Hi friends, happy Friday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m posting my review of Liselle Sambury’s novel, the second book in the Blood Like Magic duology, Blood Like Fate.

You can read my review of book one: Blood Like Magic

Blood Like Fate by: Liselle Sambury: After Voya’s Calling, everything has felt like it’s gone wrong. Her grandmother died, her cousins hate her and she can’t help but love the boy who is destroying their family. After being named the family Matriarch, she feels as if her own family doesn’t believe in her, and as events happen around her, she begins to lose faith in herself. She must find the spark to unite her family and community back together before it’s too late. Despite any qualms this reader had with this novel, they absolutely loved it and had such a fun time reading it. The magic and the family and the vibes of it all were just such an enjoyment, then adding that this took place in Toronto/Mississauga, that really brought it home for the reader. Knowing all the places the author was referencing just added an extra layer of warmth and hominess to the story, that was already there by the way Sambury wrote about family, but that took this reader’s reading experience to the next level. Aside from that, the plot was, for the most part, fast moving, there were times when this really dragged because it felt very exposition heavy. There was a lot of talk about what was happening and how that related to what was going to happen, which the reader appreciated, but they would have preferred if they had just read it happening instead of being told how it was going to happen. The whole robot plot was so good, the reader couldn’t get enough of it; just when they thought they knew where it was going, Sambury was like, psych, you thought. The reader liked that we had to keep guessing and that kept us on our toes. The characters were also really well created. Our main character, Voya, her character development was really good because we spent the first half of the novel kinda in a woe-is-me state of mind, which got old really quickly and the reader wanted to snap some sense into her, but she had great family to do that for her. The relationship she had with her cousins was so good, they really loved each other through it all and they could be real with one another and it was so beautiful to see it all play out. They definitely helped to shape Voya into the adult she would soon become; they pulled her from making selfish moves and helped to show how her actions affected the family and they taught her the art of listening; it’s character growth like this that is so moving to read. All of her family were so interesting to read and they all felt so memorable in their own ways. The reader didn’t exactly care for the romance plot in this, it didn’t give anything, nor did it make the reader feel anything, it kinda fell in the background to all the magic and action that was going on. The way the world was set up with each of their families having magic was just so cool; the reader could have read so many stories in this world. In the end, this was a wonderful conclusion to a well written, exciting and enjoyable duology.