Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Forged By Blood

This book introduces us to a world on the verge of war, seen through the eyes of Dèmi, a young Oluso (magic user). The Oluso are in hiding, magic is forbidden in their world, and Dèmi is hiding secrets that would get her killed by the rulers of the kingdom.

I loved how strong a person Dèmi is in this story. She is powerful and holds to her identity and ideals. A really wonderful MC to follow and I'm looking forward to seeing how she grows in the next book.

The pace of this book is very fast, and I found myself wishing for some more internal dialogue or reflection to help me frame the information. There is one particular chapter in which there are several reveals about multiple characters and I had to reread it and review a previous chapter to understand what was going on. There was a little more explanation/review of that information later in the book which I appreciated, but it would have been helpful closer to the events as well. I also felt the relationship/love interest subplot could have been developed more, but suspect this will be explored in the next book.

We see Dèmi receive some warnings about the love interest so this may contribute to the plot going forward.

Although there were some things I thought could have been developed more, the world building, main character, and setup for the next book were all well done and I'll be looking forward to reading the rest of the story.

Content Warnings

skylarkblue1's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

CWs: blood, parent death, racism, rape and sexual assault (off page), child death, parental death, murder, death, torture, slavery, forced pregancy, misogyny, classism,

Thank you to Ehigbor for a free physical proof! (Sorry I didn't get around to this for so long 😭)

I absolutely adored this world! It's so rich and well described, it really does feel alive.

I'll try not to go too deep into this synopsis as it's best to kinda just go into it. Its pretty fast to get into the main story beats and it doesn't dawdle. Essentially Dèmi and her mother live alone, her father is dead and they live in a world ruled by colonisers who kill or enslave any magic user (rightful owners of the land) that's found. Unfortunately, both Dèmi and her mother have magic. When tragedy strikes and her life is splintered even further, she takes up the task of attempting to change the fate of the lands and her people.

I loved Dèmi as a character a lot. She strong, but fallible - though it does fall kinda into the trope of the female MC needing to lean a lot on the male love interests (alongside a love right-angle). I did get a tad confused at the cast for a bit, there's so many background characters that's given a decent chunk of info each that for my brain wasn't sticking too well in my memory.

The world building is "book 1" world building, there's a ton of questions but a very good base has been made. It's creative, vibrant and full of life. I can't wait for the next book to learn more about the world, the magic system and how it'll all come together!!

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morrigan_gaines_writes's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

**I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher. This is my honest review**

3.5 STARS!

There were a lot of positives for this book, BUT the pacing/transitions made it hard to follow what was happening sometimes. I wanted to love this book but several times I was flipping back through feeling like I had missed something important.

Some things I loved:
The world and magic system is elaborate and engaging.
It is fast-paced.
The magic, creatures, and various fantasy elements are a breath of fresh air after reading so many books with European inspired fantasy.
The overarching theme of colonization was done well. There was so much this story had to offer in surviving as an oppressed people and what it means to rise up against injustice. The internal conflicts/reactions of each of the three characters felt genuine in regards to their part in the political and social issues of this world.
Ehigbor Okosun's writing shows a talent and great potential for wrapping us up into a story. I really enjoyed her writing style. The descriptions don't feel forced or drawn out, the magic system is fascinating and the political/social aspects of the world make you want to read more.

Things that didn't work for me:
We flew through things at times. We'd be dealing with one plot point and suddenly that was resolved and we had skipped through to a totally new conflict in the plot. Normally this would make for a fast-paced book but the transitions made the plot feel disjointed to me. I (on multiple occasions) had to pause and check if I had skipped something or missed an important detail.
I felt like the magic system needed some clarifying. For example, what was essentially a magical leash for Jonas, on several occasions was described as not being able to stretch very far. But then there are times that Demi is a whole room over without concern.
We need a glossary. There are so many terms, words for different types of Oluso, and so much in this world that I had difficulty remembering what was what.
There is a huge cast of characters and we didn't always get enough of an intro about a character for them to stick in my mind the next time they appeared. Again this may be because of the pacing/transition issue for my brain.

Additional Comments:
The love triangle was hard. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between two of the characters, so it didn't feel so much like a love triangle but more like the MC was just using the characters to relieve some of her trauma/stress through physical affection. This does appropriately fall under romantic fantasy genre, not fantasy romance, as the romance is a subplot.

