OMG, this book was amazing, I literally don't have words for how brilliant this book, so I think I'm going to just have to recommend it to everyone because even days after finishing the book I'm still thinking about it, so I'm definitely urging everyone to read it.

The Blood Gift picks up where The Blood Trials left off and I was so excited to read more of Ikenna’s adventures.

Ikenna is such a compelling protagonist to begin with and I thought her character development was even better in this book than in The Blood Trials. Her anger and arrogance took on new, fascinating dimensions as she became more strategic and learned how to harness her gift. I was skeptical of the romance subplot in the first book but I came around to it in The Blood Gift. I also loved the found family elements within Ikenna’s squad and thought her encounters with the gods were really interesting. Similar to the Blood Trials, this book offers great commentary on colonialism, racism, sexism, patriotism, militarism, tyranny, and so much more.

Despite how much there was to love about this book, a few things frustrated me and ultimately lowered my rating. Without the trials in book one, the plot of the Blood Gift was variously driven by political intrigue, character relationships, and supernatural elements — but none felt fully developed. The world building usually happened through info dumps in dialogue, making it a bit clunky and hard to follow. A petty gripe is that the word “suffused” appeared so often that I was taken out of the story every time it appeared (all authors have overused words, so the fact that this particular one grated on me might just be a “me” problem). Finally, though this isn’t a complaint about the series itself, I wish I had known ahead of time that the books read like young adult novels; I have no problem with YA-ish writing but I was thrown off by incorrect expectations.

My favorite part of The Blood Gift was the last 20% or so — if more of the book had resembled the last quarter, I might have rated it 5 stars. Overall, this was a satisfying end to the duology and even though it didn’t meet all my hopes and dreams for the sequel, it was an enjoyable read.

My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an ARC of this book.

The Blood Trials is one of my absolute favourite books, so I was obviously so excited for its sequel! And it did not disappoint.

N.E. Davenport is a master at writing brilliant characters, and I adored faces old and new. The plot is action packed, non-stop excitement. Couldn't put it down! The Blood Gift is a satisfying conclusion to an impressive duology that I will no doubt read again and again.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

N. E. Davenport's The Blood Gift, which concludes the sci-fi fantasy duology, is a gratifying read. This is a story about warfare, blood magic, and revolution, with Ikenna leading the charge against her adversaries. In the first book, there was a noticeable "Young Adult" tone in an otherwise adult novel, which has significantly diminished in this one.

While Ikenna remains a compelling character, Reed's character grew on the reader over time. The secondary characters and companions, however, failed to evoke as much emotional investment as anticipated, except for their connection to Ikenna. The book explores themes of self-doubt, fear of loss, and friendship, and Ikenna's character development and vulnerability with Reed were particularly noteworthy.

The expanded magic system and the brush with the pantheon of gods made the conflicts and battles more epic, and the gods' fallibility added depth to the story. The escalating stakes and fast-paced action, with a deep dive into the politics and history of the world, kept the readers engaged. The book's political undertones are intricately woven into the story, and Ikenna's fierce determination against the system and her enemies made her a character to cheer for.

There’s no greater betrayal, in my opinion, than reading and enjoying the first book in a series, only to come to the sequel and dislike it intensely. You can’t explain it, but something has changed in the year between books that means, for all you liked the first one, you can barely drag yourself through the second.

This is, very sadly, the story of The Blood Gift for me.

In part, I might hazard a guess, that it comes down to the fact that I didn’t remember a thing from the first book. So, here I am, being thrown back into a world where I don’t remember anything, not least characters and who they are, where we ended the last book, what even happened in it. The nuances, the politics, all of it forgotten. Frankly, I think we need to start asking publishers to put recaps in at the start of sequels. I cannot keep living like this and I don’t have time to reread anything I don’t much care to.

So that was issue number one. But what was also apparent was that aspects which irritated me in the first book (which I mentioned in my review then too), only became more irritating in the second book, probably not helped by its opaqueness (and a slower pace). In book one, I found the main character self-absorbed and quite selfish, and at times frustratingly impulsive, but you could understand it as a protective mechanism. I never felt like any of that had lessened in book two, when the end of the first book might have served as a catalyst for character development. Instead, it felt like the character didn’t develop one bit throughout the entire duology except to (somehow) become more powerful. While, on occasion, she got called out for being self-absorbed and impulsive, this only felt surface level. Whatever it was that she impulsively did turned out fine anyway. She was basically, from page one of book one, guaranteed not to fail. As such, I think there might have been a more compelling story in her failure somewhere in here.

