Of Wicked Blood

Digital arc provided by Netgalley in exchange of honest review. SPOILERS AHEAD Mysterious, spooky, and yet fun and page turning—that's what I was thinking when I read Of Wicked Blood. This book has two point of views from its two main characters: Slate Ardoin and Cadence de Morel. Slate's narrative is a whole ride, with his sarcastic thoughts toward almost everything and everyone, his witty remarks and humor. He seems like a comedic character even without trying (which he is), but really he's more than that. Being raised out and off fosters home with abusive parents made him developed a tough exterior and rough edges, shutting of people with his usual rude remarks. Coming to Brume--a place he didn't know its existed and a place where he was born as Remy Roland--made him realized that he is capable of so much emotions. It's super interesting to see his development throughout the story. We finally could see for what Slate really is, a loving brother, a good and caring person. Cadence herself is someone that wear her heart at her sleeves. Her blatant crush towards Adrien and her adoration of her father proving that. However, meeting Slate slowly changed her—because he brings the worst in her, but also the best. Cadence became more confident of herself, getting out of the shell of protection her father provide. Her father told lies, bunch of them, about her family and the town all of her lives. I personally want her to know her De Morel wrongdoings, wanting those secrets to be revealed to her. She didn't deserve to live under her Quatrefoil-obsessed father lies anymore. And the end of the book hanging me from that hope. I wish we can see it in the next book. Also there's so many unanswered questions that I hope can be answered in the sequel: 1) Geoffrey creepy behavior (because he was disgusting I was expecting him to be the main bad guy), 2) Amandine and Rainier before her death, 3) the ring and Cadence's piece of Quatrefoil. Last but not least, I really didn't expect to like Slate and Cadence relationship, partly because it's an insta-lust and insta-love (from Slate part, at least) tropey, but I love it. Also, I like how this book handled panic attack, PTSD, and stuffs. Slate was described as a very attentive person towards Cadence's panic attack, and vice versa, how Cadence soothed Slate whenever he was having his trauma and PTSD back. TW of this book: death of the loved ones, mention of suicide, mention of abuse, mention of abusive parents, mention of mental illness, PTSD, ADD, panic attack

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[fantasy violence and injury, child death, child abuse (in the past, including attempted sexual), death of parents (in the past), grave robbing/desecration, parental death (in the past), ableism (in regards to a character who uses a wheelchair), alcohol, tobacco use (hide spoiler)] I’ve read and enjoyed Olivia Wildenstein’s books before, and the blurb for this one really caught my interest. It definitely lives up to it, as well! This is an enjoyable and high stakes young adult paranormal romance, all set in a small French town. Slate, professional thief and survivor of the foster care system, has always figured he was abandoned by his parents. So he’s shocked and angry to receive a letter – and birth certificate – claiming that he’s the only surviving member of one of a small Breton town’s founding families. That anger propels him to Brume, supposed birthplace of magic, and into some questionable choices. A moment of drunk revenge leads to Slate being saddled with a curse: he and the descendants of the other three founding families must find and reassemble the Quatrefoil pieces by the next new moon, unleashing magic back into the world, or the chance to do so will be lost – and Slate will die. “You don’t strike me as a librarian.” “You don’t strike me as a student.” His lips quirk. “What do I strike you as?” “A criminal.” “And criminals aren’t allowed to be educated?” The story is told from the dual POVs of Cadence and Slate, our two young protagonists. From the start, Slate got on my nerves. Yes, he had a rough childhood in foster care, and yes, he has every reason to be angry that Rainier, Cadence’s father, seems to have known about his existence but never bothered contacting him before, but I had a hard time reconciling his “rich and accomplished thief” persona with his actions at the beginning of the book. As the book progressed and he dropped some of his bravado nonsense, he did grow on me, though. For her part, Cadence is struggling with the fact that her beloved Papa kept the truth about her mother’s death and his injuries from her, plus, you know, the whole “magic is real and you’re part of the bloodline that can bring it back” thing. Luckily, she’s been fascinated with the magical history of Brume since she was a child, and even works as a librarian in the town’s archives. She’s no-nonsense and brave, and I loved the heck out of her. “There are two surefire ways to get a woman: wooing her and wearing her down. Since you keep objecting to being wooed, I’ve elected to wear you down.” It’s clear that the relationship between Cadence and Slate is the main focus of the book. From the first moment they meet, they’re unreasonably attracted to each other, and before he knows it, Slate is experiencing all these weird *feelings.* Look, Cadence is the clichéd good girl – she’s a librarian at 17 for goodness’ sake – and Slate is the clichéd bad boy (only because of his tragic past, of course), so naturally they’re going to fall in love. It was a bit eyeroll worthy to me, but once I accepted it for what it was, it was pretty good fun. The banter between them was hilarious, even if it did sometimes border on the overly crass (thanks, Slate). And, of course, Slate’s the one who’s the farthest gone first, so he has to wait for Cadence to come to terms with her feelings for a, as she puts it, “thug.” Slate’s willingness to do this – to not push too hard – was one of the things that finally entered him to me. “What a team we make—a preppy professor, a woman with a yarn fetish, and a girl way too pure of heart for all this bullshit. The ultimate underdogs.” While Slate and Cadence are both young adults, their team is rounded out by Adrien, a 20’s-ish history professor and Cadence’s secret crush, and Gaëlle, a mother of twins. It’s not exactly your usual young adult fantasy team and, honestly, I appreciated the different perspectives. Cadence’s father, Rainier, is the only person who was around for the last attempt at reuniting the pieces, which means he’s their primary source for any Quatrefoil-related information, besides what any of them can rustle up from the archives. As for other side characters, each main character also has their best friends, Bastian and Alma. Sometimes it felt like they were there only so they had someone to talk to about their new and definitely unwanted crushes, but they were each interesting characters. As for the worldbuilding and adventure plot, I thought both were well-done. Brume felt suitably magical and terrifying and I found the history of the Quatrefoil engaging. Each of the attempts to recover the pieces builds on the previous ones, and the stakes kept building. The pacing was a little more rough for me. The book starts out slowly and while it does pick up pace, it seemed to move in uneven fits and starts. At points it was impossible to put down, and then then there were other sections where it took me a day to get through two chapters. The last quarter of the book, where it became clear that things were not quite as they seemed, was excellent, and definitely made me want to pick up the next book so I can see if my guesses are correct. Overall, while the pacing wasn’t great, I enjoyed the book and will be looking forward to seeing what happens next! I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

