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DNF 54%
I hoped it would pick up. But for me it did not. it felt like it was drawning on and on and nothing interesting was really happening. Coral was okay, but not memorable to me.

A book filled with mythology and a great heroine. The plot was promising but something was missing for me. Still, I recommend it if you love fantasy.

i really liked Coral as a character and really felt bad for her and her hemomancer. It was really enjoyable and had a great plot.

*I received a free digital ARC via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Incredible world building

I can completely understand why people have a “Marmite” reaction to this (i.e. they either love it or hate it): if I hadn’t read the prequel to this, All Bleeds Through (ABT), then I believe that I would have been somewhat confused, too.

ABT lays out the basics of the universe, with tales set inside it that eventually all link together. This brings nearly all of those loose threads together, and shows how much each individual and story really connected. When I realised this, I had to go back and check, and I was wowed.

Not only that, the mythology is set up brilliantly. We not only have the Hemomancers and Humans, and how they are affected by events and each other, we also have a whole background of religious mythology with such amazing depth to it, that it’s completely believable that it could be our world and not just an alternate universe.

As for the story itself, here we have Coral, and Gavin, alongside other characters who were introduced to us in ABT. It is primarily Coral and Gavin’s histories which are revealed here as being important to the story as a whole, neither of whom actually truly knew about their background and the true meaning of it.

Coral goes from being a scared, ambivalent teenager, to a strong wildcard contender. She’s supposed to be a “nought”, one with the blood type O Negative, who has no control over the blood of others. Yet there is a huge fight over her blood; in the hunt to kill noughts over the years, Coral is now perhaps the only one left, the only one who can save an evil lord whose blood was poisoned years ago in order to end the slaughter.

But, this is where it gets complicated for Coral: who is the real monster in this story? The lord who has tried to control all other hemomancers for more than a century? Or those willing to sacrifice Coral for the greater good?

Can Coral not only prevail but find a way to fight back? It’s not until the very end that she finds out who are true friends are, but by that time, will it be too late?

I must admit, my rating hovered back and forth on this, mostly due to the characterisation. But it all came together wonderfully, as the characters and the story developed. Most of all, towards the end, it was possible to understand the characters and their reasonings better. The ending was a total shock, but shouldn’t have been so surprising, really. No one is safe and what can go wrong, will go wrong, etc. So, along with all of the above, I just have to rate it highly, just like the prequel.

The final lines leave hope, despite the devastation. A nice way to make way for the sequel.

Final rating: ★★★★★ – Loved it/couldn't put it down

"A Rose to the Torch" is a largely just okay book. It did have an interesting premise and somewhat okay characters. I wanted to like it more than I thought I would.

I rarely to never DNF books but I really struggled to get into this. The author writes well enough but this just wasn't the story for me.

A young girl, that has been harboring a secret for all of her life, suddenly finds herself in the middle of a feud between to warring sides of hemomancers, the scourge of humanity.

The secret being that she is a hemomancer herself. Hemomancers being humans with the power to use their blood as a weapon. Lander being someone who has probably read "Tokyo Ghoul" just a few days before starting to write this book.

Or not, but while reading "A Rose to the Torch", "Tokyo Ghoul" was the reference that kept popping into my mind. Because the fights in that manga were, in my mind, quite similar to the blood fights Lander was describing in this book.

However, back to the review... This book is not a horrible one, far from it. However, it is horribly convoluted, and its world is not well developed, leaving many of the events just Deux Ex machina moments. We never really get into the mind of Coral, let alone Leblanc or Lena. Many of Coral's reactions come out of the blue, before we have really connected with her, and some of the uses of the blood, the power the hemomancers have over it and all the messy stuff there, is difficult to follow. It feels Lander was envisioning every scene in his mind as if he was watching a show or a manga, but on paper, they don't work so well. And many of the side quests feel unnecessary, just to have some eye candy moments. Lena's character, in particular, feels like an ill conceived decision.

The ending is actually quite acceptable, even though rushed, with a couple of little but nice surprises, and leaves the reader with a nice 'bloody' aftertaste.

Nothing, though, to make it stand out of the pack.

This was a good read with an interesting premise, it has great world building, well written and developed characters and a good story. The shame is I thought the story was only good, everything else was fabulous, I don’t think the end worked so well, and parts of the story were quite confused. I enjoyed it and with more work could be brilliant, I will still read the next, as it was interesting enough that I want to see what happens next and I hope it gets better.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I picked this because it intrigued me and isn't my usual genre. So glad I did as I really enjoyed it - coral is a character who found difficult to like, but the people who rescue her and try to save her I loved! And by the end I'm questioning whether they've just made a worse enemy to the veil!! The second book will be on my tbr when it comes out.

I enjoyed this book, the storyline was unique and not something I have previously encountered in urban fantasy. The idea of hemomancy is really cool, and I liked the way the author built up a difference between the blood types.

It is a well written book with a good pace and plot building, although I would have liked some more character depht. I liked Coral and Gavin, but I didn't connect with them since I didn't feel like their personality shone through.

There were many minor things that were discussed a lot, both in Corals inner monologues and in Gavins storyline, that I thought would be essential to the plot but ended up not really mattering at all. That made me kind of confused, since I don't really understand why one would build up suspense around something that's barely mentioned again later in the book.

I would also have liked a more dramatic resolution, I felt like the ending was good in theory but wasnt executed well enough. It was a lot of different things going on at once, a lot of plotlines that needed to be tied up and I felt like the ending was too rushed to be satisfying.

All in all, I enjoyed this read and I think it was an okay book. It could have been better, but it didn't put me off reading other books by the author.

I honestly think that the only thing that I really liked about this entire book was the cover. I didn’t enjoy the story very much, I think it could have been way better.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The first thing that caught my eye for this title was that cover. I fell in love with it. The story itself sounded really good and I loved to find something new to read. However, part of the story was a little on the confusing side but others were fine. I think that for me it needed to be a little more concise with its telling and showing. I do think that I will check out this authors other titles but for this one it was ok.