In her extraordinary debut, Spells of Blood and Kin, Claire Humphrey deftly weaves her paranormal world with vivid emotional depth and gritty violence. Bringing together themes of death, addiction, and grief, Claire takes readers on a human journey that goes beyond fantasy.
When her beloved grandmother dies suddenly, 22-year-old Lissa Nevsky is left with no choice but to take over her grandmother’s magical position in their small folk community. That includes honoring a debt owed to the dangerous stranger who appears at Lissa’s door.
Maksim Volkov needs magic to keep his brutal nature leashed, but he’s already lost control once: his blood-borne lust for violence infects Nick Kaisaris, a charming slacker out celebrating the end of finals. Now Nick is somewhere else in Toronto, going slowly mad, and Maksim must find him before he hurts more people.
Lissa must uncover forbidden secrets and mend family rifts in order to prevent Maksim from hurting more people, including himself. If she fails, Maksim will have no choice but to destroy both himself and Nick. @goodreads
MY REVIEW:
3 STARS
I'm not really sure about this book. I loved it toward the end and the beginning but during a lot of the middle it sort of dragged for me. Maybe I just didn't understand all that was going on.
Lissa's grandmother dies in the beginning of the book. We don't even get to meet her that way because it starts out with her death. She's a very powerful witch that has been around for a long time. She has been teaching Lissa spells and leaves her house and everything to her.
Lissa does spells for the neighborhood people that come for different kinds of potions. It's kind of neat because she does the spell over an egg with whatever ingredients the spell calls for and the person is supposed to drink the egg, preferably in something tasty!
And there these people in the book called kin and I never could figure out what they were. I thought they might be wolves because of the way they talk about running and being outside. They love the taste of blood so they try to keep themselves tired out and drunk so they won't get wild. It stated in the book they are not vampires that they are just an old race with powers. Hmmmm... maybe I got something wrong.
Anyway, so this kin named Maksim always visited Lissa's grandmother and she gave him sleeping eggs and was supposed to find a cure for him. He doesn't want to worry about hurting someone but he has turned someone and he needs to get this done quickly. Only... he finds out that Lissa is the only one left so he asks for her help. There is a way that Lissa can contact her grandmother at certain times and only ask three questions. Lissa had no clue this guy-ish person existed but she finds out about him and agrees to help.
There is also another kin named Gus and she has known Maksim for many years and they try to look out for each other. Gus doesn't like the witches because she is afraid of what they can do but that all works out later on. The guy that Maksim changes is named Nick. They are trying to take care of him too so he doesn't hurt someone. Basically they run a lot and stay drunk a lot. I think I said that already, but I digress.
Oh and Lissa's stepsister Stella comes to live with her. This is a big surprise to Lissa as she doesn't want her there but they form a bond and it's really sweet. I loved that part. It's sad though because Lissa's dad wouldn't come over to visit her so to hell with him.
Like I said, I liked the book good enough I just wish I didn't feel like I was crazy as a loon at times because I wasn't sure what in the hell they were talking about. I also wish I really and truly knew what they are besides kin. I mean I googled it but I didn't get anything from Russian folklore or didn't type it in correctly.
Either way I think a lot of people will enjoy the book a lot and some will like it well enough like me. :-)
*I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for my honests review.*
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1651459333
AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:
http://www.amazon.com/Spells-Blood-Kin-Dark-Fantasy/dp/125007634X?ie=UTF8&qid=1464483577&ref_=tmm_hrd_swatch_0&sr=8-1
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