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A review by dc_guevara13
Blood on Her Name by B. Nacole
5.0
BLOOD ON HER NAME is an exhilarating and thrilling debut!
The novel trajects the story of Anya Baskova, a 17-year-old mafia heiress whose life gets yanked away from her when she wakes up in a nightclub she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know, and her one link to any sort of help is a boy with a feather tattoo on his arm.
I am not a YA reader-- I've considered myself as having outgrown the genre and simply moving on to more adult-centric things, but B. Nacole proved to me that YA can be just as complex and intricate as any adult novel and if I must be proven wrong, I'm glad it's like this!
Nacole's writing style is crisp and to the point, much more interested in keeping itself action and detail-oriented. It's the best sort of writing style to help guide readers through the entangled web of families and mobsters that this seedy underworld entails. Nacole has managed to create a world fully lived in and immersive, making it feel not only as real as it can be but also something that could actually be happening right under our noses.
The cast of characters is fantastic! They all have electrifying and, oftentimes, complicated relationships with one another but there is no doubt that this book manages to get its point across splendidly: family is family-- whether blood-related or not.
But honestly, my breakout star has to be Anya Baskova herself. She's feisty, she's brave, she's reckless and an all-around bad bitch-- but she's also sad, angry, and swallowed by grief. I love the dichotomy of these aspects and how they can all co-exist in one person. It makes Anya feel whole and complete, a real person made of ink and paper. If this book had existed during my YA phase when I was younger, Anya would have been (and is now), among my favorite YA heroines alongside Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy) and Isabelle Lightwood (The Mortal Instruments).
My only advice for the future would be to include some sort of family tree at the beginning of the book because there are a lot of characters and a lot of crime families, and while they are all fun and exciting, a barrage of names can be a tad bit overwhelming. But honestly, this is just me nitpicking, and thankfully it's something that can be easily corrected in Nacole's future works, which I am definitely looking forward to.
Filled with action, a budding romance, excitement, and crime, BLOOD ON HER NAME will prove to be a novel with staying power and will cement Nacole as an author to be on the lookout for. Check it out, you don't wanna miss it!
5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The novel trajects the story of Anya Baskova, a 17-year-old mafia heiress whose life gets yanked away from her when she wakes up in a nightclub she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know, and her one link to any sort of help is a boy with a feather tattoo on his arm.
I am not a YA reader-- I've considered myself as having outgrown the genre and simply moving on to more adult-centric things, but B. Nacole proved to me that YA can be just as complex and intricate as any adult novel and if I must be proven wrong, I'm glad it's like this!
Nacole's writing style is crisp and to the point, much more interested in keeping itself action and detail-oriented. It's the best sort of writing style to help guide readers through the entangled web of families and mobsters that this seedy underworld entails. Nacole has managed to create a world fully lived in and immersive, making it feel not only as real as it can be but also something that could actually be happening right under our noses.
The cast of characters is fantastic! They all have electrifying and, oftentimes, complicated relationships with one another but there is no doubt that this book manages to get its point across splendidly: family is family-- whether blood-related or not.
But honestly, my breakout star has to be Anya Baskova herself. She's feisty, she's brave, she's reckless and an all-around bad bitch-- but she's also sad, angry, and swallowed by grief. I love the dichotomy of these aspects and how they can all co-exist in one person. It makes Anya feel whole and complete, a real person made of ink and paper. If this book had existed during my YA phase when I was younger, Anya would have been (and is now), among my favorite YA heroines alongside Rose Hathaway (Vampire Academy) and Isabelle Lightwood (The Mortal Instruments).
My only advice for the future would be to include some sort of family tree at the beginning of the book because there are a lot of characters and a lot of crime families, and while they are all fun and exciting, a barrage of names can be a tad bit overwhelming. But honestly, this is just me nitpicking, and thankfully it's something that can be easily corrected in Nacole's future works, which I am definitely looking forward to.
Filled with action, a budding romance, excitement, and crime, BLOOD ON HER NAME will prove to be a novel with staying power and will cement Nacole as an author to be on the lookout for. Check it out, you don't wanna miss it!
5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