This was a fascinating story of the power of books, the magic held within the blood of scribes and the inevitable desire of people to harness that power for their own gain. Joanna has remained with her father to protect their library of magical books while her sister Esther has been on the run, moving every year to prevent being found and putting her family at risk. Nick, as the last living scribe has lived a sheltered life in a mansion under the watchful eye of his uncle, longs for a normal life. When their paths collide, they are forced to question everything that they have ever known.

This was such a well-written story with interesting and unexpected dark-twists that leave the characters unsettled and unsure of who they can and cannot trust, especially when its those closest to them. I struggled with the pacing initially as I tend to do with new fantasy novels as the worldbuilding is new but once you get into the story, it flies by as you need to know what is in store.

Pick this up if you are a fan of dark fantasies with a thriller mystery aspect

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for the opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review

What is there not to love about this book? Dark academia, magic, mystery and suspense, everything a girl needs.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is mainly about two estranged sisters, Joanna and Esther. After being separated for years, the sisters reunite after their father’s mysterious death. They have to fight to preserve their family’s legacy, a library of magical books, and unravel a dark secret hidden between many pages.

I fell in love with this book from the start and it only grew the more I read. The style of writing is mesmerising and engaging, descriptive but not too much. All the elements of the story are there for a reason, and it was very satisfying to see how everything just fit perfectly together in the end. There were some reveals, I didn’t find them particularly surprising but that didn’t faze me. The story is a storytelling masterpiece, and the pace is quite fast.

All in all, it was impossible to put it down.

I really liked Esther as a main character, I loved her strength and her courage. Joanna was okay but I found her chapters a bit dull since there was barely any action, especially in the beginning of the story. I really loved Nicholas however and was glad to see chapters from his perspective. His relationship to the magical books was great to explore and discover. The development of all the characters in the book was expertly done, and it was nice to see how each character dealt with the changes, discoveries, and the bad guys.

The book-based magic system was my favourite thing about this book. It was refreshing, ingenious and explored so thoroughly that I wanted to jump into this world and explore the libraries myself.

An engaging read with a world of magical realism and enchanted books. Deserves all its five stars!

Fantastic read , I loved the characters they were interesting and I felt they had real depth. The story had everything I love , magic , secrets , hidden passages . I was spellbound, superb.

Proves that books shouldn’t be judged by their covers

I loved this book. The way the characters are developed and the story revealed kept me wanting to know more and meant that I read it under 24 hours.

The themes of magical libraries, different magical systems and good versus evil will keep fantasy fans more than happy. The modern day setting, scholarly nature of the library and potential complexities bought Deborah Harkness’s ‘Discovery of witches’ to mind and I think that Emma’s book would transfer to the screen equally well.

The book is complete in itself with unexpected twists but the story and characters are left open at the end and allow plenty of room for them to be developed further. I sincerely hope that this is just the first instalment and that there are many more to come.

I was given this book from the author via netgalley only for the pleasure of reading and leaving an honest review should I choose to

A stunning debut novel featuring a hint of magical realism, a dash of mystery and a heap of thrilling story telling! A story of two sisters separated to help guard magical books, but who have to reunite to uncover buried secrets.

I enjoyed everything about this book, the characters, plot and the writing was excellent! What a fun, suspenseful read!

An amazing debut novel brimming with magic and mystery. I didn’t want to put it down as the suspense was too much!
The world is full of magical books, rituals, spells and secrets. The writing is vivid and immerses you into this world fully.
The two sisters are my favourite points of view - one is on the run and the other is a protector and trapped - the opposition is great. How their story develops is exciting and lovely all at once.
Highly recommend this to anyone who even vaguely likes books. Not all books should be opened but this one definitely should.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I was looking forward to reading this as the blurb sounded amazing and it did not disappoint! I would say this is more of a thriller with a fantasy element to it, it was so gripping I found I finished it in no time! Hard to believe this is the author’s debut!

Emma Törzs's debut novel, Ink Blood Sister Scribe, sounded SO up my street I was actually a bit wary of it. Would a story that combines so many of my random interests in fiction - sisters, Antarctica, magical books, woods, Vermont - actually work? (Plus the bits of Spanish and the mention of Playmobil childhood games, which I didn't know about until I actually read it). I've been disappointed recently, too, by some dark-academia-book-magic-adjacent stuff like Katy Hays' The Cloisters and Sara Gran's The Book of the Most Precious Substance. But not to worry, because this one delivers. I was especially captivated by the first half, which moves between Esther, who is working on a remote Antarctic research base with her girlfriend when she realises someone is performing mirror magic; her younger sister Joanna, who lives isolated in rural Vermont, keeping up the wards on the family home; and Nicholas, who has also lived as a virtual captive all his life as the only Scribe in a mysterious library. Esther and Joanna are both wonderful characters, as are the other members of their family circle. (Nicholas, for me, felt a bit reminiscent of other young snarky male victims of magical wrongdoing, perhaps most obviously Garth Nix's Nicholas Sayre in the Abhorsen books, but this was partly compensated for by his bodyguard Collins, who is quietly hilarious.) When the plot kicks in fully about halfway through, this becomes a bit more run-of-the-mill, and I missed some of the dark strangeness of the early chapters, as atmosphere is sacrificed to pace and the mood becomes cheerier, more YA-ish, despite some nasty twists. Nevertheless, a superior example of its sub-genre, and I'd describe it as a cross between Bridget Collins' The Binding and Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night.

