Thank you to NetGalley, Twig Publishing, Olivia Wildenstein (author), Katie Hayoz (author), Holly Fielding (narrator), and Thomas Locklear (narrator) for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook of Of Wicked Blood in exchange for an honest review.

I used the NetGalley Shelf application to listen to this early review copy of the book. The narrators read the roles fantastically!

Slate finds out an interesting bit about his own personal history, and he's not sure how to feel about it. He also happens to do something he probably shouldn't have...ending up stuck wearing a cursed ring destined to bring him to his death. Cadence, along with many people in this society, grew up being told fantastical stories of magic. But they are just stories. Magic certainly isn't real...is it?

Slate is just a thief, tossed around through the foster care system throughout his whole life. When he gets a letter telling him of a very iconic family heritage, a birth certificate to prove it, he heads back to the place of his origin to see what magical secrets might unfold about himself and his family. Cadence lives in Brume, and when Slate arrives, the two find their paths intertwined on a magical adventure. Brume was once full of witchcraft, and Cadence's belief in magic is altered, especially when she grows attached to Slate and wants to help save his life from the cursed ring, even though he is the dummy that got himself in that situation in the first place.

While this is a young adult novel, it felt a bit more sophisticated and adult. There were a number of adult themes and the language and political aspects of the world felt of a higher level of reading and comprehension. I highly enjoyed the author's craft and the narration in the audiobook. The end felt wholesome but abrupt at the same time, leaving the potential for more, but also leaving the reader with a feel of completeness from this story. A Must-read for any urban fantasy fan.

OF WICKED BLOOD is the first in the Quatrefoil Chronicles by Olivia Wildenstein.

What a great urban fantasy! I would have given it 10 starts if I could. Urban fantasy/mystery/and a pinch of romance . All wrapped up in a really good read. I am totally hooked on the series just after finishing this. I do like the humor that comes out of the rough tough mr know it all Slate. He has a cactus named Spike and buried under that touch man is a guy that protects he "brother" who busts his butt and risks his life to protect his girl. Good mix of characters. Good mix of plot. My only con to this book was it tended to drag in a few places but overall well worth the listen.

I recieved this audiobook free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A really excellent narrator. This book is obviously intended for a younger audience than I am used to, but the world and character building is thorough and it’s an interesting read. Unsure if this will be a series but it would work well as one

Thank you to netgalley and twig publishings for allowing me to read this book.

This is definitely a book which goes well with a hot chocolate and a blanket as a cosy winter read.

I love how the authors have a beautiful mixture of magic, ancient curses, mysteries and secrets with some fabulous humour and a sprinkling of romance thrown in for good measure then this is the book for you.

Slate was orphaned and raised in the foster system where he meets his brother, Bastion. Slate gets a letter inviting him to Brome where he learns about his family history and the dark history about why he was abandoned.

The only thing that really bugged my happiness is the random dots of French words which is really not needed when they are speaking French majority of the book and it's translated to English.

I can't wait to see what happens next in the series.

Characters - 6/10
Here's the thing. I really enjoyed this book, but it has some flaws. The most noticeable one is the trope-y characters. Literally, every character is a YA trope. The bad boy, the ditzy, boy crazy best friend, the naive and "pure" main character. They were all just cookie-cutter characters.

Especially Slate and Cadance. This book is pretty adult (if you ask me this should be a New Adult book) but the characters are literal children. Slate is just a really petty teenager with anger issues and Cadance is the innocent one who can't be corrupted. I find myself disliking that trope more and more.

I kept waiting for them to develop a bit, and we get there by the end. I'm interested to see where they go from here.

Atmosphere - 6/10
I loved the setting and the atmosphere in this book. I could really envision the small French town this takes place in and the winter setting just made it so cosy. However, I did take off two whole stars for the FOUR HP references in this book. In the year 2021, do we really still need HP references in books? Do we really want to support a TERF? No. HP is not the only book with magic, and we need to stop acting like it is. Make a Hocus Pocus reference or something else.

Writing - 6/10
The writing was not bad. I couldn't put the book down. Once again, I deducted points for the HP references. It just makes me really mad.

