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rubyvoxx 's review for:
On Wings of Blood
by Briar Boleyn
**updated review**
i've heard from a few people that this author was unaware of the use of AI in her cover art. The series was pulled because it was picked up by trad publishing and will likely have a cover without ai when it comes out, so i've adjusted my star rating to reflect that. i just want to say thank you to the author for clarifying this and for standing with artists.
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This book had to have been part of a paid influencer marketing program because i saw TONS of tiktok's talking about it and talking it up for being incredible and unique and new, and not a single review or video mentioned the vast number of similarities it has to the Harry Potter series. i understand enjoying a franchise and wanting to write something inspired by it because of that love, but it just felt a little strange that not a single one of the videos i saw even mentioned it, so im mentioning it, that's all.
if you want to read a story where draco malfoy is the MMC, this could be for you.
Despite the initial shock of the HP similarities, i did actually enjoy this book. It was a fun read!
I found the world building entertaining, interesting, and easy to understand. i loved the FMC and honestly wish i saw more of her fun, confident humor throughout the book. In the opening scene she's quite sassy and i wanted more of that really.
the MMC Blake is a little tragic- he's a bad guy i actually felt for because he's unlearning a lot of extremely toxic cultural standards.
I loved her friends and the side characters, however at times it felt like things were squeezed in as a plot device- something happens to one of her friends near the end and i re-read the chapter trying to understand what the hell was going on because i genuinely couldn't believe what was happening all of a sudden. I thought the whole scene was some kind of hallucination of the FMC.
Spoiler for the animal abuse TW:
there is a young vampire child who is basically 'feral' and cruel. off camera she captures a puppy-like creature, drinks its blood and needlessly slashes it, leaving it bleeding out on the beach for the FMC to find. the creature ultimately lives only to be kicked by another vampire later on- which he also recovers from.
this felt like shallow shock value to me. kicking a puppy was so cliche i rolled my eyes and i personally feel that there are better ways to show that someone is cruel than suddenly having a bleeding, mutilated puppy. The scene where this same feral girl kidnaps a child was MUCH more compelling and actually gave me the creepy, messed up, 'she's not right in the head' vibes.
[end spoilers]
overall this book was pretty entertaining. you can't liken it to works of classical literature- it would be doing a disservice to what it is, which is a fun romp in a magical fantasy world filled with tension and yearning.
i've heard from a few people that this author was unaware of the use of AI in her cover art. The series was pulled because it was picked up by trad publishing and will likely have a cover without ai when it comes out, so i've adjusted my star rating to reflect that. i just want to say thank you to the author for clarifying this and for standing with artists.
---
This book had to have been part of a paid influencer marketing program because i saw TONS of tiktok's talking about it and talking it up for being incredible and unique and new, and not a single review or video mentioned the vast number of similarities it has to the Harry Potter series. i understand enjoying a franchise and wanting to write something inspired by it because of that love, but it just felt a little strange that not a single one of the videos i saw even mentioned it, so im mentioning it, that's all.
if you want to read a story where draco malfoy is the MMC, this could be for you.
Despite the initial shock of the HP similarities, i did actually enjoy this book. It was a fun read!
I found the world building entertaining, interesting, and easy to understand. i loved the FMC and honestly wish i saw more of her fun, confident humor throughout the book. In the opening scene she's quite sassy and i wanted more of that really.
the MMC Blake is a little tragic- he's a bad guy i actually felt for because he's unlearning a lot of extremely toxic cultural standards.
I loved her friends and the side characters, however at times it felt like things were squeezed in as a plot device- something happens to one of her friends near the end and i re-read the chapter trying to understand what the hell was going on because i genuinely couldn't believe what was happening all of a sudden. I thought the whole scene was some kind of hallucination of the FMC.
Spoiler for the animal abuse TW:
there is a young vampire child who is basically 'feral' and cruel. off camera she captures a puppy-like creature, drinks its blood and needlessly slashes it, leaving it bleeding out on the beach for the FMC to find. the creature ultimately lives only to be kicked by another vampire later on- which he also recovers from.
this felt like shallow shock value to me. kicking a puppy was so cliche i rolled my eyes and i personally feel that there are better ways to show that someone is cruel than suddenly having a bleeding, mutilated puppy. The scene where this same feral girl kidnaps a child was MUCH more compelling and actually gave me the creepy, messed up, 'she's not right in the head' vibes.
[end spoilers]
overall this book was pretty entertaining. you can't liken it to works of classical literature- it would be doing a disservice to what it is, which is a fun romp in a magical fantasy world filled with tension and yearning.