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Reviews

Blood Over Bright Haven Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Blood Over Bright Haven Review

*SEMI SPOILERY*

I went into this book with pretty high hopes, but I came away feeling a bit mixed. There were things I really enjoyed, but also a lot that didn’t quite land for me.

The strongest part of the book for me was the magic system. It felt brutal, clever and really original, probably the freshest take on magic I’ve read in a long time. The prologue set such a dark, sharp tone and the middle of the book, when the characters were uncovering what was really going on, was gripping. Those were the moments that had me hooked.

But the story as a whole was uneven. The pacing dragged in parts, especially towards the end and I didn’t find the climax as satisfying as I’d hoped. The conclusion felt a bit too open-ended given how much the book built up to that point.

The themes of sexism, misogyny and discrimination are right at the centre of this story. While I appreciated what it was trying to say, I found the delivery heavy-handed at times, like it was ticking boxes rather than letting the message come through naturally. Some characters felt more like caricatures than people, which pulled me out of the story. Sciona could also be a bit frustrating, though I really liked Thomil and wished we’d had more of his perspective or even Carra’s.

Overall, I think this book will hit harder for readers who haven’t come across these ideas in fantasy before, but for me it lacked the subtlety and originality I was hoping for. It’s not a bad book by any means, the magic alone is worth checking out, but it wasn’t the standout I expected.

⭐️3/5 stars Didn’t quite live up to the hype for me!

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First Line Fridays

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on First Line Fridays

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

“The star was particularly bright when the nightmare painter started his rounds.

The star. Singular. No, not a sun. Just one star. A bullet hole in the midnight sky, bleeding pale light.”