A review by wardenred
Bloodline by Jordan L. Hawk

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

One for the land and one for the sea.

Whyborne in the previous book: “If we survive this, I’m going to embrace my sorcery like never before. I won’t let anything stop me.”
Whyborne as this new book begins: “So, I’m still sneaking around working on my spells where Griffin can’t see me because he gets worried and I don’t want to fight…”

Excuse me while I go start this review process by screaming into the pillow.

This is honestly ridiculous how much I love this series for everything *around* the romance. The worldbuilding, the eldritch magic, the city of Widdershins and all other locations, the cast of all these well-rounded, colorful, unique characters, the mysteries, the horrors, the plot twists—I could go on and on. Cracking open another installment is like coming home. I even like Whyborne and Griffin individually! But the romance? Ugh. I’m beginning to wish each of them found someone new and stopped dancing this masochism tango. Because yeah, they proclaim that they love each other a lot, and they have lots of great sex, and they’re amazing at grand gestures and dramatic declarations when everything’s about to go to hell in a handbasket. The actual relationship part? I’m just not buying it. For me, what defines a good, shippable long-term relationship is trust. When they’ve been together for more than a couple of years, and Griffin still doesn’t trust Whyborne to know what he’s doing while Whyborne doesn’t trust Griffin enough to initiate a reasonable conversation instead of sneaking around… Well, excuse me and my screaming pillow.

What’s even worse for me is that their problems aren’t evolving. I expect the leads in a long romance series following the same couple to keep having problems and conflict! It’s the lifeblood of the story! But I want them to deal with new issues that come from the new stages of their relationships. Or with issues newly unearthed because of the increase in trust, something that didn’t seem to be a problem before because neither of them was prepared to talk about it or let it show. Or issues born out of the solutions to the previous book’s conflict, those are stellar, too. And I swear it’s possible to write a series like that! Charlie Adhara managed beautifully with Big Bad Wolf, for one.

Whyborne and Griffin, meanwhile, just keep dancing around the very same issue book after book, and they’re doing it in a way that brings out the worst in each other. Like, should Whyborne have known better in this book? Absolutely! He did some pretty dumb things that made me want to physically shake him. But I kept thinking that maybe if he had, you know, a safe space to talk about his sorcery and his feelings on it at home, then maybe it would be easier for him to avoid the mess. Maybe he wouldn’t even have walked into it in the first place! Instead the state of his relationship with Griffin—for which they’re both equally responsible—kept pushing him to go along with his cousins’ hypocritical antics.

Ugh. I could rant this way for hours, but I guess I’ll stop and focus instead on all the things I enjoyed, of which there are plenty. Whyborne’s family history is a delightfully dark mess on both sides, and I was so invested in having all of those hints from previous books paying off. The whole storyline with the shark people and the prophecy and everything, it just hit me right in all my most vulnerable feels. The mystery wasn’t fully unpredictable, but there were some red herrings thrown in that diverted my attention successfully enough, and then some cool unforeseen nuance to how it all resolved. It was amazing to learn more about the setting, specifically the way the city of Widdershins functions magically. I also absolutely adored the character work here, from getting to see more of all those wonderfully weird and quirky people at the museum to the whole thing with Whyborne’s father. Like… how did the author make me abhor him so thoroughly but also hurt for him at the end? Magic. Plain writing magic.

I only wish there was more Christine here, though I always wish for more Christine. And I’m not a fan of how Guinevere’s all too short involvement was handled (specifically the “all too short” part). I do hope that Persephone at least will become a fixture in future books, because she’s so lovely, and I’m so curious about all the ways her rapport with Whyborne may develop. Also, I hope we’ll get more museum in the future. And that Whyborne’s father won’t fade into the background and the redefined complexities of their relationship will continue adding to the plot and the character development as the series progresses.
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