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A review by alexblackreads
Blood's Echo by Isabella Maldonado
2.0
I found Maldonaldo off a list that recommended one of her other books, but this was the only one my library had so I decided to give it a try. Upon reflection, I wish I'd looked a little harder for The Cipher, which was the one that was recommended. This book was Maldonado's debut and it was very rough around the edges.
Most of the writing was fine, but there were more than a few instances where it was clear she'd used a thesaurus to find a different word and a few more that just felt awkward and took me out of the story. At one point she was writing a fairly graphic sexual assault and used the phrase "his erection pressed against her bottom."
The villains of the book, basically the entire cartel family, were very cartoonishly written. They are all Evil with a capital E. They're not fleshed out characters with real lives and motivations, they just enjoy raping, murdering, and caressing their guns. It made the book feel almost silly.
This book also did the thing I hate where the author constantly rubs your nose in all the things you don't know. Like yes, it's a thriller. There should be plenty I don't know. But it doesn't need to be brought up every chapter- Veranda would never tell anyone why she was targeting the cartel, Veranda's true reason for her obsession remained a secret, Veranda needed to keep them from finding out the truth. It was annoying. Especially because Maldonado telegraphed every plot twist a mile away so I already knew all the whys.
The romance was really flat, the side characters weren't fully fleshed out, and I didn't realize Maldonado was a cop before starting this story and it is incredibly pro cop. We basically open the book with the main character being annoyed she needs to be interviewed after killing a man, after which she feels no sadness about literally ending a man's life. Right or wrong, if a person doesn't feel even a little conflicted about killing another, it's going to be very hard for me to empathize with a character who has such little regard for life.
This book unfortunately didn't work for me at all. The Cipher gets recommended a lot and it was published several years later, so I'm guessing Maldonado has improved a lot with more experience under her belt. A bit unfortunate I started with this one, but I'm not sure she'll be an author I give a second chance.
Most of the writing was fine, but there were more than a few instances where it was clear she'd used a thesaurus to find a different word and a few more that just felt awkward and took me out of the story. At one point she was writing a fairly graphic sexual assault and used the phrase "his erection pressed against her bottom."
The villains of the book, basically the entire cartel family, were very cartoonishly written. They are all Evil with a capital E. They're not fleshed out characters with real lives and motivations, they just enjoy raping, murdering, and caressing their guns. It made the book feel almost silly.
This book also did the thing I hate where the author constantly rubs your nose in all the things you don't know. Like yes, it's a thriller. There should be plenty I don't know. But it doesn't need to be brought up every chapter- Veranda would never tell anyone why she was targeting the cartel, Veranda's true reason for her obsession remained a secret, Veranda needed to keep them from finding out the truth. It was annoying. Especially because Maldonado telegraphed every plot twist a mile away so I already knew all the whys.
The romance was really flat, the side characters weren't fully fleshed out, and I didn't realize Maldonado was a cop before starting this story and it is incredibly pro cop. We basically open the book with the main character being annoyed she needs to be interviewed after killing a man, after which she feels no sadness about literally ending a man's life. Right or wrong, if a person doesn't feel even a little conflicted about killing another, it's going to be very hard for me to empathize with a character who has such little regard for life.
This book unfortunately didn't work for me at all. The Cipher gets recommended a lot and it was published several years later, so I'm guessing Maldonado has improved a lot with more experience under her belt. A bit unfortunate I started with this one, but I'm not sure she'll be an author I give a second chance.