The Blood Gift (The Blood Gift Duology Book 2)

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Davenport’s attention of detail in the world building and richly drawn characters was incredible. We’re introduced to a world (and society) that has developed through bloody wars, racism and oppression which, despite the fantastical creatures, forbidden magic and alien (planet) setting still feels all to familiar to the real world — with racist, misogynistic and classist attitudes that oftentimes mirror aspects of our own society, with characters whose experiences and motivations are incredibly easy to relate to. I do understand that she wanted this to be a trilogy, the publisher wanted a duology so she had to combine her ideas for books 2 and 3 into one book. Honestly some of those ideas that were originally for book 3 could've been dropped in favor of fleshing out some other plots. I still had questions that didn't get answered because they were breezed past for other plots. More people needed to die! The deaths we had I feel like we didn't really get to know those characters well/weren't following Ikenna around them long enough for them to have big impact.

But now the dream is dead, and Ikenna's debating not pledging into the dangerous Praetorian trials to rise up into the academy. What's the point, without her family?The copy of The Blood Trials I received for review was an un-edited ARC, which feels particularly worth emphasizing. The overall summary of my feelings about The Blood Trials can be distilled into the following -- the premise is super cool but the book itself felt like a work-in-progress. Ikenna has a magical gift bestowed upon her from the gods of their enemies, that she must hide while also using it to keep herself alive as her mixed heritage makes her a target. I really enjoyed The Blood Trials when it came out last year. It filled that Hunger Games and Red Rising hole in my heart with a clever twist on the “dystopian death games” genre. One way it did this was just my taking the genre and making it more adult (similar to Red Rising), which allowed Davenport to not only amp up the violence, language, and sex, but also to explore deep-seeded themes of racism, sexism, and the monstrosity of both empires and corrupt democracies. In this sequel to The Blood Trials we continue where the story left off with Ikenna and crew trying to create allies in their quest to take down The Blood Emperor.

It’s all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered.I wish Davenport had trusted her readers more with being able to identify themes, motivations, schemes without having to explain them in vivid detail(and often repetitively). There was a large amount of info dumping and narrative hand holding in this book, which may be a good thing for younger readers but I was under the guise this is an adult fantasy. Normally I can overlook some info dumping but the way it was done was either through Ikenna’s internal dialogue or awkwardly long conversations where things are overly explained. Frequently these conversations or internal dialogues are happening in the middle of an important event which I found unnatural. I wish The Blood Trials would have done more showing and less telling and trusted us as readers to infer the rest. The Blood Trials is very dark and gritty and violent, most of the book focusing on what Ikenna has to go through to survive the brutal trials. This honestly looks like a young adult book cover, but this is very much an adult book with adult content, and that’s to this book’s disadvantage because it is likely that the type of audience that will be drawn to the cover is not the type to be prepared for the directions the story takes (like me). I can't even say that it got better for me. I never really felt like the characters had a plan... Like they had a rough sketch, they had an end goal and they knew getting their would require things that they didn't have... but it never really felt like they were working toward that even in scenes that were supposed to be them doing just that. Though it probably didn't help that the characters didn't really have a whole going for them. Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials—a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that—if found out—would subject her to execution…or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather…and then she needs to kill them. Overall, I'd rate this sequel 4.5 stars and I know that fans of the The Blood Trials will definitely love The Blood Gift. I can't wait to read N.E. Davenport's upcoming work!