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1.47k reviews for:

Bloodguard

Cecy Robson

3.55 AVERAGE

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix

This is one of those books you read and it stays close to your heart. The writing in this book got you so emotional attached and invested in these characters that once it’s over you wish the book never ended! Everything about this book was perfect. I wonderful read for anyone who loved the movie Gladiator, likes reading fantasy and wants a lovely, naturally progressing romance in a world that’s hard and against them

To start off with the good for once- this book starts off promising. It’s action packed, it’s exciting- and it was actually refreshing and interesting to have a male MC POV.

I really enjoyed the gladiator concept in a fantasy world, it was fast paced and fun to read. I wish we had stayed in this lane.

The book starts to go downhill when we introduce the poorly fleshed out politics, and the cringey insta-love romance. This book did not need sex scenes- that’s for sure.

While I really liked Leiths POV, his quest to save his family and his brotherhood with the other gladiators, I found Maeve to be really annoying and did not enjoy her POV at all. She’s one of those FMCs that’s just too perfect. A princess, a healer, a populist, a great fighter. It took away from the story.

The social justice hinting about migrants and closed borders was irritating but had the story been good enough I could have overlooked it.

The mythology and politics of this story were heavily undercooked which ultimately leaves us with an action packed book that, unfortunately falls kind of flat by the end. Disappointing from a book I was genuinely interested in.

This book is a perfect example of how an audio narrator can make or break a book.

In my humble opinion the writing wasn't terrible. If anything I actually found myself liking the story. I feel like the action scenes were done very well in that I was able to see and understand what was happening. I did feel that the romance was lacking, like the only reason the main couple got together was because they were supposed to. At times it didn't feel organic, in that some of their responses to each other didnt match their personalities.

Spoiler Main point of this is when Maeve tells Lieth why she didnt tell him that his family had been dead for years. I feel like Lieths character would have reacted alot differently than he did. (Note within a note: The conversation they did have was very well done and mature. The lack of toxicity was refreshing)

I feel like some of the dialogue was kind of clunky and I wont lie… I did not understand the politics at all. Politics are something that I usually enjoy in a fantasy book so that was a little underwhelming and disappointing.

Now, The moment I have been waiting for… The Narrators…

I always feel bad about disliking someones project because I know they put a lot of time and effort into their craft but I gotta say… The narrator for Maeve was awful. Everything she said sounded like a question, she sounded like she has no confidence which made Maeve sound childish. The, I think two, sex scenes were so awkward and don’t get me started on Maeves one-liners. I really knew it was bad when I dreaded if it was one of her chapters. The male narrator on the other hand was pretty good, I feel like he did a good job on all the voices and I feel he aptly portrayed Lieth.

Please don’t let my review stop you from reading, but maybe let it get you to sample before listening.
adventurous 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

GOD THIS BOOK WAS SO AWFUL

Straight up, this was not good. For many, many reasons. Normally, I say things I love in my reviews but I genuinely cannot do that with this book. So here’s the things that didn’t work/things I didn’t like:

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Like it. Good plot. Characters were complex, interesting. Plot was interesting. Had some romance but wasn’t main plot which I enjoyed! I would def recommend to everyone!
leona_j's profile picture

leona_j's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 49%

Kinda boring