Bloodspell by Amalie Howard
Published by Langdon Street Press
2.5 out of 5 stars
Format: Egalley (available now)
The premise is brilliant, what would you do if your blood turned against you, if a power inside you threatened everything you are, everything you love? Then we meet Christian and it all goes to pot. No. Scrap that, we meet Salem the talking cat (he’s not really called Salem), and note to Howard – pointing out that the talking cat thing makes the reader instantly think of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (and if it doesn’t then it REALLY should – thats classic TV there!) does not make it ok. Talking animals in books are generally a big no-no. Talking dogs make me think Up! and cats Sabrina. End of. Anyways…….The basic premise is that age 17 the women in Victoria’s blood line come into their witch powers (which nobody thought to tell her prior to her 17th birthday!), the catch? ‘the blood must be protected’ and any threat to the blood ends results in some nasty consequences!
Ok, once again I’m in the minority, maybe I read too much (is that even possible?) or maybe I just read too much YA paranormal stuff? I don’t know, but I know that reading the reviews on goodreads I just don’t think I was reading the same books :S I really didn’t like it – again, the premise was original (but then I think back to Blood Magic and think – wasn’t that similar, minus vampires). The comparisons with twilight are a little mean to both books I think, they are different, but I can see why they’ve been drawn. Victoria (Tori) is quite a feisty heroine, but she’s not really that believable, and as for Christian – BLURRRRRRGHHHH. well he’s a watered down Edward, oh…..now I’ve done the comparisons to Twiglet. Sorry! Its hard not to – the romance is just so melodramatic and teenagey (no thats not a word). The magic in the story is good, the diaries and the darkness are really the things that got the book 2.5 stars from me, they are well written, interesting and keep you wondering, if you took the witch-vamp love-fest out then (ok the book would be really short) you’d have a great book.
I really don’t know what else to say, I can’t tell you the books not worth reading, as it appears the general consensus is that the book is great, so yeah, maybe its me – and maybe I just expect so much more from the genre, but it was not one that I enjoyed really. So my recommendation would be to read some other reviews too, and see what they say – then make your mind up.
ARC/EGalley Kindly provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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