After reading Blood Magic last year I was super excited about reading The Blood Keeper. This is a companion novel, not a sequel. I was hoping to love this as much as I loved The Blood Keeper, but unfortunately I didn't. I did still like this, but I didn't really feel the characters and it took a long time to get into. I liked the creepiness and the magical aspect of it, but I felt really distracted by a lot of the other things going on in the book. This book goes from present day in Mab and Will to a letter that Evelyn had written to Arthur. It was pretty disorienting at first. I did eventually get used to it, and the story picked up, but honestly it was about 200 pages into the book before I really started to get into the story. We get to know Mab a little bit first. The book starts with her bringing a doll made out of the earth in the rose garden to life with her blood and a crows sacrifice. Awesome way to start out the book. She is the Deacon since Arthur is gone. She is very talented with her blood magic, but still young. As the story progresses we learn a bit more about her and her background. I did like Mab, but I never connected with her. She is smart, brave, and wise beyond her years, but she still does have some typical teenager traits. I liked her interactions with Will, but they weren't convincing to me. Will was interesting, but kind of boring. His family is a military family. His father, and both of his brothers. That is not the path he wants to choose though. Losing his brother Adam really made him realize that he wants to make his own choices and do what he wants. He doesn't want to join the Marines or the Navy or whatever just because he's expected to. He ends up getting linked to Mab in a crazy sort of way and they actually help each other besides the whole magic thing. I never felt like we got to know Will though. He was there, and we knew what he was going through, but I never felt like we got to know the real him. So don't get me wrong, the writing is good and there is all sorts of stuff going on in this book, but I felt like so much of it was dragged out and the important things weren't really pushed enough. I felt bored reading a lot of this book and though I was interested to see where everything was going, it wasn't a page turner for me. I wanted to love this, I really did. It just didn't grab me the way that Blood Magic did. There is still some really cool and dark magic that I really enjoyed reading, but the characters were bland and the story was slow. Perhaps at a different time I might like it more
Book Loving Mom
I love to read and interact with other people who love books as much as I do. I drink way too much coffee and eat too many snacks. I also love doing yoga and try to eat healthy despite my love for junk food.
After reading Blood Magic last year I was super excited about reading The Blood Keeper. This is a companion novel, not a sequel. I was hoping to love this as much as I loved The Blood Keeper, but unfortunately I didn't. I did still like this, but I didn't really feel the characters and it took a long time to get into. I liked the creepiness and the magical aspect of it, but I felt really distracted by a lot of the other things going on in the book. This book goes from present day in Mab and Will to a letter that Evelyn had written to Arthur. It was pretty disorienting at first. I did eventually get used to it, and the story picked up, but honestly it was about 200 pages into the book before I really started to get into the story. We get to know Mab a little bit first. The book starts with her bringing a doll made out of the earth in the rose garden to life with her blood and a crows sacrifice. Awesome way to start out the book. She is the Deacon since Arthur is gone. She is very talented with her blood magic, but still young. As the story progresses we learn a bit more about her and her background. I did like Mab, but I never connected with her. She is smart, brave, and wise beyond her years, but she still does have some typical teenager traits. I liked her interactions with Will, but they weren't convincing to me. Will was interesting, but kind of boring. His family is a military family. His father, and both of his brothers. That is not the path he wants to choose though. Losing his brother Adam really made him realize that he wants to make his own choices and do what he wants. He doesn't want to join the Marines or the Navy or whatever just because he's expected to. He ends up getting linked to Mab in a crazy sort of way and they actually help each other besides the whole magic thing. I never felt like we got to know Will though. He was there, and we knew what he was going through, but I never felt like we got to know the real him. So don't get me wrong, the writing is good and there is all sorts of stuff going on in this book, but I felt like so much of it was dragged out and the important things weren't really pushed enough. I felt bored reading a lot of this book and though I was interested to see where everything was going, it wasn't a page turner for me. I wanted to love this, I really did. It just didn't grab me the way that Blood Magic did. There is still some really cool and dark magic that I really enjoyed reading, but the characters were bland and the story was slow. Perhaps at a different time I might like it more
