Not my favourite of Olivie Blake's work but an enjoyable read nevertheless. I did find the plot to be a tad confusing in places and it took me a while to get into the story. However, I did enjoy the multiple POVs and eras.

An enjoyable read but not my favourite of Olivie Blake's. I found the plot a bit vague and uninteresting at points, and didn't engage with the characters very well. I did enjoy the conversational storytelling narrative though

I did enjoy this standalone from Olivie Blake.
It did take me a couple of chapters to get into the flow of the story but I also found myself getting confused at points too especially around the middle of the book. Once I understood what was going on it was great.
I enjoyed the multiple POV’s we got in the book as well as the multiple time eras. I loved the characters especially Fox who I found to be brilliant, funny and odd!
I really enjoyed the character dynamics in the book too and found them really well written and constructed. I loved the world building in the book too.
This book had you going through so many different emotions which is what I love when reading a book. This book was ultimately about finding love and losing it too.
I’d definitely read more from this author going forward.

Thank you to the author, Publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

We have a vampire real estate agent with a house to sell. A ghost is haunting the house and thwarting her efforts. Her demon best friend suggests she engages the help of Death's godson and he brings along his sidekicks - a reaper and and an angel. In the blink of an eye a murder mystery turns into a long lost love story.

I am a bit conflicted about this one. I really liked Olivie Blake's writing - it was easy to read and intelligent and it conjured such a vivid picture of the characters and their encounters. The dialogue was sharp and snappy and I liked the undertones of wry humour and the various character dynamics. I especially liked the portrayal of the angels and the gods. As more outlandish characters entered the fray it flirted with becoming farcical but it played out really well without quite descending from the sublime to the ridiculous. Unfortunately I just didn't connect with any of the characters so while I really enjoyed so many aspects of this book and appreciated it on so many levels it didn't quite capture my heart the way I hoped it would. I was interested in how things were going to turn out rather than invested.

As ever Blake’s style is brilliant, this was very different to the other works of hers I’ve read- there are a lot of perspectives which make the story hard to follow in places, but it had laugh out wit and is wonderfully woven. A really interesting and unique interesting take on paranormals with a good dose of humour.

This was my first Olivie Blake book and it did not disappoint at all!!! I actually decided to read this book immediately after I saw gorgeous fanart of the characters.

To be honest I don’t think I’ve actually ever read a book like this before. Everything about the book was so unique and it was like a whole new experience for me. This was the strangest, weirdest, the most chaotic and yet highly entertaining book I’ve read. The humour and dialogue was especially entertaining. There were moments throughout where I was like WTF IS GOING ON?! (But in a good, bewildered way)

I hadn’t even passed the halfway mark of the book when I realised that there was a high potential I’d be rating this 5 stars. As I kept reading, my love for this book and the characters just kept growing. The characters were so amazing! It’s been quite a while since I grew attached to new book characters and this motley group of paranormal creatures literally stole my heart.

Cal and Mayra are so adorable I love them!! Fox and Brandt too!! Vi and Tom had me squealing!! I was so invested in all of them!!

A random side note, VIOLA BEING HALF FILIPINO YASSS!!! WE LOVE THAT FILI REPRESENTATION!! (The aswang reference from Philippine vampire mythology was a nice touch too)

Death personified as a character was also amazing. His “godfather-godson” relationship with Fox was unexpectedly so heartwarming??

I also loved the way the story was told in different timelines (I tend to really love different timelines in books). The flashbacks throughout the novel were a fantastic way for me to understand the story and the characters more.

I’m definitely considering picking up Olivie Blake’s other books after loving Masters of Death.

This book was so much fun, it was about not quite dead people unwiling to admit that they care for others while they so totally do.I loved it so much, the premise was unique and hilarious, also quite sassy and sarcastic.

Masters of Death is a standalone novel from Olivie Blake, the author of the Atlas Six series which has been immensely popular. If you loved the Atlas Six, you will really love this, as Olivie’s trademark writing style is very similar in this one, which I believe is a rerelease of her earlier work.

