only a side of love. 

amyjoy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

A good duology conclusion that potentially sets up more books in the future! This was action packed and thrilling, and I enjoyed spending more time in this world with these characters. 

Some nitpicking: 

• Selene's heel turn felt so forced/inauthentic - I have a hard time imagining that you could pretend to be so close to a person and then utterly betray them and never give any hint of it beforehand. IDK. Her betrayal just never sat right with me. 
• I fully expected the Blood Emperor to be Kenna's father and was surprised it was one of his generals instead.
• Her battle with the Blood Emperor felt a little anti-climactic? It just felt like something she had spent so much time preparing for and then there was still a lot of book left. IDK.

None of this detracted from my general enjoyment of the story!

leasey23's review

adventurous challenging dark tense 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? Yes

3.75

diamondbg's review

3.0

I think it’s interesting the way this book ended with it foretelling a crazy story but we don’t get to read it smh. I never really say this with books but I enjoyed the first book more. The series is supposed to get better but in this case I didn’t feel that way. Overall a decent duology. Could have been cool to get a third book about the upcoming battle.

jrayereads's review

adventurous challenging medium-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? Yes

3.0

 

I usually don’t feel this way, but this should have been a trilogy. The first book is such a solid blend of sci-fi and fantasy and we get so much set up of this world and the political dynamics that Kenna has to navigate as a black woman with secret magic. SO GOOD. But this book tries to do waaaaaaay too much in too short of a time. I desperately wanted a book in between these two to allow time for relationships between Kenna and her team to develop and for Kenna to learn about her heritage and actually take time to learn and grow in her powers. The gods, the magic system, and Kenna’s own abilities were so underdeveloped and that made the entire final battle between her and the big bad feel pretty cheap.

The writing was also pretty hard to get through for me. In the first book Kenna is very irreverent and crass and that was really funny to read and works well for her character, but it was played up to such a cheesy degree in this one. It was pretty painful to constantly be subjected to characters preaching about how badass they were and how much they were going to kill each other, and this bled into Kenna’s inner monologue to the point where I felt like I was constantly reading Marvel one-liners. Some of the dialogue was so painfully cringe. Don’t tell me how badass everyone is through them standing around having a dick measuring contest, SHOW ME. I think Davenport saw the positive reaction to how badass Kenna was in the first book and played that up way too much.

This was a disappointing sequel but I still feel pretty positively about the duology as a whole. I just wanted MORE! More development of the world and the magic, more quiet character moments that make me care about everyone and their relationships. More REED (bc I did love him and the severely underdeveloped romance made me so sad). I will definitely be sat for whatever Davenport does next because I think she has a lot of potential.

itsme_hi's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5