The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst, Review
| I am always skeptical when a book is heavily hyped by the publisher before release. Too many times I’ve gotten excited because of the pre-release promo and been disappointed. And the high price tag of newly released e-books makes the disappointment worse. Happily, The Queen of Blood lives up to the hype. We enter a completely new and novel world where humans live in an uneasy truce with the spirits around them. The spirits are only kept in check by their pact with the Queen of this land. But the Queen’s grip seems to be slipping. Daleina lives in one of the outer forest villages and when the Queen’s control over the spirit seems to slip the entire village is slaughtered. Only Daleina’s family survives when her talent commanding the spirits manifests long enough for Champion Ven to repel the attacking spirits. Daleina chooses the path of heir training while Champion Ven confronts the queen and is discredited and vanquished by her. The plot moves along briskly and carried me into this rich, multi-layered world. It was a book I didn’t want to put down and it read smoothly. I enjoyed Daleina’s strength and determination and Ven’s vulnerabilities. My only quibble is that the secondary characters, especially Daleina’s friends, are skimmed over and two-dimensional. I understand that with so much plot to fly through, it would have made a very long book to dwell on those characters. But it made the ending a little less impactful for me. The hype on this one was accurate – The Queen of Blood is Unabashedly Fantastic fiction. This is one of those worlds I will reach for to revisit and reread. This book stands alone, though I’ve heard there is at least another book in this series. Looking forward immersing myself in this world again. |  Buy The Queen of Blood: |
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