Plot - 7/10
I have to give credit where credit is due. I loved the plot. It was fast-paced but the slower moments were just as interesting to read. The story idea was just so unique and I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I obviously have some polarizing views here. It's like with Crave by Tracy Wolff. I loved the story, but I'm trying to be objective.

Intrigue - 7/10
I was thoroughly intrigued since I read this book in like two days. I'm a sucker for magical romance okay, sue me.

Logic - 6/10
The magic system could have been better developed, but I sense we don't know a lot about it since some of the characters are hiding it. I was very confused about the ending. Cadance's father is definitely hiding something and I hope it's resolved in the second book.

Enjoyment - 7/10
I did enjoy this. I wish it had done some things differently, but sometimes I just have to be trash for books.

CAWPILE = 6.4/10
3 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for providing an early copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

While I really, really enjoyed the plot idea and magic structure Wildenstein had set up here, I was so unable to connect to or root for either of our main characters that I never got into the story. Slate (our resident badboy) was probably the worst offender. We're constantly reminded about how bad and edgy he and his past are, but it always felt so over the top the I never really bought into the characterization. By contrast, the innocence Cadence was written with also felt too forced and unbelievable for her age.

This was interesting in concept but since it's execution relied so heavily on a relationship between two characters I found flat, Of Wicked Blood fell really flat for me.

If you read fantasy and this book is not in your radar you need to check it out now!

This story was epic, unputdownable and addictive.
Of Wicked Blood is a mix of fantasy, slow-burn romance, with a bit of magic and paranormal that will keep you at the edge of your seat. I loved the characthers, I loved the pace, I loved the setting, everthing was perfect.
I need book two of this series soon please.

Thank you Netgalley and Twig Publishing for this ALC.

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**Audiobook supplied by Netgalley in exchange of an honest review**

Le Sommaire: after surviving foster care by all means necessary, Slate travels to his hometown to get his inheritance, only problem is that his impulsiveness has left him with a magic ring stuck to his finger, and with it, a curse that will kill him. Unless he and 3 others complete a series of tasks.

Cadence is part of the group, to my opinion she is naive and annoying to a fault. I really don’t get how Slate likes her, other than she’s hot. Also, there were so many red flags concerning Cadence’s father, and no-one said a beep. How come?

I honestly couldn’t connect with any of the characters, I wouldn’t have blinked if any of them died at the end.

As far as the audio is concerned, I listened to Slates chapters at normal speed without any issues, but Cadences I listened at 1.25 the speed, I just felt it was a bit slow and whiny.

One good thing I loved is the cursing in French. It gave the book a lot of colour.

I loved this book. I thought the audiobook was amazing. I really liked the back and forth between Cadence and Slate. I loved battle between Slate and Cadence's father. I basically just loved Slate. The concept was awesome and I could have done with MORE world description.

I really enjoyed the first few chapters, there are beautiful descriptions of the eerie town of Brume, and the atmosphere is built so perfectly that you can really see yourself there. The characters, both main and side, were written with unique personalities that really help you to become invested in their journey. I also found they were written really well for their age, late teens/early 20's, and could fully believe this to be how someone of that age would react to and behave in the situation they have found themselves in.
The pace of this book was a little inconsistent, the first half progressed at a medium to fast pace, but then towards the end, everything sped up intensely, and I had to go back and listen to portions 3 or 4 times to make sure I understood what was going on.
There is a noticeable lack of diversity among the cast of characters, and as this is something that I am not used to in my chosen reads, it was a little off-putting as it was so apparent.

I really wanted to like this book, but I simply did not. I couldn't connect with any of the characters enough to care what happened to them. Since I listened to the audio, it's possible that the narrators were part of the problem, for Slate's character at least, as his voice grated on my nerves.

This review is for the audiobook so will also feature narrator reviews. Told from two points of view Cadence's and Slate's the audio follows this with two narrators and they compliment each other's reading pretty well.

This is a decent urban fantasy series set France with some mystery around the recovery of magical objects. At first the main male PoV is kind of unlikable but he grows on you.

