Book: Blood and Promise by Miranda Lyn
Reviewed by Your_bookish_fantasy
Rating: 3/5
This started a little slow, and I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this. As i started the book, I thought it may be a bit underdeveloped for my taste or perhaps a bit simple - but boy, was I WRONG! I just judged it waaaay too quickly because as the storyline progressed, I was pulled into a very detailed and complex world of high & lower fae. I particularly like when books add descriptions of the lore and magic history to help the reader get a better sense of things and a deeper understanding into the plot and why the characters are doing whatever they're doing. The character development continued on as i read each chapter, and I found myself not only interested in the main characters but truly intrigued in the wide cast of side characters too! I wanted to find out how all of their stories would develop and how they connected with each other.
The two main characters had such contrasting personalities, the MMC has had a very tough start to his life and the FMC has pretty much been in danger her whole life and I really felt the emotion, trauma and connections coming through these characters as well as side characters.
I enjoyed the author's writing style so much, and the character development for even the side characters introduced in this book was done really well. Each person was introduced steadily, and we were given enough info to help us connect with them instantly and be able to form bonds with them - whether it be love or hate!
The alternating pov gave the story more intrigue, deeper levels of world building, and just so much more depth to the plot itself.
I 'read' the audiobook and the change in the narrator was good for keeping you alert in interested and gave the story more perspective and a strong feeling of moving forward laced with higher levels of drama and risk. I thought the narators did a good job, particularly the female narrator. Her change in voices, tone, emotion, and pitch really came through with each character! The male narrator was a little flatter. It sounded as if he was bored reading this, even the fight scenes were just lacking any real umph or emotion... but he did manage to create separate voices for the characters that were easily recognisable and separate from each other- I'm not particularly a fan of his feminine voices though.
It does end on a cliff hanger but it's nothing major, when it ended I was just surprised as it felt like the narator stopped part way through a page. There was no round up or ending or even conclusion or predictions made so the end just came out of nowhere for me. I look forward to reading the next books now!
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the ARC, I leave this review of my own choice and it is entirely my honest and full opinion.