The relative overpoweredness of the main character was another issue I had in the first book, which is kind of offset here by the fact that she comes up against people who are equally overpowered, so her specific powers aren’t that special any longer. This doesn’t stop her from apparently being the most special of the special powered individuals. Somehow. Only she can take down the Blood Emperor, or something. I don’t know, at some point I checked out on the specifics.

However, these parts, I think, were to be expected. It’s entirely possible I’m a reader with less patience than I was a year ago, so these things grated on me more. Another point in this one specifically was the pacing. There was a lot of info-dumping that I don’t recall happening in the first book, as the world’s politics are explained to us as the main character and her friends attempt to gather allies. Then there’s more info-dumping as side characters start to tell the main character more about her powers. Again, if I had remembered more anyway of the politics of the world from book one, then maybe this wouldn’t have mattered so much. But I didn’t, so it did.

Then there’s the side characters. In the first book, the side characters felt a lot more fleshed out and with agency of their own. In this, they become basically relegated to Ikenna’s fanclub. Oh, they argue with her on occasion, they don’t always like her, it’s true. But at the end of the day, their sole role now is to support her and make quippy remarks. Plus, if I read this correctly (debatable), there’s a time skip between the end of book one and the start of this book. So any development to make this group as ready to die for one another as I’m supposed to believe they are has happened off page.

In terms of plot, it’s slow-moving as I said, but at times it does also feel like the author’s recourse when attempting to move it forward is simply to have Ikenna (and co, but mostly her) kill a bunch of people. Book one was violent too, so that’s not the issue I had with it so much as that it doesn’t feel like it has a point except that the author doesn’t know how to have the cast discover a salient thing that leads them further onwards. Oh, they don’t know their next move? Let’s have them be attacked so they discover that there’s more than one bounty on their heads. Oh, they have no allies? Let’s have them be attacked and kidnapped to conveniently bring them closer to the Blood Emperor via someone who already wants to kill him. It got tiring.

All in all, then, I think the lesson to be learned from this book is that I should never go back to series I started over a year ago (not kidding). Between this and the last one I tried, it’s not gone well recently.

4.5 out of 5 stars from me!

I read The Blood Trials the last year and was extremely impressed and excited for this book.

I love how it immediately starts with action and the same energy book 1 ended with. My girl, Ikenna, is such a kickass murderous queen. At time I find her completely annoying, and it made me want to throw the book but overall, she does what needs to be done. Also, the book sometimes comes off as YA even though it Adult. But that probably because Ikenna is still pretty young and immature.

At first, even though it started off with action I felt like the pace was slow and then it took off and went a little fast and things got overlooked and missed. Some of what made book 1 amazing was lacking a little in this book.

Overall, I enjoyed it from the action scenes to the spice, to the world building and involvement with the Gods. I love this Duology and look forward with anticipation for whatever comes next with this world and Ikenna's journey (because with the ending, there's gotta be more, right!?)

If you are looking for an adult fantasy that has a little bit of ass kicking, spice and black girl magic, this is the Duology for you. (TW, if you read The Blood Trial, you know it deals with racism, sexism, elitist and colorism, The Blood Gift has that too but also a scene of sexual assault).

Thank you so much to N.E. Davenport, Harper Voyager, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An excellent and satisfying follow up and conclusion to the blood trials. Just as strong and immersive as the first book with the ending I would have hoped for. Highly recommended.

The first book in this series was all kinds of spectacular and adored by my students, and it looks like Book 2 will be as equally well received - a cracking read!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Blood Gift' by N.E. Davenport

'The Blood Gift' is the perfect end to N.E. Davenport's duology. Like it's starter book, it was consistently well written with interesting worldbuilding and characters. Davenport tackles a lot of topics in this duology and I felt that the story wouldn't have been as heartfelt without it. Overall, this conclusion was perfection.