Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels) by Anne Bishop Review

Series: The Black Jewels #1
Publish: March 1st 1998 by Roc
Format: ebook, 416 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: The Dark Kingdom is preparing itself for the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy the arrival of a new Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But this new ruler is young, and very susceptible to influence and corruption; whoever controls her controls the Darkness. And now, three sworn enemies begin a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal...and the destiny of an entire world is at stake....

Review:
  I usually read books that are recently released, but some of the times I find little jewels from the past like this one, most of the time they are high fantasy and quite edgy. I found this book after finishing Murderer of crows, one of the authors other books. I really liked her style so I searched for her other works and I got The Black Jewels series.

  Anne Bishop has a unique talent to create interesting and original worlds for her stories and she did it with this book to. Although in this case we get an extremely complicated and dark world and it takes quite a while to really get an understanding about how the society works. So you don’t get a clear picture about the structure of it until almost the end of the book and even then you only see the life of the higher ups in the hierarchy. It’s an amazing world but incredibly deprived and most of the time disgusting. During reading it I often thought that there isn’t as many pervert, ugly and abusive people in the whole world as in this book. Even so I just couldn’t stop reading it. The story simply sucked me in and it was impossible to stop reading it. I can’t call the story beautiful because there is too much graphic negativity in it but it’s certainly fascinating and well developed. There is so much sexuality in it, savagely and vividly described but in case of the more crude words Bishop uses symbolism.
  The whole story is built around a really twisted, pleasure based politics but not the good kind of pleasure. They use it as a punishment, and all of the leaders have a sadistic, pervert and arrogant personality, so in my opinion their world is doomed.
  One of the strangest thing about it, that despite the fact that the story’s told from a couple point of view, maybe even from too many, but neither of them is Jaenelle side, yet we get a full picture. We don’t get into her head so it’s harder to connect with her but with a bit of persistence you got there. It’s a new solution at least for me, and I think it’s harder this way to give a balanced and complete story. Well the author executed it perfectly. So yeah, maybe there is a couple of unnecessary point of view in there which makes it feel like that the story has too much different angle, but as I mentioned previously in the end the writer balanced it out perfectly. But it’s true in the beginning this kind of multi- leveled plot makes hard to follow the storyline.

  Daughter of blood is a quite long book and covers a relatively long period of time, namely years if I remember correctly. Overall I would say that the whole first book of the series is about character introduction and world building, but there is a little bit action too.
  However I had a serious problem with it. There is a list of jewels and a short description about some of the titles in story, but honestly a world map or even just a detailed characterization about the people from different realms would have helped more in regard of following and understanding the story. It’s a minor oversight on the writer part.
  Thanks to the multiple POV there is a lot of important character. Almost all of them is dark, intense, and original and has a strong presence. Sure some of them are terribly arrogant and power hungry but the main characters still loveable despite their shortcomings. My favorite was Daemon with even with his cruel and mean moments. I think he has perfectly justifiable reasons for his actions. I think I would have loved Lucivar too, but unfortunately he has a really short appearance and in the end his accusations pissed me of.
  I surprisingly liked the book. It’s very well done even more so since this was the author debut novel. But I have to mention that you need a really strong and resilient mind if you want to read it since there are a lot of taboo and cringe worthy elements in it. The story is very dark, savage and harsh. The writer is extremely talented and has a twisted imagination, but I like her style. I’m certainly going to read the next book.

By Viki

The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles) by Mary E. Pearson Review

Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1
Publish: July 8th 2014 by Henry Holt
Format: ebook, 492 pages
Rating: 5 / 3.5

Synopsis: In this timeless new trilogy about love and sacrifice, a princess must find her place in a reborn world.
In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.
On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

Review:
  I would start with that there are a couple of spoiler in the review. Not major ones but those who don't like any kind of reveal, do not read it.It's really rare that I would write a spoiler infested review, but in this case I felt it vital to write down exactly what's my problem with the book.

  I usually love these kind of stories, that's why this book is a huge dissapointment for me. It has everything that it needs, but there are a lot of little detail I didn't like. It spoiled the experience for me.

  I can separate the story in two part alonga really distinct line.The first two-third of the book is simply horrible (sorry but that's my opinion). Ther was quite a few time when I considered to stop reading it, especially when I realized how long it is.Why I didn't kile it?
  My biggest problem is Lia personality and actionsIn my opinion, she's a really selfish and spoiled character at least in the first part of the book. She rans away, because she don't want to live in an arranged marriage. However she doesn't even considers the impact of her actions on her kingdom and other people lifes. Especially on her subjects since her marriage would stop a war. Despite her irresponsibility, as soon as she sees the soliders behavior outside of the city walls, she starts to blame and criticize her father, and his way of ruling. Typical the pot calls the kettle black. I don't like how she acts and says that she can work like anybody else, but then whe she really has to do some hard work she complains about it through pages. Maybe a little bit too much!? In addition to this she treats people like she's still in the castle an they can't do anything she doesn't like. Her 'I ran away from my wedding and with that, my responsibilities' stunt is really chilidsh and selfish step from Lia part, mainly because of her reasons. She wants to get everything without responsibilities. And there is only two character who tells her, what she did was wrong. This sums up my problems with the book, Lia's whining without an end.

  Fortunately, there is a huge twist in the story, where Lia miraculously grows up and the plot thickens. From this point I love it and this twist saves the whole storyline. After the turning point it's exciting and adventurous and even Lia power starts to reveal itself. But honestly this part is still unclear for me.
  The story is narrated by three different people Lia, the prince and the assassin. In the beginning of every chapter the reader can see whom point of view you're reading, but in the two boys case sometimes they mentioned by name sometimes by their profession. It can be confusing. This aspect of the book's simply ingeniously written, until this part I couldn't decide which name belonged to wich boy. It's a really good surpries and I like the outcome. Oh, and I'm really relieved that there isn't a love triangle, despite what the synopsis suggested. I hate those.

  I have a little problem with the descriptions, some of them is to detailed, mostly in case of the sceneries but a couple of object, too. It wouldn't be too much of a problem if a few page later there wouldn't be a repetition of it with different words. I think it's unnecessary.
  In my opinion, the world is a little superficial, half-baked. I want to know more about it. There're a lot of thing the writer mentiond in the story but didn't exploited it. For example the little nursery rhymes, which is a constant element ofthe storyline. There is still a lot of possibility in the plot and I hope in the next book they will be used more effectively.

  All in all, if you can get through the first two-third of the book, you get an interesting and phenomenal fantasy. I don't a bit that I read it. And it ends with a cliffhanger, seriously when is the next book. Pleaseee! I really looking forward to it.