Fox is the godson of death, but he is an ordinary mortal with an unnaturally long lifespan. He works as a fake medium, plaguing death for information to give his clients (and often impress them enough to sleep with him). Then we have Vi, who is a vampire estate agent with a ghost problem, namely that the former occupant of the house hasn’t vacated to the other side. She comes to Fox for help and that sets off a chain of events that involves angels, reapers, demons and fae.

I really liked this, I am a fan of Olivie Blake’s writing style anyway and I found this book a chattier, less cerebral undertaking than the Atlas Six. I loved the little nods to fairytales from other cultures and Greek myths and although the story wasn’t complicated, it all came together very nicely. Blake is really good at having an ensemble cast of characters and bringing them together for a common purpose.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes their fantasy to be intelligent, with great dialogue. One of my favourite reads of this year.

I loved the premise of this story; books with Death as the narrator always sound like they’re going to be fun.
The amount of flowery language used in this story skirts at the edges of pretentiousness, which made the reading experience harder than it needed to be. I prefer a read that I can glide through rather than one I have to concentrate on, but that’s just personal taste. The banter flew, but some of it escaped me (this may have been to do with issues in the eARC formatting, which made the snarky, rapid-fire dialogue difficult to follow in places) and this combination of challenges caused me to put it down at around 20% and pick up something else.
I picked it up again a couple of weeks later, and made it to 32% before the mix of multiple additional characters and extensive navel-gazing that followed almost every piece of dialogue just felt like too high a mountain to climb.
I loved Blake’s One for my Enemy, but this one is definitely not for me. Officially a DNF.
With much appreciation to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity.
2 stars for the banter and wit.

Love is PAIN.

This book is confusing as all hell but the constant is heartbreak. Masters Of Death boasts a huge cast of various supernatural and mythical characters, mostly speaking in riddles and playing fast and loose with their morales.

Fox the godson of Death is at the centre of this tale, though by writing in third from multiple perspectives Blake draws an intricate plot with vampire Vi, ghost Tom, godling Brandt and several other important characters.
Each and every one of them was loveable, all with different personalities but hiding similar desires.

At its core Masters Of Death is about love; what it costs, how it hurts and the lengths that every being- human or otherwise- will go to to experience it.
For that, I forgive the vaguery and meandering blip I stumbled upon at the halfway mark.

I will say though, I am not at all a fan of the overuse of parentheses throughout Blake's writing. Considering the purpose of brackets, it frequently undermined the storytelling by inferring that swathes of content were of little value to the reader.
It left me feeling the author wasn't confident in their work- this novel was first published in 2018, I intend to pick up Blake's newer works and I really hope this habit was quickly ended.

I also didn't care for the illustrations, I'm not an art loving girl anyway but I couldn't see the relevance and they weren't to my taste.

Grammar irritations aside, I very much enjoyed how the characters storylines wove together into one albeit slightly difficult to understand premise- the immortal game.

I recommend to fantasy lovers. I should mention that in general I cannot stand reading romance. Well, Masters Of Death has a tonne of it in all walks of representation and I loved it!

I’m not sure how I feel about this author. I loved the Atlas Six, hated the second one. With this book I fell in love with her again and it was heading to a solid 5, then it lost me in the last third, and I never got back on track with me….I just didn’t understand what was going on, it was like it turned into an entirely different book I felt.

Sorry…the first two thirds it’s a solid 5, then a two so I’m balancing with a 3 star..

My thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

So, the biggest standout element of this novel for me was the characters. I did not hate a single character. They were all super fun, entertaining, interesting, and layered. It didn't matter the amount of page time they got I genuinely just enjoyed every character big or small. But I would have to say my favourite character was probably Marya. I just really liked her a lot!

