Blood Flowers is a dystopian-style book with elements of magic and hints of witchcraft, which make the story more intriguing. There was also a focus on community, family and friendships, which I enjoyed!

I enjoyed the world-building of Calleston (the setting of the book) with the cobblesiders and roofsiders and how there is a contrast between the two communities.

I did find the pacing a little off at times and I found it a bit difficult to get into the book as the initial pacing is quite slow. I prefer quite a fast-paced book from the beginning, but by the end, I couldn’t put the book down!

That being said, I’m excited to read the sequel to this book and to see what happens next!

This was good. I liked the writing style, but I don’t see myself rereading this one. It had been on my tbr for soo long too.

Wow what an amazing debut novel!! It’s giving hunger games I really do love a YA fantasy novel it was a good pace and captivating

magic and witchwork may be feared and even forbidden by the wider Queendom, but sinsenn production is not only actively encouraged but mandatory, leaving the Cobbleside field workers exhausted and ill.

The ending? Phenomenal I absolutely cannot wait to continue the series! Roll on poison tides! Ps I think this would be great as an audiobook!

Fantastic work 4.5 stars ⭐️

Oh my gosh I felt I was on the edge of my seat throughout this whole book! I’m actually still a bit in disbelief over several things that happened - very much hoping that some super clear and irreversible things will in fact be completely reversed in the next book!
I really loved Jay’s writing. I thought the world building was great, there was a lot to it but it was explained so well and was easy to understand and follow as we learnt more as the story went on. The mix of characters and Bear himself were so addicting and I was desperate to read each chapter just to make sure him and all the other characters were going to be okay!
I do feel that there’s a lot we don’t know yet, assuming more will be revealed in book 2, as there were a few things that weren’t totally explained and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go!
Such a great ya fantasy read, definitely think it would be a good one for teenagers who want to get into the genre. Can’t wait for the next one!

Blood Flowers follows the story of Bear who lives in the walled town of Calleston which is famous for its production of Sinsenn, a blood red flower that is the Queendoms source of Ruby brew and Sinsenn pipe.

The town has buildings built on top of one another going high up within the walls. There is a clear class divide within the walls between the lower levels, cobblesiders, who live in poverty and perform all of the hard labour jobs that keep the town running, and the the higher level residents, roofsiders, who live in comfort.

Bear is a cobblesider who works the Sinsenn fields but dreams of making it up to roofside. We also get POV chapters from Meya, a roofsider who is also the daughter of the towns Overlord.
There are also a lot of interesting side characters including Felix the Fennix and the mysterious Queen Melena.

The story has lots of magic, witches and the most terrifying flesh eating creatures called blots that will haunt me in my nightmares. There’s also murder, corruption and betrayal.

I found the story quite well paced with lots of action and information. There didn’t seem to be a climb to an obvious climax of the story so for a while I wasn’t sure where it was going but that didn’t detract from what was undoubtedly an enjoyable read.

This was a solid 4 star read and I’ll definitely be continuing with the next book to see where the story goes.

3.75⭐️

I really liked this book. It did feel very info dumpy for the first 100ish pages, I wasn’t really sure what was going on, obviously info dump is very important and I do like world building but this in parts was a little too much. However, after you hit that point it gets good and things start to make sense! I did really like the writing style in this book, the writing was captivating.

Overall, a good book and it did its purpose which is a good time.