Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Blood Gift

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book very much. Instead of letting the action drive the story, everything was wordily explained, usually through the repetitive and annoying thoughts of the main character. One of my biggest complaints about the first book was that the main character felt very one-dimensional, only really experiencing anger and not much else. That changed a little in this book, but only barely.

I still feel as though the secondary characters weren't developed as well as they could have and should have been, which means I'm not particularly attached to any of them.

Many things, to me, didn't make sense. Sabine betraying Ikenna wasn't believable after over a decade of friendship. If it were only two or three years, maybe. But over a decade? There's no way someone can pretend a sister-like bond for that long without giving anything away. It felt like it was just a decision to add to the plot and move Sabine out of the way while Ikenna goes through a found-family moment with her new team.

I also think it would have been infinitely more interesting to have Ikenna be the daughter of the blood emperor. I thought that's where the story was going when someone pointed out that no one should have her powers because they belong to the emperor, not to his general population who are blood-gifted. Instead, her father ended up being some random guy working for the emperor. If the emperor were her father instead, Ijani would have been her brother, and I would have loved that. It would have given Ikenna an opportunity to gain a family member after losing so many. Literally, all of them. I also wouldn't have minded Ijani ending up as the second and final love interest of Ikenna, but I know not every relationship needs to turn romantic. Honestly, I got more of a brotherly vibe from their relationship anyway, which is why I'm disappointed Ikenna really wasn't the blood emperor's daughter.

I'm still giving 3 stars to this book due to the fact that I LOVE the overall ideas and world-building for this series. I obviously have some critiques, but there was still a lot to enjoy as well. I hope the author continues to write interesting sci-fi and fantasy stories because I would love to read more from her.

I apologize if I mispelled names. I'm an audio listener and can't find a list of characters online to correct my spelling.

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maddxtina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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shannahtan's review

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I loved this one more because Ikenna spent most of it with her squad and the non-white folks outside of the republic. I appreciated the complex relationship between her and Selene.

Ikenna was still rightfully pissed, ready to kill, and hoped Selene found peace and freedom after disappearing.

It got a bit cheesy between

her and Reed. I appreciate when they have sex for the first time in this book because she thinks about running away from the intimacy after then talks herself out of it. I thought that was nice character development and didn’t cause extra unnecessary drama like with Xaden and Violet in Iron Flame.

They’ve been through a lot and evaded death multiple times. There was only one really scene. I wish there’d be another series for the war with the Gods.

Loved the duplogy. If you’re looking for romantasy. escapism that doesn’t have racism then this isn’t it.

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apiratethatdoesnothing's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book fluctuated too much between a very immature main character surrounded by many characters with their wits about them and this same main character doing very adult acts (fornication, muddering, strong magic) without really taking the time to learn about her powers to use them properly. There were also SO MANY WORDS that were unnessesary to describe wardrobe, behaviors, and physical appearances as if the author was trying very hard to hit a word-count.
Premis of book was interesting; A high powered warlord, dependents of gods, magic and rituals, battles for bettering the world for the people with less, but there seemed to be some sort of disconnect. I don’t feel complete after finishing the book.
Also, the passing of time didn’t even come up until the last 20
pages or so when descriptors finally mentioned how
It’s been months since an event (battle) only a few chapters before occurred. Through the book I felt like I was being rushed from scene to scene without knowing there was a legitimate pause of more than a day between occurrences.

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lesliehirgelt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

I felt that the writing wasn't quite as strong in this book as it was in the first one, and it arguably ends on a cliffhanger, or at the very least has an ending that heavily implies there is more story to tell for these characters. It seemed like an odd choice for what is supposed to be the conclusion of a duology.

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evemason's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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gaden35's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-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

4.0

I strongly detest unnecessary romances. It added nothing to the plot in my opinion and actually detracted from it.
I also believe the dialogue and plot felt less polished and a little hokey compared to the first book. And the pacing sometimes felt odd - as though she didn’t want to explain some things. Which is fine. It was still a fun read and hard to put down.

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