I received a gifted copy of BLOOD WILL OUT by Lara Lynwood from the author for the purpose of reviewing it for #SPFBO9 for @coverswithcassidy’s team.
BLOOD WILL OUT is an urban fantasy following Cassandra Blackthorn, a young woman who has been trained as a hunter. The Hunter’s Guild lives by strict codes, so when a vampire hunt goes horribly wrong and she recovers from a mortal wound, Cassandra is forced out as a non-human. Cassandra knows it could have been worse, the guild could have ended her life, but still she has no friends or family outside of the guild.
Cassandra doesn’t understand how she survived or how she came to be something other than human. With few resources at her disposal, she sets out to find the vampires to took her down, ones who seemed to know more about her than she knows herself. This means venturing into the world of those she’s been hunting and teaming up with those previously considered enemies.
I was quickly drawn into this book and I really enjoyed my time with it. It was a really quick read and very action packed so it really kept my attention and flew by. There’s a bit of an infodump in the beginning, but I think that was needed in order to get the reader up to speed with the action and it wasn’t a lengthy process.
We are following in the head of someone who was orphaned young and raised by the hunters, so her view is very much set in their beliefs and mindsets in the beginning. As she gets to know her vampire guide Grey, I liked the ways she was forced to reconsider and question all the beliefs indoctrinated in her. Given that this is the first book in a series, I will be interested to see how this develops even further.
The author created some interesting lore around the vampires of this world and the politics of their community living mostly beneath the city. Some of this felt familiar from other vampire stories, but there were a good amount of differences too.
There was a bit more that I wanted in terms of the world building. Early on we are told that Cassandra is branded as non-human and we’re given glimpses of what this means. In this world, those not human can’t be trusted not to go on a rampage and kill humans. I just wanted a little bit more about what types of creatures these non-humans (and non-vampires) were.
Cassandra was a very interesting character to follow, but given the very action/plot heavy nature of the book, I did want a little more from her as a character. She is very upset to be kicked out of the guild and we do see her break down about this shortly after. Still, I wanted a bit more lingering emotion given that she has lost nearly everything in her life all at once. We get some flashbacks to her past with the guild and the people there so we’re getting good history, I just wanted a bit more from the emotion.
Overall I really enjoyed this and would definitely look to pick up the rest of the series! This was really easy to binge read. I think if you like stories like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Shadowhunters, this would have some similar vibes to check out!
DG Reads 