An absolute gem of a read and a #NewToMe author. I was blown away by this new series and I just couldn't put it down! Slate Ardoin is many things - a liar, a pickpocket, a thief and the best foster brother a guy could have! He took his little brother from one crappy home to another and once he bounced out of the system he did what he did best to take care of him and make sure that he did something better with his life. With his brother safely ensconced at Uni, Slate takes on another job but when he returns to his flat his life is never going to be the same. Somone knows who he - they have seen through his aliases and they say they knew his long deceased parents. Does he take this mysterious offer of a new life at a University or does he cook up a plan for revenge? After all someone knew where he was and decided to leave him with the foster families from hell! But this new life may be more than he bargained for - magic, Merlin, small "unique" university in an even smaller town. Just how will Slate cope when he learns Brume's secrets? OMW - Slate is a mix of Lupin and Raffles, with a dash of grown up Harry Potter. More rogue than hero material but he has the whole bad boy vide down pat! Cadence on the other hand is the epitome of a good girl, with a misplaced crush on a family friend to deal with. Brume itself is a bit like Hogsmeade from HP - it's a character all on its own - from circles instead of roads, weirda$$ clocks that don't tell time and a possible link with Merlin. There are plenty of secondary characters with plenty of bite to them, Cadence's best friend is a particularly "colourful" one, LOL. I love that Slate isn't perfect - his revenge plot does lead him to do some epically awful things but he does eventually get his head out of his rear - I promise! A brilliant mix of modern world and magic, secret societies, curses and I'm on tenterhooks awaiting #2! I did feel a bit gibbed at the ending - I thought there would have been more of a set up for the next book but I'm still a happy camper overall!

I started this book late at night and had to force myself to put it down at 60%. I kept thinging about it until I was able to pick it back up. Then at about 80% I had to check goodreads to make sure that there was going to be another book in this series. I loved this story! Our main characters are Slate and Candice, both of whom I loved. Slate is a morally grey dude, he does whatever he needs, to survive and thrive in a world that has treated him horribly. Candice is a nerdy girl obsessed with the history of her home which has always thought to be a magical place. Slate and Candice along with two others have to defeat this curse before a certain time or he dies. They each have to pass their own tests, and each test gets more and more dangerous and the stakes get higher as they get closer to defeating the curse and Slate and Candice grow closer. I felt like I was there along with the characters as they were on this journey. I had no idea what was coming next, and needed to find out how it ended. It was definitely action packed with only a little bit of well deserved down time for the characters to try and plan out what they needed to do next .. I really liked all the characters except Candices dad... I just know hes up to something... I really loved everything about this book, and will be reading the next book in the series..

Of Wicked Blood by Olivia Wildenstein & Katie Hayoz is a book that I thought I knew what was going to happen, and then added a fantasy twist! Slate is used to looking out for himself, and has had to do this since he was very young in the foster system. Out of the blue, he's told about a small town where his parents had lived, and that they've left money for him. There are challenges, secrets and lies that come out when Slate goes there.  This was an enjoyable book, and one that surprised me.  I enjoyed the twists and the story.  Of Wicked Blood  by Olivia Wildenstein & Katie Hayoz was published on 2nd February, and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org . You can follow Olivia Wildenstein on her  website ,  Instagram  and  Facebook . You can follow Katie Hayoz on her  website  and  Facebook . I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Twig Publishing.