A review by smuttea_matcha
Bloodmagic by Helen Harper

3.0

I was expecting something more mature out of Bloodmagic, it came off as really YA even though I checked the shelves and it was listed anywhere but. Mack is incredibly short-tempered and gets worked up easily over nothing. She's an interesting and naive character. For example, believing she was human even though she could hear The Voice [the voice of the alpha in her head] and she is able to keep up with the best of the shapeshifters. I'm a little disappointed with the portrayal of the shapeshifters in this series. We just get the basics, there's an alpha and then a super alpha that rules over all packs. I wish it got into more detail on life with the shapeshifters like in the Mercy Thompson or Kate Daniels series. In this series, it feels like they're all playing dress up. They're just shapeshifters. That's it. No real system of hierarchy that we're given or how important body language and eye contact are in packs. It felt like Harper just used the term shapeshifter to get our attention and make her characters seem a bit more interesting, but that's it. She doesn't even scratch the surface or what her take is on how it works in the supernatural world. In Mercy Thompson's universe the Marrok is the ruler of all alphas of every pack, but each pack is allowed to work independently. In Kate Daniel's universe the different packs are segregated by region ruled by an alpha who basically conquers the lands he wants and rules over a variety of different weres that separate into their own packs based off type. So, it all gets pretty complicated and "political". In Mack's world, they're just weres. Blah. It sort of makes PNR very boring... Despite that, I was interested in where her life would go. I don't know how long the interest will last.