Reviews tagging 'Blood'

House of Bane and Blood by Alexis L. Menard

13 reviews

jcrocker95's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Murder

midnightrose_reads's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

House of Bane and Blood is the first book in the Vows of Vengeance duology by Alexis L. Menard. I really enjoyed this romantic fantasy marriage of convience, rivals to lovers story. The banter between the two leads is fantastic. Nico and Camilla are characters that you really root for, and the found family aspect was excellent! Can’t wait to read the next book in this duology.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture

novellearts's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book needed some further editing done. There were some grammatical and structural errors throughout the book that I found but it was otherwise, pretty well written.

I enjoyed the first book much more than the second. I'm not really sure what went wrong in this one, but it felt lacking to me. It took me quite a while to finish due to not really being super interested in the story. Some aspects of the story felt forgotten.

I didn't get the discussion between Milla and Nico about Milla's time spent as a prisoner that I was hoping for. It almost felt like it was swept under the rug and dismissed. I didn't think this book showed a realistic depiction of the trauma and healing that she inevitably would've had to go through after being held prisoner and being tortured. Unless she is just incredibly resilient, I suppose.

I also felt let down by Camilla's use (or lack of use) of her powers. Camilla was set up to be a powerhouse of a character with really intriguing abilities, but we didn't get to see much display of them except when she was forced to use them as a prisoner. Once she was freed, she (for the most part) went back to avoiding her powers and how she learned to use them.

The story was repetitive for me as well. The conflicts seemed flat and overused. I felt as though I kept reading the same conflict interactions throughout the whole book and ultimately they all had the same resolutions. The ending also seemed rushed.

We find out that Camilla's mother is still alive and looking to be found by Camilla and then the book simply ends!

It felt as though there should've been at least 1 more book in this series.

I'm upset because I really wanted to like this! Book 1 was better rounded, overall more enticing and enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

mwalsh97's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book started as like a 2.5 star book but it quickly won me over into a 5 star book. I love the Peaky Blinders meet Romeo and Juliet in a steampunk and nontraditional magic world. It's dark and dreary and full of tension. The back and for with Milla and Nico is so well written it had me giggling like a teen with their first crush. This book perfectly balances good plot with spice. You could take the spice out of the story and the characters would still work, as would the plot. The spice is just that, spice. Wonderfully delicious spice.

I love even more that it is only a duology. So many authors these days seem to write unending series or stretch their plots way to thin. This plot feels perfectly paced for two books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: Suicide

rheagoveas's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Murder

tguccione's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Sexual harassment

belle13's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

❤️Arranged Marriage of Convenience
❤️Peaky Blinders Vibes
❤️Family Dynamics
❤️Rival Families
❤️Magic and Science
❤️Slow Burn
❤️ Rivals to Lovers

Amount of spice:🔥 - Extreme Slow Burn 
Explicitness: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to love this as much as I did but I absolutely ate it up. They just had such a fun dynamic and I loved the way Milla was actually the one saving Nico most of the time, she was such a sassy little badass. I’m also a huge fan of a slow burn and for me, this was just the right amount of burn and by the time they actually got physical I was absolutely hooked.

There were lots of twists and turns and it was a bit of a wild ride at times. There were parts that felt a little confusing and hard to keep up with but I was addicted nonetheless. The last 20% was particularly wild and it ends on such a bang!

The only thing I would have liked more of was the family dynamics. The supporting characters have so much potential and I desperately want to know more about all of them so I hope we get to see more of them and that they become a little more fleshed out - each encounter with them seemed a little too brief.

I would recommend it if you liked Kingdom of the Wicked or Serpent and Dove or you love a badass FMC and an MMC that can’t help but fall head over heels for her. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Death of parent

karapillar's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Hate crime

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Slavery, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

jilliri's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Vomit and Kidnapping

vi_holmes's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, especially the first half! Camilla is a great character! A real badass, witty, and smart. The Attano family were also a big highlight for me. So many great personalities. Nonna had me cackling.

My only complaints are that Camilla's willfully blind faith in her brothers (especially Aramis) got tiring.

I didn't care for his explaination for his behaviour either. He would have been a better character for me if he remained cold and selfish as he was portayed.

And the ending felt rushed. I'm very keen to see where it will lead in the next book, but I just didn't love the ending. But I will say

Giles deserved better

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Torture, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and War