Honestly, this book deserves ALL THE STARS in the world. I adored it, I immediately wanted to reread it. It in short blew me away.

I knew little about this book before going in other than it was a book about magical books, but OH MY. From the concept, to the disability and lgbtq+ rep and everything in-between this is a book ill reread time and time again.

Ink Blood…. Is an urban fantasy set in a world that mirrors our own, It’s a book filled with secrets, loss, betrayals and magic. Focusing on a two sisters, who have been estranged from each other for years but are drawn back together due to the collection of magical books they have been entrusted with keeping safe. Suddenly they are crossing oceans, fighting a mysterious organisation who, seems to not only want the collection of books but something else and unravelling centuries old family secrets.

If you love a mystery, with a bit of magic this is a book for you.

Disability Rep - Monocular vision (Visual Impairment)
- Anaemia

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc.

I did not enjoy this as much as I thought it would. I could not connect to the characters nor the story.

A totally believable story about a series of incredible events unravels when two sisters are brought together again after years apart. Bit by bit they question what they've been told and what they understand about their family and their circumstances, and when they are connected with a young man from across the world they start to ask better questions and together make something very special happen.

Great characters, magic books, complex story threads - what's not to love?

I really liked the synopsis when I first read it and I feel this book is very unique in the way the magic theme was used. Emma made the use of spell books unique within the pages of the book which made this a page turner.


The first part of the book was a slow read and I struggled to get into whilst it was setting the scene and also giving history on the books, the MC’s and the situation they both faced. Nicholas and Esther both have an interesting back story which is why I pushed through and carried on which i am glad I did !

The second half I completely adored, there was so many twists I didn’t know that were coming and I could not put it down ! In places it was extremely dark and gruesome but it worked well the the premise of the book.

What a fun magical adventure! I loved how the story slowly unfolded and you got to piece it all together along with all the characters.

I do wish it was just a smidge shorter and didn’t have such a slow build in the first part but at about half way through the book flies.

The 3 parts are separated perfectly to go with the pacing and it all wraps up nicely.

Overall: grab if you want magical realism and don’t mind world building in the first half

Favorite Character: Collins

Well I love this novel. What was in there not to love when you have books filled with magic, half sisters with different powers and a wonderful villain . A fantasy but also a page turning thriller. No spoilers as this would spoil the enjoyment, but this novel kept me up reading to late in the night and paints the world to which I would like to return. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.

Magic books, one powerful sister who is keeping the books safe and the powerless sister hiding faraway to protect her family. Or is it really the whole story...?
In this multi POV magical novel, you'll be given a story to realise it doesn't fit the other stories...who is protecting who, who's running from who, who's looking for who, and why?
This was full of suspense, magic and also really cute. The sisters bond as well as the mini romance...( Not the biggest part of the story) were really sweet!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I loved this book!! I got so utterly absorbed in the pages of this magical world and fell in love with the story of Joanna, Ester and Nicholas. I have recently fallen back in love with magic stories and am easing into fantasy and this was such a great book to add to my collection. I loved the slow realisation of the secrets slotting into place for the characters in a subtle manner which swept me away into the story.

Two half sisters have taken different paths and think they are doing the right thing to protect their families but things are coming to a head when love means rules are ignored and the secrets that have been kept start to unravel. This is an engaging read and the two sisters, Esther out in Antarctica and Joanna back in Vermont, are both intriguing characters that have you soon invested in their paths and what is to come. The story is a great blend of magic, family relationships and a mystery to be uncovered. As the story develops and more great characters are added the pace picks up, after a slightly slow start, and it has a very exciting last third.
There is a real emotional pull in the story and I would certainly look out for more books by Emma Torzs.

I adored this book! The writing was so beautiful I fell in love with the way the author described things and I was immersed in the story from page 1.
The story is delicious mix of magic and mystery as our different characters are drawn together and deal with their complex relationships with each other.
Also - nobody told me this was queer!?!?! I loved it.

Beautiful prose, rich in detailed description without being weighed down by unnecessarily flowery language. This fantasy book is best read in a comfy chair, surrounded by walnut bookshelves, from a beautiful leather bound special edition (as yet not found 👀) - it feels like a luxury to read. But instead of being a comforting read, we have a mystery - at times chilling - and the unravelling of the truths our three narrators keep as the focal points of their lives. You'll find yourself on tenterhooks as the tale takes a dark turn, you're no longer sure who can be trusted and who is leading our protagonists astray!

Lovely characterization, particularly between Esther and Joanna, as you see a true depiction of sisters - sometimes loving, sometimes resentful and full of misunderstandings and misinterpretations!

The books hold magic and must be protected so every night Joanna sets the Wards. Meanwhile her sister Esther must decide whether to move on as instructed by her father or stay and try living a normal life.

Magic is written by a Scribe but at a price as blood must be drained to produce the ink.

Loved this novel centred on a few main characters whose lives will soon interact. They are in danger and magic may be the only way to protect them. But who can they trust?