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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
I was not sure about this book when I started it. I did not like the male love interest at all. He is an ass. I do like the FMC. Medra is a great character. Strong, opinionated female that refuses to be "owned". She is a fae that fell from her "world" into a land of blightborns (non vampire) and vampires. She is the only fae in this world. Only one with red hair and pointy ears. She is immediately betrothed to Blake, the leader of one of the 4 houses. She doesn't want to be betrothed to anyone. She isn't even sure why she is there. But this world believes her to be a dragon rider. And because of that they can't let her not be "controlled" and betrothed to someone powerful. But dragons have not existed for many many years. So now she has to attend Bloodwing academy. She is thrown in this world where vampires rule and want your blood. But, right now she is safe, since she is betrothed to Blake. But she doesn't want Blake. She actually hates him. The book was very interesting. Maybe a little long in the middle. The last 11 chapters made the whole book. I know there are two more books to this trilogy. The first book is done and I still don't really like Blake. Maybe he will grow on me in the next book. Loved the world. Hope it explores more of the other houses. The side characters are great. I think Medra has more power than they know and I am looking forward to seeing it come out. Last chapter was a great cliff-hanger.
I didn't really enjoy this ngl. It had so much hype so I read it, but also heard the second book is much better. So I persevered and finished it, I uhm kinda liked the last 15% but the rest was rather boring and slow (and I do love a good slow burn so it's not that). Idk don't get the hype but on to book 2..
"Only the powerful may rule. Only the worthy may survive. ‘Sanguis et Flamma Floreant’ is our motto. Only blood and flame may flourish in these halls. From blood comes unity. From blood comes strength. From blood, legacy. From blood, power."
2.75⭐
I'm going to be honest, this book wasn't for me at all and the only reason I pushed through was because this is a long overdue Netgalley read and I wanted to review it honestly. I have read the first book in Briar Boleyn's Blood of a Fae series and I had mostly enjoyed that book, but ultimately found the writing too choppy, the pacing awkward, the side characters lacked depth, and the romance felt rushed and unconvincing. Which is exactly how I felt about this book too, but even worse this time around. I was hoping this book would be an improvement considering the other one appeared to be a debut but it wasn't, and I see that these books, five or six of them at least, have all been published within the last two and half years and that feels very fast to me. I think perhaps that has played into why this book feels messy, underdeveloped and underedited. I didn't know before going into it that it was a spin off from the Blood of a Fae series either which confused me, I was worried it might give some spoilers away but now that I have read this one I have decided I won't be reading any more of Boleyn's books.
Mostly this book just felt very juvenile and far too busy. It was like Boleyn tried to cram all of her favourite romantasy tropes into one story and in some ways that could've worked but it just did not for me in this book. We were dropped into the story with very little context at the beginning and the plot progressed very quickly from Medra essentially being held captive because she'd been found not dead on a pile of dead bodies to her being betrothed to her captor and admitted to the vampire academy in the nearby city as a student, which didn't really seem like a realistic turn of events to me. It felt a bit like those Wattpad stories where a girl gets sold to or kidnapped by One Direction. There were some inklings of an interesting plot at the beginning though, with Medra trying to understand how her death in her own world of Aercanum had led to her new life in Sangratha, and with her trying to figure out how this was happening and possibly how to get away, but this quickly dissolved into an unbelievable plot with her somehow falling for her betrothed despite him being an asshole to her at all times and there being absolutely no chemistry between them except for some very shallow attraction and lust, her deciding to fall in line for the most part and just go along with their plans for her, and her playing high school petty rivalry with her co-consort. It just... really wasn't my cup of tea.
The premise sounded like it would be something I would enjoy and I saw a few people on Tiktok raving about it, so clearly this hits the marks for certain types of readers but not for my sadly. Check your trigger warnings if you're still thinking of giving this one a go because there is a quite a lot of alpha-male speak, bullying and dubious consent to it as well as the obvious Dark Fantasy usuals such as murder, violence and deadly competition, as well as a few romance scenes that made me feel a bit uncomfortable - not because of their content but because I couldn't understand why they were getting it on when there was barely any spark between them. The writing also wasn't up to standard for me, it really felt like it hadn't been edited very well, a few turns of phrases used slightly wrong, some mispellings and extremely overused words just made it feel clunky overall unfortunately. I sadly can't recommend this book, but thank you to Netgalley and Starwater Press for giving me the opportunity to read this.
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Although rather predictable, I did enjoy this book. I will definitely be looking out for the later books in the series to see where we go
I read this in a day, and it was quite an easy read. I confess that I don't like the main character very much, and nearly everyone else in this story is even worse!
But somehow it is still compelling
I did really enjoy the bits with Medra's mother, and feel like we need to know more about her/the whole soul magic/ now being stuck in a knife thing
Naveen 😭😭😭😭😭
I read this in a day, and it was quite an easy read. I confess that I don't like the main character very much, and nearly everyone else in this story is even worse!
But somehow it is still compelling
OK, so this book was an interesting concept. I did enjoy it. However, it did feel like it was little long. Took me longer to read than most books of this size, but I still finished it and I'm still looking forward to the next book.
Medra comes from Camelot, where she recently took down her grandfather -- super duper powerful fae or something. They really didn't get into this. She winds up in this world run by vampires, forcibly engaged to Blake, and sent to a school where there's a bunch of mean girls trying to kill her.
There were some things that were frustrating. Like Medra's general acceptance that she must attend this school, the miscommunication trope (her not explaining where she came from or them not explaining how the world works to her). The teachers can't tell her anything about anything. There's also ambiguity in a lot of statements, like when Marcus and Blake were discussing why Viktor had chosen Blake for her Archon and not Marcus -- they didn't explain. Medra just kind of accepts that she is a dragon rider, even though in her world that as not the case. Having 'instinctive dragon rider abilities' was kind of a cop out IMO. I felt like there also needed to be more Arthurian legend baked into the story -- just the mention of her coming from Camelot isn't really enough for me. And finally, will Blake ever call Medra "Medra" or will she forever be "Pendragon" in his own inner monologue? This was starting to really annoy me.
Medra comes from Camelot, where she recently took down her grandfather -- super duper powerful fae or something. They really didn't get into this. She winds up in this world run by vampires, forcibly engaged to Blake, and sent to a school where there's a bunch of mean girls trying to kill her.
There were some things that were frustrating. Like Medra's general acceptance that she must attend this school, the miscommunication trope (her not explaining where she came from or them not explaining how the world works to her). The teachers can't tell her anything about anything. There's also ambiguity in a lot of statements, like when Marcus and Blake were discussing why Viktor had chosen Blake for her Archon and not Marcus -- they didn't explain. Medra just kind of accepts that she is a dragon rider, even though in her world that as not the case. Having 'instinctive dragon rider abilities' was kind of a cop out IMO. I felt like there also needed to be more Arthurian legend baked into the story -- just the mention of her coming from Camelot isn't really enough for me. And finally, will Blake ever call Medra "Medra" or will she forever be "Pendragon" in his own inner monologue? This was starting to really annoy me.