I believe this is suppose to be marketed as a New Adult or Adult fantasy book. But the characters are young and the way they act makes it hard to read it as adult fantasy. HOWEVER, they are young but dealing with very much ADULT issues. So I am interested in seeing if the second book expands on that idea and matures them. I'd say for the general adult fantasy reader, this book may not be what they're use to because of the immaturity of the characters.

Final Notes: 
As a debut novel, Forged by Blood did intrigue me. I will be watching Ehigbor Okosun in the coming years and reading her books because there is amazing potential in her writing. I think that if the transitions and plot pacing wasn't so rough for me, this would have easily been a 4 or 5 star read. It's a solid debut and I can't wait to see what comes next!

Content Warnings

shelvesofivy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.25

From my first impressions of the STUNNING cover and the synopsis of a fantasy inspired by Nigerian mythology, I was super excited to get to this book. Once I got into the story, the author's way with words became clear: she gives very poetic and vibrant descriptions of Dèmi's emotions and the world around her.

Despite the lovely prose, it admittedly took me a while to become invested in the story. There seemed to be a slight imbalance between exposition and action, giving the feeling of a slow plot—despite the fact that this was not a slow or low stakes story by any means at all.
Around the halfway point, I finally felt hooked by the action and intrigue going on. I can't wait to see what the next book has in store for the characters and their (and my) unanswered questions. This is also the type of book that I'll definitely need to reread! There was a mix of twists that I predicted and did not, so I'd be interested to see all of the foreshadowing in hindsight. (I also want to reread a finished edition; since I originally read an unproofed copy, there were some punctuation and formatting errors)

When it comes to the characters, they really shine! Dèmi makes an incredible protagonist who's both strong and flawed. She has strong beliefs and her actions align with those beliefs throughout the book.
I adored one of the love interests from the beginning, and even though the other one annoyed me (as is usually the case when I read love triangles), I still grew to at least appreciate his character.

This is not a light story by any means (please check CWs!), but it remains hopeful and even humorous at times with the character dynamics. The moments of banter and heart are what I live for, and this delivered ♡

|| Thank you William Morrow Books for the advance reader's copy! I won this arc in a Storygraph giveaway, but all opinions in this review are my own. ||

Content Warnings

canascorner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Forged By Blood is the first book in a fantasy duology about a young woman named Dèmi. After losing her mother in a tragic way for which she feels responsible. Dèmi is forced to cope with being born with magic that has been forbidden and losing the only family she had left. Dèmi and other people like her, Oluso are persecuted and subjected to mass genocide by the magic-less Ajes. Demi makes a deal that has the opportunity to restore balance but she has to decide what she’s willing to risk and if the potential reward is worth it.

I enjoyed the story as a whole. Dèmi was a well crafted character. Her plight and struggles felt personal. The magic system and inclusion of Gods and deities was so intriguing. Calling her world beautiful feels wrong because of all of the cruelty they were subject to however, Ife sounds like such a beautiful place.

This book discusses some difficult points such as race, class, trust and the power of choice. The oppression of the Oluso people for being born magic wielders felt all to familiar. Dèmi’s refusal to settle for constant victimization kept me invested. She knew there was a better way for her and people like her to live and she fought to find it without compromising herself in the process.

Dèmi was a walking contradiction at times and it was frustrating. In a certain scene she would be so hyper vigilante that it bordered on unreasonable and in the following scene she would make a rash and very dangerous decision. There are times that Dèmi is angry and reacts before she has a chance to be given the full scope of the situation. I recognize that there are situations that require immediate action but it seemed that she jumped first and thought later so frequently that she was getting reckless.

While reading my overall experience was enjoyable and engaging. Participating in Dèmi’s grief process and battle with trust issues gave me things to consider. Dèmi’s selective impatience and anger got her into things that could have been avoided. In spite of the rough hand Demi was dealt, she never gave up and for those reasons I give Forged by Blood 4/5 stars.

This book would be great for people that enjoy mythological based fantasy books with diverse characters that have tear down the unjust political system mindset. If you’re sensitive to violence, death of parents, discrimination and mass genocide this book might not be for you.

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