I really enjoyed the audio version of this book. I'm not a HUGE audiobook lover, but I have come to appreciate and enjoy them as a way of devouring my favorite stories while doing any and everything from cooking to working out.

Of Wicked Blood had fantastic audio. The pacing was perfect, the voices matched what I imagined in my head, and yea, I swooned quite a bit more with the romance once I heard everything out loud.

I'll admit it's a bit distracting when the male/female voice tries to do the opposite sex. The female's part wasn't too bad, but I found myself giggling a little when the male voice would try to go high pitched. Regardless, I'm sure that's a "me" thing and I can't really complain about this audiobook. It's definitely helping me WANT to listen to more books, so that's awesome in my opinion.

I loved this book. The plot was structured beautifully and the story hooked me in from the beginning all the way until the end. I can’t wait for the next book I’ll definitely give it a read. My one issue was that this book seemed more like a new adult novel instead of a young adult, and the mutual pinning of the two main characters while fun to see play out often distracted from the overall plot.

4/5 The audiobook for Of Wicked Blood was good, I liked that it was a duel narration and enjoyed the voices of both narrators. The only thing that I did not really like is that I really had to speed up the narration, I usually set the speed at 1.5x but had to go to 2.5x.

5/5 For the overall story, I was not able to put Of Wicked Blood down once I started it. Of wicked blood is an urban fantasy set in Brume France, with magic, monsters, mystery and a slow burn romance! I can’t wait for the rest of the series to come out.

I quite possibly found a new book to add to my FAVORITES book shelf. Gahh, you can’t pick up on my fangirling, so you’ll just have to trust my word.
About the Book:
Of Wicked Blood follows two characters, Cadence and Slate, who are both members of the founding families of a highly unusual French town. They must work together under a restrictive time constraint to bring all four leaves of the quatrifoil together while dealing with the chemistry between themselves. AND, if they fail, they may never get the chance to live their lives, let alone together.
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Four stars. I really liked them but would have liked to learn more about Slate’s past. The book skims the surface, saying a little about his childhood in rough foster homes and that it was generally all around bad, but not much more. So...maybe next book? Moving on. There was great chemistry between the characters, and they were easy to empathize with.
Plot/Word-building:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gawd, the author created such an intricate world woven from strings of the brightest of colors and finest of quality. The world was original and the plot grasped your attention but didn’t take away from the world building.
Writing:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It played out like a movie in my head, so I say it’s good.

Other things:
- The ending. Ahhh, why! I need more.

Absolutely fantastic audiobook, I recently read this and thought I would give this a go to see if I enjoyed it as much. I was pleasantly surprised as at times audiobooks can change the way I see characters, but not this, the narrator’s voice was spot on and I found I still saw the characters the same. A wonderful story, the audiobook felt a touch slower than the book, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the tale. Just a fantastic listen.

Thanks to netgalley and the (audio) publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I read the book first a few months ago and it was amazing. So, I decided to reread with audiobook and it was perfect. The narrators gave the exact amount of voice to the characters without shattering the image I already had of them and I cannot wait for book 2 to come out so I can binge read it.

Slate Ardoin is an orphan who grew up in the foster care system. His name was given to him by the system and his birthday is a guess at best. He has had to fight to not only survive but also build a life for himself and his foster brother Bastian. His life is turned upside down when a mysterious letter arrives claiming that Slate is the missing heir to one of the founding families in Brume, a town steeped in magical lore.

Cadence de Morel grew up in Brume and as a member of one of the founding families has known luxury her whole life. Everything she thinks she knows and loves is about to be tested when on one fateful day she bumps into Slate and their fates intertwine.

Cadence, Slate, and two other descendants from founding families begin a treasure-hunt of sorts but they must defeat 4 curses and find the pieces of the quatrefoil before time runs out.

I really enjoyed this book! It is well written and the narrators did a fabulous job bringing life to the characters. I cannot wait to see where the journey leads in book two!

Of Wicked Blood is one of the best books I have read in a long time! It keeps you interest from the start as well as giving you a lot to think about throughout.