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A review by brokenrecord
Blood and Betrayal by Lindsay Buroker
4.0
This was basically as good as all the other books in the series. My biggest problem was the lack of Sicarius for over half the book. The first half was much more focused on Maldynado instead of Amaranthe, which also didn't help. I mean, it's not like I hated the first half — I liked getting more depth to Maldynado, and seeing more of Yara, and the team dynamics are always a lot of fun. But it was hard to care as much about what they were doing when Amaranthe was being tortured and Sicarius was literally running to rescue her.
Luckily the second half more than made up for the slow-ish first half. We get much more time with Amaranthe's POV in the second half, for one thing, and we get less Maldynado and crew. While I like Yara and Maldynado as characters separately a lot, I just can't get into their romance. It's just not my favorite trope, where you have a guy constantly flirting and annoying with a girl, and the girl pretends like he's a nuisance but secretly she's into him. So I found myself a bit indifferent to them bonding. I did like seeing that Books had figured out what was going on between Amaranthe and Sicarius and telling Maldynado. The amount that none of the rest of the crew understand what Amaranthe and Sicarius are to one another will always be hilarious to me. I also liked the bit about Maldynado's sister and how Amaranthe reminds him of her, and that's why he's always treated her like a sister. Also, everyone teasing Maldynado at all times was a lot of fun, especially about the spelunking comment.
And then there was all the Sicarius/Amaranthe stuff in the second half of the book, which destroyed me.
I also loved him explaining that he had never experienced or understood love before, but that he appreciated that she loved him, and that he would be there for her when she was ready. And that they embraced when he first found her. And the cheek kiss!!! Also in the beginning when he's clearly warring with himself after she's missing about whether to stay with Sespian or go find her, and he ultimately decides to go for her, and then that moment when Amaranthe makes that connection herself, and is like, "Sorry, I know Sespian's your priority," and he's like, "You're both my priorities." I also love how she keeps offering to let him go off and do things because he'll be faster without her, and he's just like, "Nope," every time because there's no way he's letting her out of his sight if he can help it. EVERYTHING in the immediate aftermath of him finding her is so perfect, really — how mad he is about her injuries (and how Amaranthe thinks most of his anger towards Pike is because of his past, but it's so clearly because of what Pike did to her) and that they hug again after Pike's dealt with, and Amaranthe's pride not letting herself agree to be carried but then she passes out and he ends up carrying her anyways DESPITE HAVING JUST RUN THE ENTIRE WAY THERE OVER THE COURSE OF MULTIPLE DAYS WITH ALMOST NO FOOD/WATER. And that he admitted he had considered leaving the team because he felt like him being there made things harder for her but he couldn't walk away from her. IT WAS ALL REALLY GREAT.
And thank god for Sespian FINALLY finding out about Sicarius. My heart broke for Sicarius, and I loved that Amaranthe was there to defend him and try to get through to Sespian. I love that she tells Sicarius she won't give up on trying to redeem him in Sespian's eyes.
Basically this was just another super enjoyable installment of this series!
Luckily the second half more than made up for the slow-ish first half. We get much more time with Amaranthe's POV in the second half, for one thing, and we get less Maldynado and crew. While I like Yara and Maldynado as characters separately a lot, I just can't get into their romance. It's just not my favorite trope, where you have a guy constantly flirting and annoying with a girl, and the girl pretends like he's a nuisance but secretly she's into him. So I found myself a bit indifferent to them bonding. I did like seeing that Books had figured out what was going on between Amaranthe and Sicarius and telling Maldynado. The amount that none of the rest of the crew understand what Amaranthe and Sicarius are to one another will always be hilarious to me. I also liked the bit about Maldynado's sister and how Amaranthe reminds him of her, and that's why he's always treated her like a sister. Also, everyone teasing Maldynado at all times was a lot of fun, especially about the spelunking comment.
And then there was all the Sicarius/Amaranthe stuff in the second half of the book, which destroyed me.
Spoiler
I love how she's so guilty for giving up his secret (even though it wasn't her fault! It's not like she had control over Retta going through her thoughts!) and she's so worried Sicarius will hate her for it, but he just feels guilty in turn that she got captured and that the only reason she's in danger is because of his secrets. And the scenes when they've reunited and are traveling together were everything to me. I loved that when he brought up her and Sespian, she was like stumbling over herself to explain it was nothing, and then he revealed that it just made him realize he wasn't going to let anyone else have her, even his son. The Sespian stuff had not been my favorite up to this point, but I was thrilled that his reaction wasn't "I have to keep my distance from Amaranthe so I don't hurt Sespian," but was instead, "Okay actually I want her, no one else can have her."I also loved him explaining that he had never experienced or understood love before, but that he appreciated that she loved him, and that he would be there for her when she was ready. And that they embraced when he first found her. And the cheek kiss!!! Also in the beginning when he's clearly warring with himself after she's missing about whether to stay with Sespian or go find her, and he ultimately decides to go for her, and then that moment when Amaranthe makes that connection herself, and is like, "Sorry, I know Sespian's your priority," and he's like, "You're both my priorities." I also love how she keeps offering to let him go off and do things because he'll be faster without her, and he's just like, "Nope," every time because there's no way he's letting her out of his sight if he can help it. EVERYTHING in the immediate aftermath of him finding her is so perfect, really — how mad he is about her injuries (and how Amaranthe thinks most of his anger towards Pike is because of his past, but it's so clearly because of what Pike did to her) and that they hug again after Pike's dealt with, and Amaranthe's pride not letting herself agree to be carried but then she passes out and he ends up carrying her anyways DESPITE HAVING JUST RUN THE ENTIRE WAY THERE OVER THE COURSE OF MULTIPLE DAYS WITH ALMOST NO FOOD/WATER. And that he admitted he had considered leaving the team because he felt like him being there made things harder for her but he couldn't walk away from her. IT WAS ALL REALLY GREAT.
And thank god for Sespian FINALLY finding out about Sicarius. My heart broke for Sicarius, and I loved that Amaranthe was there to defend him and try to get through to Sespian. I love that she tells Sicarius she won't give up on trying to redeem him in Sespian's eyes.
Basically this was just another super enjoyable installment of this series!