Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you doing today? I hope you’re well :).
I’ve just finished “Song of Blood and Stone,” a fantasy book that i enjoyed. I didn’t absolutely love it but it wasn’t a bad read either!
“Song of Blood and Stone” is an ARC that I’ve had for AGES! I’m trying to get through as many ARCs as I can this month...see below!!
3 Stars!
I read Song of Blood and Stone for several readathons again. These being:
* Popsugar 2019 Challenge - A book about someone with a superpower - The song aspect in the title gives some of the characters healing abilities - The Earthsong is the superpower in this world.
* Reading Rivalry - “a book involving the arts” - although we never hear a “song” being sung, it’s what the magic element is called in “Song of Blood and Stone,” so it counts, right?
* Litwits - Involves music - again we never “hear” a song being sung but it counts!
Fiction Feud Society - game of CLUE - Revolver (Sci-fi/fantasy) - “Song of Blood and Stone” is a fantasy.
* Literary Love Affair - “Book with a kickass heroine” - Jasminda is pretty kickass. She doesn’t just accept things are the way they are. She challenges the rules!
* mARCh-a-thon - This is my own little readathon, where I’m trying to read as many arcs as I can in the month of March. “Song of Blood and Stone” took a little bit longer than I would have liked to finish because I had a bad run headaches but now I’m better. “Song of Blood and Stone” is Arc #3 so I’m hopeful I can still get 5 read...Wish me luck!
“Song of Blood and Stone” centres on a war that surrounds the Elsira and Lagrimari people and the Mantle that stands between them. This is a fantasy book, as I’ve said, so the Elsira and Lagrimari people don’t really exist. It’s, I suppose like religious sects going to war against each other in the real world. The True Father is like the God that rules over both sects. He is the evil force in this world that our main characters try to overcome...do they??? You’ll have to read to find out...
“Song of Blood and Stone” is mainly written in 3rd person. (The main plot is.) I didn’t hate this, this time because Jasminda and Jack, our main girl and boy character weren’t in every scene, so unless this was duel POV, which I don’t love reading either, it wouldn’t have worked. It was a little like the “Stonewylde series” by Kit Berry, which if you’ve read my reviews for, you’ll know I LOVED. In “Song of Blood and Stone” it might have been nice to have a couple of first person moments from each main character but it wasn’t necessary to enjoy the plot more, I don’t think. I said the main plot is written in 3rd person. Bits here and there, at the beginning and end of chapters were written in first person. This kind of confused me a little bit. I’m still not sure why those bits were written that way. I suppose it’s so Jasminda, our main female character could experience being another person (I won’t give more away, as it’s central to the main plot and giving it away would make the book a pointless read apart from the romance, in my opinion).
I, of course read this more for the romance, than the war aspects. I’m pleased to say the romance kept me hooked, throughout. I kind of wanted it to go further, which I’ll go more into in the spoiler section below. There’s a 1.5 novella, “Breath of Dust and Frost” to this series that follows the same characters so after I’ve read that, I’ll add a paragraph or two to this review, summarising my thoughts of the story as a whole. I probably won’t read further in the series because it appears we follow different characters after that and I’m not that interested in following other, new characters.
The app that I use to read my NetGalley arcs didn’t record the quotes that I saved for this review, so there won’t be any. I’ll still summarise my thoughts in the spoiler section but that’s why there’s no evidence.
Spoilers Below...
Jasminda is our main female character. She is Lagrimari. We see her trying to overcome a family issue to begin with. Her parents were killed because of this war between the Lagrimari and the Elsian’s. Her Grandfather doesn’t care what happens to Jasminda. She’s of no concern to him, we learn early on in “Song of Blood and Stone.”
We see that Jasminda lives in a hut because she doesn’t have enough money to afford nicer lodgings. When she’s on her way home after being at the post office to try and solve a situation, she comes across a young man. This young man, Jack is a prisoner of the Lagrimari people. He’s hurt and captured and his captors force their way into Jasminda’s lodgings. Jack is Elsian. Jasminda heals Jack with her Earthsong. You can probably guess what happens between these two characters if you’ve read my other reviews as my favourite books have opposing forces coming to love each other. That’s what happens here, as Jasminda and Jack fall in love.
“Song of Blood and Stone” is a new adult book, I’d say because the sexual scenes do play out for us. They’re not crude but they’re not off the page, either. We know what’s happening. I would have liked for this romance to have gone further in perhaps, Jasminda getting pregnant with Jack’s baby. It would have been interesting to see him protect Jasminda and their child from the forces that are working against them. Also I’ll note here how Jasminda is Lagrimari and Jack is Elsian so we would have had a baby that’s both if this plot point had of happened, which would have made the plot more interesting for me.
I wouldn’t exactly call it instalove, although the characters do have sex pretty soon after getting to the palace. Another HUGE point to take into mind is that Jack is Jaqros Edvard Alliaseen, Price Regent, after his brother dies. His brother isn’t a main character. Jasminda doesn’t learn this until she’s at the palace. We only find out when she does, too so if you don’t like books that involve twists that you’d never see coming, as well as kind of instalove, perhaps don’t pick this up!
There is a sort of love triangle in “Song of Blood and Stone” for Jack. I didn’t find it annoying because it was always pretty obvious just who he’d choose but it’s there to add a little tension to the plot, I guess. It’s between Jasminda and a girl named Lizvette. Lizvette has been a friend of Jack’s ever since they were children. Lizvette’s father plays a role in “Song of Blood and Stone” as well. Does she expect to be be Queen? Does her father expect her to be? You’ll have to read to find out!
There were tense parts, where Jasminda was captured and had to be saved, like a damsel in distress kind of thing but the battle scenes at the end weren’t that good. To be honest the only thing I was reading “Song of Blood and Stone” for was the romance, which I got so that might be why my rating is a little on the high side because I really enjoyed the love story and how it was the main overarching plot.
Overall then, I enjoyed certain parts to “Song of Blood and Stone” more than other parts. The romance was written really well, I thought, even if it was a little easy to guess what the outcome would be. The war elements were somewhat secondary to the romance plot, which, as I’ve said was fine for me but it might have been nice to have seen a little more action to go along with the romance, as this is a fantasy and not just a contemporary. I’ll read the 1.5 novella as it wraps up things for Jasminda and Jack but after that I won’t read anymore in this series, I don’t think. All of that is why I’m giving “Song of Blood and Stone” 3 Stars!
Stand by for my next review coming soon...
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