e-Audio, 14:30:31
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Torian Brackett, Zeno Robinson
Release Date: April 4, 2023
Published by: Tor Teen
Read from: March 29- April 3, 2023
Blood Debts, #1
Source: Netgalley (I received an audio copy of this book from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: racism, murder, lynching, gore, anxiety, depression, grief, homophobia, mentions of bullying, mentions of drug overdose, car accidents, death of parents, brief mention of sex trafficking, sexual assault (including the magical equivalent of drugging), mention of underage drug use, underage alcohol use, mention of cheating, brief child abuse scene (father hitting son), brief domestic violence scene (wife slapping husband)
For Readers Interested In: Fantasy, Family Diversity (Twins), Romance, LGBTQ+ (Gay), Multiple POV, Magic, YAThirty years ago, a young woman was murdered, a family was lynched, and New Orleans saw the greatest magical massacre in its history. In the days that followed, a throne was stolen from a queen.
On the anniversary of these brutal events, Clement and Cristina Trudeau—the sixteen-year-old twin heirs to the powerful, magical, dethroned family—are mourning their father and caring for their sick mother. Until, by chance, they discover their mother isn’t sick—she’s cursed. Cursed by someone on the very magic council their family used to rule. Someone who will come for them next.
Cristina, once a talented and dedicated practitioner of Generational magic, has given up magic for good. An ancient spell is what killed their father and she was the one who cast it. For Clement, magic is his lifeline. A distraction from his anger and pain. Even better than the random guys he hooks up with.
Cristina and Clement used to be each other’s most trusted confidant and friend, now they barely speak. But if they have any hope of discovering who is coming after their family, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other and their family’s magic, all while solving the decades-old murder that sparked the still-rising tensions between the city’s magical and non-magical communities. And if they don’t succeed, New Orleans may see another massacre. Or worse.
Terry J. Benton-Walker’s contemporary fantasy debut, Blood Debts, with powerful magical families, intergenerational curses, and deadly drama in New Orleans.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I really didn’t know how I was going to review this book. I liked it a lot, but it also wasn’t without it’s flaws. It’s not that it was bad, more so it had too much happening? Idk how to explain it.
Ok so first of all the characters in this made me want to shake them. They kept getting themselves into different situations that they didn’t have to do. Like the end with Cristina and the book? And Clement and the love interest? Idk it seemed like they were just getting themselves into trouble for no reason. And I get it, a love interest hardly seems like “no reason”, but it was more like the things they did. It was just weird. I didn’t actually care for the multiple POVs tho. Normally that didn’t bother me, but it was accompanied by all those different plot lines, and it was just confusing at some points. i had to keep looking at the beginning of the chapters to make sure it was done.
The plot was what made me take some of my rating away. It just had too much going on. It was a mystery, but it was also fantasy. And while that’s fine, it’s just that there were so many OTHER plot lines also included, like there was one about racism, then all the family drama, all the while still trying to explain the magic and the magic system. It just seemed like everything was being piled things on top of me over and over. And normally I like that, but this just didn’t explain everything? I don’t know how to explain it.
The magic system was cool. There’s spells and spell books. And a good and bad side of magic and the reasoning behind both of those sides. It was definitely cool. I really wanted a little more indepth of an explanation on how it came to be etc., but it was ok without it. I think it would have made another plot line, but it would have been cool to know. Like it gave us what happened, but I wanted more. And then there’s the gods that were in there. I would have liked to have seen more than just the one.
I’m super glad this is a series! The ending (and many of the pages before that) had me going like WTF. But what I really wanted to know wasn’t actually addressed in the end, so I was happy to see this was going to be a series. It made me think tho, what would I do in this situation. I don’t know if I can definitively say I couldn’t do it.
Overall, this book was such a surprise. And it was full of surprises. I can’t wait to get to the next one and make sure all these things get wrapped up. Also, I really need to see how ol girl is going to be once she finds out what happened to dear old granny………
Overall, I give this
