Reviews

Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

ldwiltz's review against another edition

3.0

After Dèmi’s mother is murdered in front of her, she vows revenge for her and the rest of their murdered people, the Oluso. She and her friend Colin set out to kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life to save the remaining Oluso. bBit of course, Demi doesn't count on becoming attracted to Jonas.

Forged in blood starts off quickly and then...stalls .I feel that although it was billed as an adult fantasy, it reads more as YA. Nothing wrong with that, But I feel like that is why the pacing of this novel was all over the place

overall, it was a good story!

Thank you to Net Galley for the Arc. All opinions are my own.

goodbyerachel's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

iffy_loves_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

amandabuckley's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.25

kaybee_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

4.25

 I couldn't wait to read this because the premise and the character art I've seen was gorgeous. I really enjoyed this. Did I wait to read this until the audio was available from the library - yes. I did a read along with the audio and the narrator Nneka Okoye was incredible. It's an incredible story and having it read to me whilst reading is highly recommended. There is a song that is sung and I played it through 3-4 times because it was beautiful. The magic system was so interesting and I didn't fully understand what was happening in parts of the story but I had a great time. I cannot wait to read the next in the series. 

samkoester's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring fast-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

4.75

ofmadnessandmagic's review against another edition

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

For me, Forged By Blood falls into the category "great idea, not-so-great execution".
I enjoyed the book but it ultimately fell flat for me, even though there were aspects of it that I really loved.
The worldbuilding and setting are amazing. Out of the Nigerian-inspired fantasy books that I've read so far, this one had my favorite world. It did such a great job at balancing the sad reality of colonization while also showcasing the magic, richness and beauty of Nigerian culture and mythology.

I think the idea of the novel was great and I certainly see where the author was going with it, it just didn't fully work for me.
The plot felt convoluted at times with everything that was going on. There were also a few scenes where I was a bit confused how we got there. In my opinion, there were too many plot strings that didn't feel woven together.
I also didn't love the romance, it felt quite forced, especially the progression between the "prologue" and then their re-union in the now made little sense to me, mostly in regard to the FMC's reaction. (I know this is very vague but I can't really say more without spoiling anything).

Overall, I think it just comes with some issues that are common in debut novels, but I see a lot of potential and will definitely be interested in the author's future work.

viktranka's review against another edition

5.0

This was an extremely enjoyable book, and despite being 1st in a series, the sub-plots of book 1 were mostly wrapped up, with new ones emerging for the sequel, so we aren't left without resolutions - it's just these resolutions created consequences. As it should be.

Now the biggest elephant in the room many people argue about: is this a YA or an adult fantasy? Well, dear reader, I'm not a fan of using "this is YA" as some mark of shame to say "this book was beneath me", but from my recent reads, it's much closer in tone and prose to a YA book I've read (Sing Me To Sleep by Gabi Burton) than an adult fantasy (The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem), and you know what? Sometimes we can just read YA books and shamelessly enjoy them, despite being grown up adults.

So, if you liked books like Children of Blood and Bone, The Gilded Ones, Beasts of Prey, Sing Me To Sleep, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, and generally bad-ass Black girls, you'll probably enjoy this one.

List of common YA tropes you can expect from this book:
- oppressed mages who have to fight to make the world a better place
- a hot-headed "wants to do the right thing, but ends up getting into trouble for it" lead
- orphan protagonist
- chosen one

Spoiler

hey, the spirits made a sacrifice so you could live and fight!

- multiple characters who are apparently more than they appeared to be (

Spoiler

"I'm a heir of a royal / important bloodline" trope and "I secretly had magic" trope

)
- a love triangle, no "spice" though (just kisses)
- soulmates / fated mates
- adults are often either support cast, or evil - the spotlight is on the teens (fmc is 17 for most of the book)
- plot armor (

Spoiler

there were few moments where it felt like something truly awful would happen but last minute rescue arrived

)
-

Spoiler

villain monologue

- "and with this easy 5 minute trick, we

Spoiler

overthrew the evil king

"
- fast-paced first person narration
- coming of age character arc

Was it cheesy? Yes. Did it have more serious moments? Also yes, especially the ending felt a bit bittersweet, but we'll see what happens in the sequel. Some of the depictions of the mistreatment done to the oppressed population was chilling, like

Spoiler

children being sold into slavery or prisoners being subject to forced breeding practices

. Did it avoid shoving "shock value" scenes in the face of the reader? Yes, and thank you for that. The reader is made aware of awful things happening, but these aren't depicted in a grueling detail.

My only criticism is that "oppressed mages" is such a tired trope in fantasy right now, both adult and YA, I wish we'd give it a rest for a few years. Also another tired trope is

Spoiler

POC fmc comes from an oppressed group but falls in love with a guy who's a leader / son of a leader of the dominant group, that is also white, we had that already in Jasad Heir and Hurricane Wars and...

4.5 stars rounded up. Idk why average rating on this is so low, I guess people who hate YA are pushing it down. If you expected Super Serious African Epic Fantasy, please read The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi or The Unbroken by C.L. Clark instead, you'll enjoy it more, I bet.

I guess it's also publisher's fault for advertising it as "adult fantasy", but on the other hand... they knew what they did putting such a YA-style cover with a cartoonish girl there, I could put this next to The Bone Spindle and That Self-Same Metal and nobody would think "one of these is not like the others".

If you like classic heroic fantasy / YA fantasy tropes with Nigerian mythology, but don't want anything too grimdark - this one was perfect!

lleullawgyffes's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.5

jordanadreams's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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

3.5