Book Review- The Secrets of Blood & Bone

I really wanted to like this one but alas I just couldn't.

My Personal Rating is: 2 Stars

Jackdaw Hammond is on the run-from her past, hiding from her future and trying to hide the fact she craves blood. After her showdown with Elizabeth Bathory, she is desperate for peace which seems to elude her. Buying a home in the middle of nowhere suits her needs at the moment but when she finds herself in the sights of a family with murderous secrets and an affinity for dark magic. With her old ally, Felix Guichard in New Orleans following up on the nature of blood magic, he finds himself lost in the intrigues of the city’s occult underworld. But Jack’s journey is only beginning as secrets from the past collide with the future as the battle for her soul begins.

I seriously wanted to like this book. It had a historical character that fascinated me (Elizabeth Bathory), a good premise and intriguing sounding characters. What I got was a thin story line with one dimensional character’s that fell flat and made me put the book down more times I could count. I have to stress you better have read book one, Secrets of Life and Death, first or you will be as confused as I was while reading book two, THE SECRETS OF BLOOD AND BONE. Characters pop up that went nowhere and really contributed to nothing of the story. The story line itself felt quite weak and thin. It was like the author had this premise of an idea and just didn’t flesh it out into a full blown book. The author could have done better by just making this into a shorter story or totally rewriting the whole thing from scratch. I had a hard time following the storyline at times and felt the characters themselves were quite boring, at times annoying and overall, ones I could care less about.

When I read a paranormal story I don’t want to feel like the author has a checklist of paranormal attributes that should be in a book while I am reading it. As much as I liked the idea surrounding this book, the author just did not connect with me with this story or give me believable characters to fall in love with. The characters themselves were not fully formed in the story, in my opinion. They are one dimensional, boring and the relationship between Jack and Felix felt stilted and not realistic. It made reading this book tougher to enjoy and I kept putting it down to read something else.

Overall, I feel the author could have done a better job in this sequel to the Secrets of Life and Death with a total rewrite or even a more fleshed out story for readers to fall into. I don’t think I will pick up the next book in this series though I may pick up book one, The Secrets of Life and Death, as others have recommended that book over this one to me to read. If you enjoy a jumble of paranormal ideas in a story then you might enjoy this one.


This was an objective review and not an endorsement

This book was received by Blogging for Books for review