Along with these amazing characters was some genuinely hilarious dialogue. The dialogue in this book is witty, smart and laugh-out-loud funny. I found myself laughing on my commutes to work watching the comedy of errors type conversations happen. That doesn't mean this book doesn't have its impactful and emotional moments. Blake is still able to bring out her beautiful prose and poignant moments with just a lot more laughs in between. I am pretty sure I highlighted one beautifully written sentence on every other page!

I also loved how Blake structured this story. This book is told through multiple POVs, multiple narration styles, and different time periods. At times you don't know why you are meeting this character until 50 pages later. This was written in such an interesting way that I couldn't put it down and would feel sad if my bus pulled up to my stop and I had to carry on with my day.

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Masters of Death
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Olivie Blake
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Paranormal Fantasy
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭: eARC
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 17th August 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 13th July 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4.25/5

”To have lived is, as he tells it, reward enough in itself.
(But, of course, he’s full of shit, so—)
(Chances are, he’s lying.)”

I make no secret of being a massive fan on Olivie Blake. My last read from her before this was One For My Enemy which made me wish for Olivie Blake to write my wedding vows. I wondered before starting this book if Masters of Death would cause me to want her to write my eulogy too, and the answer is a resounding YES.

Olivie Blake writes with her typically philosophical prose. In this book, she explores immortality and mortality, death and love, in themes that juxtapose each other; complimenting and contrasting. The concepts in this book are quite abstract, there’s no truly linear plot line, it’s a thought-provoking genre-bending piece of fiction that seeped into my every waking thought, confounding me all whilst causing me to fall in love with it. It’s quite a contradictory novel.

But it’s also full of characters that I adored. Literally every single one of them. Thief’s, vampires, demons, archangels, reapers… all stumble along the eternal road of immortality in a manner that is simultaneously chaotic and hilarious. The dialogues were full of insults and wit, the dynamics were truly incredibly compelling.

“You all have so much magic, and yet you only use it to trap and trick each other.”

If there’s anybody who deserves immortality, it’s Olivie Blake, simply so her writing can continue to bowl over humanity. ”Some things are just facts.”

—Kayleigh🤍
@ Welsh Book Fairy🧚‍♀️✨

Amazon Summary
This book is about an estate agent. Only she’s a vampire, the house on sale is haunted, and its ghost was murdered.

When Viola Marek hires Fox D’Mora to deal with her ghost-infested mansion, she expects a competent medium. But unbeknownst to Viola, Fox is a fraud – despite being the godson of Death.

As the mystery unfolds, Viola and Fox are drawn into a quest that neither wants nor expects. And they'll need the help of a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel and a love-stricken reaper. And it transpires that the difference between a mysterious lost love and a dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as you’d hope.

My Review - having loved Atlas Six i went into this expecting a lot, it was a good read but not brilliant as expected. I liked the worldbuilding and the charactures but didnt love them. the plot was good, i found it slightly confusing to begin with but pushed through and enjoyed the second half much more.

This was so much fun! Think of the cast of Schitts Creek but with vampires, demons, death, gods and angels. It starts off all a bit of a mystery with Death having gone missing, a ghost trapped in a house with unfinished business.. but no memories, a vampire hiding their issues and a godson of death. It’s full of sarcasm, humour, wit and all the characters are entertaining with the dialogue being laugh out loud funny at times. Even with all this it’s a wonderful story of love.

‘I definitely only want one lifetime, because forever without you seems pretty fucking worthless.’

The middle part of the book felt a little confusing as everything was tying together but it was done really well, still keeping you intrigued. I also really loved Fox and his thoughts on morality which was written beautifully.

‘So then it was a curse, existence. Life was a death sentence, after all, and even the sweetest of loves would still always end.‘

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. I have loved my first look at a book by Olivie Blake.

Another wonderful book from genius Olivie Blake. Her writing is a masterclass in the rare art of seamlessly combining intricate plotting, beautifully constructed sentences and hilarious humour. Every single character is unique and necessary to the plot. The interactions between Death and Fox are particularly brilliant. It’s jumped straight into my top 5 reads of the year.

