Reviews

unfortunately the bad writing that made me trudge the first book continued into the next one and in fact got even worse. There’s so much random explanation for no reason. All of ikennas thoughts are written out in such excruciating detail that it made me thought there was a specific word count that had to be checked in order for this book to go to publish, yet the actual important story plot points are just over and done with in less than a paragraph.

she kills the blood emperor in less than a page, she kills all the red order in basically a paragraph, she meets with amaka ONE TIME and instantly gets the power to overthrow the whole acacian government, she goes from one paragraph in her fight with krashna thinking that she’s gonna die here and the next they’ve all automatically and miraculously teamed in time to kill a god???? I seriously thought I was losing my mind here

This also made ikenna insufferable to read about and I honestly really started to dislike her character at the end. Also there wasn’t that many interesting scenes with the cohort to make me actually care about them and their fates, and the relationship with reed and ikenna felt like an afterthought and just a ploy to add spice when it wasn’t needed.

Overall I think there were too many ideas for the author to put into one “final” book. This probably could’ve worked more as a trilogy where she could expand on her ideas and we could really delve into the chracters, without reading paragraphs of what felt like unnecessary jargon.

kam_jade's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-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? It's complicated

2.75

perseuscole's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This was a wonderful book, but the pacing of it felt off and there was a lot left unresolved. Normally unresolved isn't that big of an issue for me, but with the pacing of the novel and elements that were added in, it was a bigger problem for me in this novel. It's still lovely and I really enjoyed both books in the duology and heavily recommend them both!

roastytoasty's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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

5.0

adinaficano's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

fishy27's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional 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

3.0

I picked up The Blood Gift immediately after finishing The Blood Trials: I read the first book as an audiobook, and really enjoyed it. I couldn’t wait to get into the second book, which I read as an e-book. I was unfortunately disappointed by this second installment in the series.

The biggest issue I had here was pacing. Ikenna & the crew complete their primary objective

around 60% of the way through the book.

I understand that she had two primary objectives, but I expected that the latter, taking out the Tribunal, would take up less space on-page. I was wrong. Setting up the book this way made that last portion of the story feel rather laborious: I had already tapped out of the story, yet we were still going, not even close to the end. I don’t know what exactly I would have preferred, but I do know that I didn’t love it as it was.

Ikenna also really started to irritate me during this book. In the first book, I enjoyed that Davenport was giving us an angry Black woman who took no shit and fucked people up while maintaining a degree of complexity. In this book, I thought that Ikenna’s badassery was blown way out of proportion. She becomes nearly unstoppable and overpowered to the point where it’s not as fun to follow her story anymore. I can appreciate that Davenport wanted to match the fast-paced, snappy story that we had in the first book, but this book felt simultaneously formulaic in its plot points and dull.

Davenport’s prose is very well, written, and I think she captures Ikenna’s voice perfectly–you can learn so much much about her character through the prose, which speaks to her skills as a writer. It would be negligent to omit this praise despite not loving the execution of the rest of the book.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this book, primarily because of the pacing. Davenport is clearly a skilled writer, but plot structure and management, along with a main character who is a bit too “for the plot” for my liking, unfortunately led me to a lower rating on the second installment than the first.

1soluvly's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

I did not enjoy this book. The MC, Ikenna was annoying. I didn't care about the people I was supposed to care about.

I liked Ajohnny better.

MC did not experience any character development through 3 books. She was all attack with very little thinking. Reed was kind of likeliable last book but then he was all whatever Ikenna wanted this book.

Rarely did anyone challenge her even when she was in the wrong. Instead of a bunch of I believe in you followers. She needed some people who would challenge her and push her to grow.

I can't believe that she will do anything other than push Eludo to its ruin.

(I listened to the audiobook so I might not spell names correctly).

jasonpatrickg's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

An enjoyable follow up to The Blood Trials, The Blood Gift follows Kenna and friends’ path in exile. The fleeting lives of friends and foes do much to work the story along, but

I never really felt as though Kenna was truly in danger of dying.

More...