I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker Series: Blood Debts #1
Published by Tor Teen on 4/4/23
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 404
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Thirty years ago, a young woman was murdered, a family was lynched, and New Orleans saw the greatest magical massacre in its history. In the days that followed, a throne was stolen from a queen.
On the anniversary of these brutal events, Clement and Cristina Trudeau—the sixteen-year-old twin heirs to the powerful, magical, dethroned family—are mourning their father and caring for their sick mother. Until, by chance, they discover their mother isn’t sick—she’s cursed. Cursed by someone on the very magic council their family used to rule. Someone who will come for them next.
Cristina, once a talented and dedicated practitioner of Generational magic, has given up magic for good. An ancient spell is what killed their father and she was the one who cast it. For Clement, magic is his lifeline. A distraction from his anger and pain. Even better than the random guys he hooks up with.
Cristina and Clement used to be each other’s most trusted confidant and friend, now they barely speak. But if they have any hope of discovering who is coming after their family, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other and their family's magic, all while solving the decades-old murder that sparked the still-rising tensions between the city’s magical and non-magical communities. And if they don't succeed, New Orleans may see another massacre. Or worse.
Short and Sweet Review
Thirty years ago, a young woman was murdered and the person blamed ended up being lynched and in the process her daughter lost the throne to the magical council. Now Clement and Cristina are mourning their father and taking care of their sick mother, but after they do a spell they realize their mother isn’t sick someone put a curse on her. Cristina used to do magic but after casting a spell and thinking it backfired, she’s given it up. Clement on the other hand uses magic as a distraction from the things going on in his life. Cristina and Clem used to have a good relationship but as of late they barely speak, but now that they know someone is after their family, they have to put their differences aside and work together.
I expected a lot from this book, I wanted more mystery aspects and more magic taking place in the great city of New Orleans, what I got instead was a whole lot of petty fighting and too many characters. Now that I’m thinking about characters I remember a POV of one who I don’t even think was important in this book. Anyway Cristina and Clem are always at each others throats and even though they’re supposed to be working together its like pulling teeth to get them to get over what happened in the past and move on to save their family’s legacy. After finding out that their mother has been cursed, Cristina and Clement have to get the rest of the family together to cast a protection spell, unfortunately all of their aunts are also distant from each other and have petty arguments which means it just runs in the family. Cristina is determined to find out who did this to her mom and starts investigating but she knows she has to get Clem to help her. I was excited about trying to find out who hexed their mother and we get to see the murder from 30 years ago get solved. All of this was fine, my biggest problem was how many characters there were and how petty they all were. I think there was too much fighting and it took away from what the synopsis said the book would be about. We have characters trying to kill each other for power and others who are just pawns. Lenora is the queen of the magical council and she’s ruthless and her granddaughter Valentina is just as awful and has it out for Cristina. I don’t really want to talk about the romance because it all just seemed forced and nothing too genuine. We see the family reunite at the end and it also seemed too little too late.
It took me longer to read this book than I thought it would and I will attribute that to feeling duped by the synopsis. There were a lot of loose ends in this book and although this book didn’t convince me I should read the next book I’m interested to see what will happen next and I’m hoping for A LOT of character development.
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