A review by bookishbyrenee
House of Bane and Blood by Alexis L. Menard

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense

4.5

House of Bane and Blood by Alexis Menard

-Order and Chaos Book 1-

4.5/5⭐️

1/3🌶️*

2/3🦋

•My Thoughts•

What a RIDE! This world was absolutely fascinating with its 1920s mafia vibes meets magic. The characters and enemies to lovers storyline hooked me from the beginning - add in a marriage of convenience and a dash of mystery and I ate👏🏻it👏🏻up👏🏻. Milla’s growth was so good and I was cheering for her as she became more confident! I also loved Niko and his back story and resilience. These are imperfect characters you find easy to love, root for and I became enamored with their slow but steadfast (if reluctant) support of each other. I did find the government structure a little confusing but didn’t want to slow down enough stop and figure it out (if anyone reads it an wants to  make a chart, please share it with me 🤣). This book was violent but also mesmerizing and full of hope for a better future. I loved the big family dynamics and the never ending plot twists that kept me guessing. This is a completed duology and with that ending, you BET I’m immediately reading book 2. 

*I rated this a 1/3🌶️ because there were only a few scenes with on page intimacy. However, I would like to note that the spice involves kink: breath play.