Blood Magic By Jennifer Lyon

Back Blurb-In the days when powerful witches used their magic to shield humanity from demons, their allies and guardians were a group of men gifted with preternatural abilities of their own--the witch guardians. But when a band of witches traded their humanity for demon power, the ancient bond was borken, and the guardians became the hunters.

Darcy MacAllister knows nothing of demons or magic. But this beautiful young woman is about to discover the truth about her past...and her future. For she is a witch--not just any witch, but the key to breaking the curse that has plagued witches and the men who hunt them. For if a hunter kills an innocent witch by mistake, the price is no less than a piece of his soul.

Axel Locke, the gorgeous leader of the Wing Slayer Hunters, has sworn never to shed the blood of the earth witches who have resisted the temptation of demonic power. But when his sister is cursed by a demon witch, he discovers that Darcy MacAllister may hold the cure--if she can master her newfound powers in time. When the chase begins and Axel and Darcy come face-to-face, this hunter must weigh his sould against his honor--and against his heart.


When I stopped by Barnes and Noble this evening to pick up my copy of Angels' Blood and As Shadows Fade, I decided to do a quick browse through to see if I could find anything else to read. This is the book I happened to pick up.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it and decide if I liked it or not. On to the Good and Bad checklist!


The Good-


Darcy-My heart went out to her at the beginning of this book. The poor woman had been through so much and to have all of this drama basically dropped in her lap, it just wasn't fair. But, she bounced back and my respect grew for her throughout the story.

Hannah-Axel's little sister. I'm not usually a fan of children in books, but I thought she came across as a true four-year-old girl. It's awful what she goes through, but she's a little trooper and absolutely adorable. I still don't like kids in books though. Just sayin'.

The overall concept of the story-Very unique way of looking at things. The hunters are basically vampire-like in their need for the witches blood. It's a bit complicated, but I like it.

The Secondary Characters-Joe, Morgan, Claire...well-written and make you want to read their stories. Poor Morgan. I won't go into details, but whoa.

Axel-I didn't care for him at all when the book first started out, but by the end of the book he'd sold me. I still think he made some really dumb decisions, but I understand why he did what he did.


The Bad-

The writing. It got better as the book went on, but at the beginning there was a lot of author intrusion and info dumping. I'm not sure if this is the author's first book or not, but I had some serious trepidation when I got into the book. I will say this though, once she figures out her voice and the action picks up, the book gets MUCH better.

The Character Names-For the Wing Slayer's especially. It's like a bad Black-Dagger Brotherhood convention. Axel, Kieran (I like his name, but he goes by Key...blech), Pheonix, Ram...it's kind of stupid. I'm being harsh, but I really hate goofy names. They drive me nuts.

Obvious Sequel Bait-BIG TIME sequel bait. I can list at least two books I know will happen and the rest of the Wing Slayer's will probably get their own books too. I hate sequel bait, especially when it's obvious.

Inconsistencies-Especially in the world-building. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but I will say it's obvious when you get to that point.



Overall Impression-Overall, the book's not bad. I know it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't and will be reading Sutton's story when it comes out. I think if the author had cut herself off from dropping so much information into our laps, the story would've been better. The second half of the book was actually really good.

I just checked and this book isn't a debut novel. I'm not sure what I think of that.


My Rating: D for the beginning, B+ for the middle to end, which gives this book an overall grade of about a Cish. I'm sure there will be others out there who really really like this book. I feel bad that I'm making it sound worse than it actually is. That's not my intention. This book has me a bit conflicted. I really didn't like the first third of the book, but I really liked the end. Go figure.