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A review by foreverbeautifulbooks
Blood Flows Deep in the Empire by N. Isabelle Blanco
4.0
For this review I had to sit back and really think about the book as a whole. I am basing my rating on just the entertainment value I had while reading this book. I didn't ever find myself getting bored or wanting to put it down, if anything I really wanted to keep reading all the time. The characters are very flushed out, and really jump out of the page at you. The action scenes were AWESOME! It felt like I was reading the action scenes in 300. I could see the high jumping and coming down with swords and it was all done in that really cool way of filming.
I could see it all in my head.
The sexy element was very high flying sexy. It wasn't just mmmm sexy. It was BAM sexy! I loved how the characters were very liberal with the "F" word. lol. I'm a huge fan of the "F" word and I related to characters that tried to use it in every context possible.
Now, here is were, if the story as a whole wasn't so animated, the book could have suffered from a rant review from me.
There was ZERO world building.
I literally had no clue what the back history was for this world. A glossary does not world building make.
So, we start out the book 11,000 years in the past. The world is suffering from destruction by the fates. Again I'm not sure if this is right, it wasn't explained. The Hero in question lost the love of his life, but we aren't empathizing with this love because we are never shown this relationship. Just a sort of fist waving in the air and "I will have my revenge!" We are told the twin soul of said soul mate will be reborn again 11,000 years in the future and in order for his love to be reborn, said soul has to be sacrificed.
Ok, I guess.
My issue is, is that I know the author knows this world in her head in vivid detail. What she lacked was the ability to really show it to our readers. I was focused only on the characters and the world around them I felt was blurry because it was never realized for me in the writing. For example, there is this scene where they go to earth to battle these really bad creatures. We are given no info in humans know these gods exist, if they can see said battle, and how the humans that are mixing with these 'gods' why they are so totally accepting of this. Apparently, one of the gods goes to these women in their dreams and just one visit is enough to be like, "Yep, I'm on board." Literally, nothing is explained. It was really frustrating because while the characters are so vivid I felt like they were living in a black and white world that is hazy around the corners because I had no clue HOW they were existing.
We would get random one sentence little info drops for things but it wasn't enough to for me to be like AHHHHH this is where I am.
So, my questions.
1. What 'gods' are these and how do they relate to the Christian god, or are they not related to that verse of religion?
2. What destroyed earth at the beginning? The flood, the meteor, dinosaurs, was it Pompeii?
3. Do humans know of the existence of these gods?
4. Why are Is, Sol, and Eve so accepting so quickly.
My review is kind of a mess, because while I enjoyed the ride, I think the author forgot book one of a paranormal/urban fantasy is all about building the world for the reader. You have words where as a director has the movie screen.
*I received a copy of this book via Lovers of Paranormal on behalf of the author in exchange for an honest review*
I could see it all in my head.
The sexy element was very high flying sexy. It wasn't just mmmm sexy. It was BAM sexy! I loved how the characters were very liberal with the "F" word. lol. I'm a huge fan of the "F" word and I related to characters that tried to use it in every context possible.
Now, here is were, if the story as a whole wasn't so animated, the book could have suffered from a rant review from me.
There was ZERO world building.
I literally had no clue what the back history was for this world. A glossary does not world building make.
So, we start out the book 11,000 years in the past. The world is suffering from destruction by the fates. Again I'm not sure if this is right, it wasn't explained. The Hero in question lost the love of his life, but we aren't empathizing with this love because we are never shown this relationship. Just a sort of fist waving in the air and "I will have my revenge!" We are told the twin soul of said soul mate will be reborn again 11,000 years in the future and in order for his love to be reborn, said soul has to be sacrificed.
Ok, I guess.
My issue is, is that I know the author knows this world in her head in vivid detail. What she lacked was the ability to really show it to our readers. I was focused only on the characters and the world around them I felt was blurry because it was never realized for me in the writing. For example, there is this scene where they go to earth to battle these really bad creatures. We are given no info in humans know these gods exist, if they can see said battle, and how the humans that are mixing with these 'gods' why they are so totally accepting of this. Apparently, one of the gods goes to these women in their dreams and just one visit is enough to be like, "Yep, I'm on board." Literally, nothing is explained. It was really frustrating because while the characters are so vivid I felt like they were living in a black and white world that is hazy around the corners because I had no clue HOW they were existing.
We would get random one sentence little info drops for things but it wasn't enough to for me to be like AHHHHH this is where I am.
So, my questions.
1. What 'gods' are these and how do they relate to the Christian god, or are they not related to that verse of religion?
2. What destroyed earth at the beginning? The flood, the meteor, dinosaurs, was it Pompeii?
3. Do humans know of the existence of these gods?
4. Why are Is, Sol, and Eve so accepting so quickly.
My review is kind of a mess, because while I enjoyed the ride, I think the author forgot book one of a paranormal/urban fantasy is all about building the world for the reader. You have words where as a director has the movie screen.
*I received a copy of this book via Lovers of Paranormal on behalf of the author in exchange for an honest review*