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A review by samanthampg
Half-Blood by G.K. DeRosa
3.0
Light spoilers ahead
TW: Transphobic comment - noted
There were some lines that made me very upset at the author. Specifically one line that read as transphobic. This is unacceptable writing. Period.
I am and always have been a sucker for anything that takes place in an Academy. So I picked this book up on a whim. Initially I thought the description was similar to Crave by Tracey Wolff, and in theory there are some similarities. Magical creature school that has a snowy setting, but as I read I thought that the story had enough of its own distinguishable traits to stand on it's own legs.
The storytelling was not the most poetic and well rounded that I've ever read, but it was compelling enough without being too cringe. The main character is named Luna so obviously she's going to have some manic pixie dream girl energy to her, but I've read way worse characters than her. She wasn't very talented magically and she did have to work on it in order to get better, which I liked. She obviously didn't find herself unattractive, she had a bit of self doubt when comparing herself to her reality TV star half sister, but that's fair.
I did find that relationships progressed really quickly in this story, there isn't a lot of scenes of them bonding but there is a couple time skips which is where I assume the author would believe Luna formed these strong connections. It didn't completely ruin the romance for me, because lets face it, I am obsessed with Ryder for absolutely no reason, but I hope that there is more expansion on all of her growing relationships going forward in this series.
Because YES, despite the fact that I am not giving this book a 5 star review I liked it. I enjoyed the story and the romance and I want to continue on. I assume a love triangle will emerge eventually and at that point it might be hard for me to continue, but for now I will be picking up book two.
TW: Transphobic comment - noted
There were some lines that made me very upset at the author. Specifically one line that read as transphobic. This is unacceptable writing. Period.
I am and always have been a sucker for anything that takes place in an Academy. So I picked this book up on a whim. Initially I thought the description was similar to Crave by Tracey Wolff, and in theory there are some similarities. Magical creature school that has a snowy setting, but as I read I thought that the story had enough of its own distinguishable traits to stand on it's own legs.
The storytelling was not the most poetic and well rounded that I've ever read, but it was compelling enough without being too cringe. The main character is named Luna so obviously she's going to have some manic pixie dream girl energy to her, but I've read way worse characters than her. She wasn't very talented magically and she did have to work on it in order to get better, which I liked. She obviously didn't find herself unattractive, she had a bit of self doubt when comparing herself to her reality TV star half sister, but that's fair.
I did find that relationships progressed really quickly in this story, there isn't a lot of scenes of them bonding but there is a couple time skips which is where I assume the author would believe Luna formed these strong connections. It didn't completely ruin the romance for me, because lets face it, I am obsessed with Ryder for absolutely no reason, but I hope that there is more expansion on all of her growing relationships going forward in this series.
Because YES, despite the fact that I am not giving this book a 5 star review I liked it. I enjoyed the story and the romance and I want to continue on. I assume a love triangle will emerge eventually and at that point it might be hard for me to continue, but for now I will be picking up book two.