As an Olivie Blake novel, the writing was great but too full of description that it led to distraction. The mundane talking and bland execution made it confusing and uneventful.

★★★★★ 4.5/5



For Viola Marek, a vampire real estate agent, her main problem right now is trying to sell the Parker house. Not only is it haunted by the last occupant, but the ghost haunting it was murdered and has no memory of who did it. With the ghost refusing to leave, Viola has no choice but to help them if she wants to sell the house.

Fox D’Mora is a fake medium, as well as the godson of Death. Fox is sought out to help Viola with her ghost problem, and what starts out as a seemingly easy job of ridding a ghost soon turns into a game of deceit, love, hurt, and loss. Fox and Viola are neither expecting, nor prepared for what’s to come, and some truths have long been waiting to be uncovered.

Going into this, I was expecting a story about ridding a ghost from a house, but Masters of Death took a turn I definitely did not see coming. Whilst there is the minor plot about getting the ghost out of the house, it is only minor, and not the sole focus of the plot as a whole. What it truly is about is Fox D’Mora, his relationship with Death, and Fox’s past.

I enjoyed how it told Fox’s past, and how it interlinked with other characters, and I also enjoyed the multi-POV’s. I really liked the characters, they each had their own stories and connections, and each of them felt like a necessary part of the plot, and not just there one second and forgot about the next. Each was important and fully fleshed out, easily distinguished from the rest instead of blurring together into one or a repeat of another character.

There were a couple of instances where I felt really confused by what was going on, and I had to go back a few pages to reread and try and take it in again and see if that cleared things up. It also started a little slow, and it took me a little while to get into it and where it was actually going, unlike my last Blake book One for My Enemy. This didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment, and it’s easily another favourite read, and another book I purchased immediately after finishing my ARC.



Did I like the book? Yes.

Did I love it? Yes. Despite the slow start, when it got going and the story started to take its true shape, I fell in love.

Would I recommend it? Yes. If you’re already a fan of Olivie Blake, her stories and writing style, this is easily another great book to add to the list. Or, if this is your first dive into her works, and you’re looking for supernatural creatures coming together and discovering the truth about themselves and their loved ones, facing their demons with some annoyingly funny archangels and Death thrown in, it’s a great place to start.

Wow! What an amazing book!!
Would love to read more from the author.
Thankyou netgalley for the Arc!
Full review will be uploaded soon

I LIVE for anything with vampires in, Olivie Blake is one of my favourite authors and this didn't dissapoint, urban fantasy peppered with humour, absolutley loved this!

Once you get your head around all the characters this is a great fantasy story. I was sucked into this one so badly. i really enjoyed it. Just another one of Blake's that I loved.

What a novel. Whilst I was expecting a wild cast of characters and situations, this exceeded my expectations. The main character, Viola, was full of sass from the get go - having to deal with a poltergeist that does not want their house sold is certainly an amusing point of view. Things just got wilder with the other characters introduced and the wild ride they go on together. I often find it difficult to follow lots of characters but the way Olivia Blake writes have each of them subtle nuances that meant I never struggled. This was funny, heartfelt writing that has encouraged me to check out her other novels.

I had to DNF at 57% then skim to the end. I really tried to push through, but it was so confusing. Too many characters that said a whole lot of nothing. For a fantasy book with a tonne of creatures, not much happened. I didn't understand the game or the point of this book.

I don't think Olivie Blake's writing style is for me. I struggled with One For My Enemy too but I had the romance to keep me intrigued.

Her style reminds me of film directors like Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie. It works in film. I don't think it really translates that well in book form. It can be a slog to read and get your head around.

It's a shame because sometimes her prose is really impactful when it makes a point. The rest is too meandering and needless, and the dialogue is too contrived and unrealistic.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me the pleasure of indulging yet another Olivie Blake marvel. Now, bear with me, because as a fangirl, this review is probably a little biased. Sorry - we’re all human!

Well, she’s done it again. As a hard and fast Blake fan, I’ve come to adore her winding plots, clever-bordering-on-pretentious characters and convoluted stories more with every read, and Masters of Death is no different.
As ever, the plot is a non-linear story that leaps and bounds around the concept of storytelling, but at no point is it confusing - the thread runs through each page with clarity and the ties at the end bring it together neatly.

Again, as always, Blake’s characters shine through. From the frustrating, the witty, the genius and the unbearable, Blake manages to involve her supporting characters with ease, whilst focusing also on the stories of our main characters (though, I think, who your main characters are could be decided by each reader themselves). She juggles their stories with deftness and as the book progresses, the story and its players shift into something entirely unexpected, giving new revelations that I didn’t quite see coming.