As you can tell, I highly recommend it. If you’re tempted, just read it, you won’t regret it.

Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

ARC received through Netgalley, thank you to the publisher and team

At the beginning of this book, I really struggled to grasp what was going on, however, once I started to read further into it I began to fall in love with the quirky characters. I found that midway through the book I couldn’t put it down and was frantically tearing through the pages to find out what happened next!

Masters of Death has themes of found families, dysfunctional relationships and the power of love. This is a fun twist on the fantasy genre and I loved all the characters as there was so much to unpack and learn about them and their stories!

*ARC received through Netgalley, thank you to the publisher and team*

Unfortunately, this book didn't hit the mark for me, despite the plot and characters doing their hardest to draw me into the magic and mystery.

Let's start with the positives, as I was immediately hooked on this book and the threads weaving together to bring the characters together was a compelling introduction to the story. Blake's writing has captivated me before with The Atlas Six, so it was fun to see her style of writing again in regards to bringing together an ensemble cast of colourful characters bickering, bonding, and puzzling their way through the unfolding quest.

I think this book benefits greatly from a hefty handful of wit and charm, but ultimately falls flat on substance. The plot centers around a vampire real estate agent, Vi, the ghost she meets in her latest property, and the godson of Death, a moral named Fox. There are other creatures who pop up including the king of demons, bickering archangels in Good Omens style, and a mysterious thief who gambled away something dear.

Although I felt interested in nearly all the characters, they talk around the issues in every conversation or spend an entire chapter discussing the same concerns, only to barely move the story along. I saw another review on this book stating how the characters talk for the sake of talking, and I think that's what frustrated me. I wanted to engage with the story, and the cast, but found it far too irritating when they would spiral off into a "is this real, or not? does it matter? what is morality? is love dangerous? we won...but we lost....we are here, but we are not...we are afraid, and yet not...." Imagine this for the entirety of the book and it does become painfully obnoxious, sadly.

I think this writing style is very hit or miss, depending on the accompanying story. As this book takes almost 50% (or further, even) to reach the Big Game, it makes me wonder what the central story theme is, especially as it's supposedly about Vi. It's really not. It's about Death and Fox, ultimately, or even Fox and Brandt, which I didn't dislike, but the focus changes so much that it doesn't feel grounded enough as an entire story. It's too up in the air and whimsical without standing its ground by any means.

Again, I can imagine this book really transporting others and could've been higher if I read it at another time perhaps, but right now, this was too much excessively flowery language without addressing anything bold. It was sentimental but without heart. It was good without being bad. It was like I was there but not really there....It was like a game, but not really...Frustrating, right?

Olivie Blake writes in such an articule way it is incredible. Her books always seem so well thought out and to me this book was a prime example of that. Each word felt like it was picked out carefully, it was beautiful.

To me this book was an absolute page turner that was original and felt SO refreshing to read. The originality really gives a new spin to “death” and the characters within the book.
The ending however left me not quite 100% satisfied but I will always come back to Olivie’s writing.
4.75

When a vampire-estate agent called Viola needs help getting rid of a ghost in a property she is trying to sell, she ends up seeking out Fox, the Godson of Death to help her. With a motley crew of a demon, an angel, a reaper and a Demi-god, they set out to ask Death to help them with the ghost. But Death is missing....
I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with Olivie Blake. I have read a couple of her previous books and always found her writing style difficult to get into and very serious. This book, however was a lot more lighthearted, with a dry and sarcastic witty humour that reminded me of Terry Pratchett.
This book is ultimately about love, lies, trust and friendships, and the entire spectrum of human emotion.
There was romance in this book but not the cute and fluffy kind that we see so often in romance stories. This shows romance in all its raw emotion, and shows that love can be painful and heartbreaking and hopeless. I loved that this book explored all the "messiness" of love and romance.