Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

House of Bane and Blood by Alexis L. Menard

5 reviews

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

Milla, who has lived a sheltered life as a heiress, is married off to Nico to help pay off the family debts. 

So, being completely honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this book. At first I felt like the world building and magical system was not well explained and I was very confused about the structure of society. It was eventually explained, but I felt like that should have been explained earlier. I think that really took away from being able to immerse myself into this world. I kept being pulled out trying to figure things out. 

That said, I did enjoy the overall plot of the book. I thought that Milla and Nico had good chemistry. I liked that we got dual POVs. 

I feel like the characters were severely underdeveloped. I hate how Milla just cowers to her brothers demands and let's them control her, but dealing with Nico, she is so strong and hardheaded. Nico is a pretty smart guy, but is somehow completely blindsided when he was set up by the inspector. 

I knew early on that
Milla was going have magic and be a part of chaos. It just made logical sense to me. I am interested in how her powers will develop and lead to changes in  the structure of their society.


Tropes: marriage of convenience, magical society, revenge, found family

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional 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: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really enjoyed this book, especially the first half! Camilla is a great character! A real badass, witty, and smart. The Attano family were also a big highlight for me. So many great personalities. Nonna had me cackling.

My only complaints are that Camilla's willfully blind faith in her brothers (especially Aramis) got tiring.
I didn't care for his explaination for his behaviour either. He would have been a better character for me if he remained cold and selfish as he was portayed.
And the ending felt rushed. I'm very keen to see where it will lead in the next book, but I just didn't love the ending. But I will say
Giles deserved better



Expand filter menu Content Warnings