Overall, Masters of Death yet again wowed me with its wit and its storytelling, and I’m excited to pick up a beautiful copy once it hits the shelves.
If you’re an Olivie Blake fan, you won’t be disappointed.

There's a few characters to keep track off and I find unusual/uncommon names harder to remember who's who which madre this story one I'm glad I devoured quickly.
In a world where Deaths game isn't worth the risk everyone wants to play but when his godson gets dragged into it the stakes become higher.
The real story here is beautiful because its about live, friendship and the power of humanity.

Olivie Blake has made urban fantasy SO fun again and I really appreciate the creativity of the plots. They're always just such wacky ideas that somehow work.

This is my third Blake book and I'm finding that the prose and the character types are quite cut and paste at times but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll look forward to reading the next publication!

This is the second Olivie Blake book I’ve picked up, I can’t say I enjoyed the first, The Atlas Six, but the premise of this one sounded promising.

Sad to say I DNF and decided it wasn’t for me at around 10%.

I’m not sure what age reader this is aimed at, but it felt very juvenile, even for YA. Unlikeable characters, terrible dialogue, and written in the style of ‘why use 1 word when I can use 10.’ To say literally nothing.

Lots of words, nothing happening. Very difficult to follow. Also this proof copy was nearly unreadable due to typos and typesetting errors.

The last time I’ll try Blake. Not for me. Pretentious without having anything to say.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for an honest review.

As soon as I read the summary for this book I knew I would enjoy it. I didn't expect it to be as witty as it was from the beginning with a brief introduction from death.(who is one of my favourite characters in this book). I think the length of this book was perfect so it didn't feel like the story dragged. I would recommend this to people who have a sarcastic and dry humour as you can relate to the dialogue and humour in this book.

All in all a really enjoyable read.

This was too slow paced for me for this type of story. In the end I struggled to stay interested throughout. The structure of the story was a little messy which also played a part in my struggle.
The characters while funny felt underdeveloped. I would have liked to learn more of these characters.
While I enjoyed the story. It was missing something to wow me.

The premise of this story sounded really intriguing and interesting to me and something that seemed slightly different to the “norm”, but I really couldn’t get on with the writers style, and the story i personally for me seemed way too disjointed, so the story felt far more difficult to read and get my head around.

Maybe if you have read other stories by this author you might like this book, but for my it really wasn’t enjoyable.

I hoped I would love this book. I really wasn’t prepared for how much I really would. The concept is so unique nothing like I’ve ever read. If you love supernatural characters with gods,demons and an immortal game this book is 100% for you.

It took me a while to get into this one but one I did, I enjoyed the humour, banter and storyline. A clever witty story!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

I found my journey with the book dipped slightly in the middle. With a strong opening, I was connecting with the characters, exploring their journeys and motives and relationships. However, around the 50% mark, I lost interest for a few chapters and I found myself losing those connections with the characters. Throughout the book, it was unclear what this “game” was that they were referring to. While this seems like an intentional choice, even by the end of the back I was lacking clarity and understanding.

The last 30% of the book brought my rating back up as the relationships between characters were deeper explored, especially Brandt who stood out to me. Enjoyed his interactions with Fox and Death, one of my favourite aspects of this book were the flashbacks surrounding the three of them.

Olivie Blake has done it again.. completely captivated me and made me fall in love with her characters. They were well developed and there was quite a few couples to root for throughout the story. However I was mostly hoping for a magical love story for Brandt and Fox.
Admittedly the vast amount of characters might be a little confusing to begin with but as the story progresses it gets easier.

The different timelines kept me on my toes but honestly just go with it and trust the process, it made it that much more intriguing. You will have one question answered then several more unanswered ones but as the plot thickens and the ending nears you will receive clarity.

Being both equally plot and character driven gave this book so much depth. It was so entrancing and really hard to put down.

Olivie Blake explains emotions and feelings in a way like no other and it's honestly like she is expressing the things I never know how to put into words. The story honestly brings out so many inner emotions you probably didn't realise you had.

If you've never read a book by Olivie Blake then you absolutely have to! She is definitely an auto-buy author for me without fail!!

This book was such a fun read, it was thought provoking and all around entertaining. The characters were incredibly lovable. I laughed. I cried. I smiled wide. I cried happy tears.

The godson of death, a vampire, a demon, a ghost, an Angel and a grim reaper. It sounds like the start of a joke but it’s unlikely group of friends and those just thrown together to find Death. He’s missing and that means trouble.

I loved this book, I’m a huge Olivie Blake fan and I was hooked by the first sentence. Sometimes sad, funny and unexpected. Seriously go read this.