Avery has always had weird dreams but one day when a crow crashes through her apartment window, her life changes drastically.

I found the first half to be a little slow but there was a lot of world building going on. Additionally, I didn't like that their were so many points-of-views and they kept backtracking and repeating what happened, it got a little annoying and made the book even longer. And then the ending was a little abrupt with Avery just explaining how these people told her this and that, it just felt rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

This was a great first book in a romantasy series! It had all of the elements I needed, including great pacing and writing, interesting characters, a slow burn (very slow…i mean it was maybe in the last 10 percent that the actual romance began to blossom)….and an intriguing plot!

Whether you consider it a good or bad thing, It definitely didn’t wrap everything up and left you wondering what will happen next. I can’t wait to read the next one!

This book had me hooked after the first chapter.. I may or may not have finished this in one day because I couldn’t put it down. If you like vampires, witches and morally grey characters this is the book for you. I’m a huge fan of paranormal/paranormal romance and this book hit all my marks. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and writing style. There is a fair amount of world building but it was well thought out and entertaining. Looking forward to the next book!!

I am looking forward to the continuation of this series, because I feel like it is going to be very interesting. This first book though was all world building and set up, which made it a bit of a slog to get through at times. I am a bit confused about the relationship between Avery and both of the vampires (particularly Azrael), and I think I would have liked a little more background on Avery's dreams of the past and how much exactly she got to know both Azrael and Kane through those flashbacks, since she acts like it isn't her first meeting with each of them when she encounters them, but overall an interesting setup with complex interesting characters.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐

Tropes: Found Family, Vampires VS Witches, Slow Burn, The Chosen One, Prophesies, Love Triangle (kind of)

Spice: A tiny bit
Triggers: Yes: Abandonment, Child Abuse (not extreme), Childhood Trauma, Blood Trafficking, Different POVs, Found Family

Review:

I had such high hopes for this book, I loved the premise, and still do, but unfortunately there was just something off about the FMC's chapters. It left a sour taste in my mouth, and spoilt the book a little bit for me. However, by the end of the book, her self narrative definitely seemed to come away from the things I was struggling with, and matured to a preferable level. So I hope this character growth continues into the next book, because I really want to be able to sit down and enjoy it as it has so much potential.

The world building takes up a lot of this book, probably the first 50-60%, and it definitely just felt like a start-up for the books to come. I don't personally mind this as I love world building in fantasy books, but if you are someone who wants to instantly jump into action, this book might not be for you.

There were some plot points and relationships that I expected to see grow a little more in this book that just didn't take place, so I am excited to explore those more in book 2. I was left a little shocked at how suddenly the book ended though, and would have preferred it to be a little longer to address some upcoming events. I felt like it was a little bit of a disappointing cliff hanger and could have definitely been dealt to the reader in a more dramatic way.

Shadow summed up my thoughts pretty well about Avery early on in the book when he asked "Are you always this half-witted of a human?". I really did struggle with the first 80% of the book when reading in Avery's POV. Her thoughts were so irrational, immature and illogical. Her thought process made little sense to me and her inner monologue was irritating and cringey at times, using phrases like "spidey-senses" and "you can go suck it". It definitely felt like I had been transported into a YA novel, instead of reading a dark gothic fantasy as advertised. I just couldn't take her chapters seriously, and it felt like reading a book written by two different people.

Avery is supposed to be 21 (I believe), but for most of the book I viewed her as about 16-17 years old because of her actions and thoughts. This made it difficult for me to really "ship" her with any of the characters until later on when her monologue seemed to mature. At that point, I was definitely shipping her with Kane!

I felt very spoon-fed reading this book. We were constantly being reminded of certain topics in the plot or certain thoughts that characters were having, over and over. If all these repetitive phrases were removed, I feel like the flow of the book would have been so much better.

Kane's character saved this book for me. Azrael's POV was fine too, but we didn't get to see as much from him as I was expecting and hoping. Kane's character was written very well, and I loved him so much - his morals and inner monologue were enjoyable to read and I felt like his character made logical decisions based on his personality. This is why I focussed so negatively on Avery's POV, because it just seemed like a completely different book when I changed between their chapters.

I did really enjoy seeing the same scenario play out from different character's POV though, that was very enjoyable and didn't take away from the overall flow of time in the book like I was worried it might.

Although I had a few issues with this book, I am still invested in the story and I enjoyed the plot even though it seemed cut short. I'm very excited to read book 2, and have high hopes for Avery's character development to uplift the story to it's full potential!

I was given this eARC through NetGalley.

wow.. this book took me completely by surprise with how much i loved it. im a sucker for forbidden love and rivals to lovers so i jumped at the chance to read this book. the world that the author created felt so rich and fresh in it’s portrayal and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t usually love urban fantasy, but here it just worked perfectly.

Avery is a strong willed and relatable character and i grew fond of her so easily. the conflict with the witches and vampires felt sturdy in the stakes and the elemental magic was fascinating too. i loved how Avery’s magic was tied directly to her emotions and even though she lost control, it never felt like she was incompetent. if anything, it showed how realistically someone in her position would react. I’m interested in both Kane and Azrael — im wondering what role they’ll play in the next book and im desperate to know what’ll happen with Shadow.

my only issue was in the very end with how abrupt and rushed it seemed, compared to how much time was given to every aspect of the story leading up to it. but i can’t shake how immersed i was while reading this and i am eagerly awaiting the sequel and the further development of the romance!

Olivia Boothe's 'A Dream of Blood and Magic' is a captivating blend of fantasy, romance, and action, weaving a tale that feels both fresh and familiar. The story follows Avery Jaxon, a seemingly ordinary Brooklynite who discovers her life is anything but. From the moment a mysterious crow crashes through her window, awakening dormant magic within her, the story takes flight. Avery finds herself thrust into a hidden world of witches, vampires, and ancient prophecies. The author adeptly builds suspense, keeping the reader hooked as Avery peels back layers of deceit to uncover her true identity and the secrets of her past. Boothe masterfully constructs a compelling world with its own intricate rules and complex factions. The clash between the witches and vampires adds a layer of intrigue, while the threat of the Spirit Marked, a witch with the power to destroy the world, raises the stakes considerably. The romance between Avery and Kane, the vampire sworn to protect humanity, is a highlight. The author explores the complexities of their relationship, a forbidden love built on mutual respect and a shared destiny. Despite Kane's inherent danger, the spark between them is undeniable, their connection a powerful element that adds depth and emotional resonance to the narrative. Overall, the story is an engaging read for fans of fantasy and paranormal romance. Boothe's writing is crisp and engaging. The story's themes of self-discovery, destiny, and the power of choice resonate throughout, making for a truly enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

I can see how this is going to turn into an epic paranormal romance series. This first book laid all the groundwork for this next book to be so spicy and exciting. There were a few times where I was wondering when the action was going to pick up but I think the effort the author put into building the backstory will end up being worth it.

Kane is the perfect morally grey male lead …but we also have Azrael and what about Shadow? I could see this next book throwing some curve balls at us readers and I can’t wait!

I haven’t read a paranormal romance in a bit but I love this vampire vs witches set up. Avery is a strong female lead who really grew on me as the book progressed and I was officially rooting for her by the end.

The spice was pretty tame but I know the author has said the next book will bring more and I think the readers will appreciate that.

Very glad I got to read this one and will be checking frequently to see if the next one is added to NetGalley!

I absolutely LOVEDDDD this book. I was so interested in the world. The world building was fabulous and it was creative to show us Kane before we even met him in current times.

I am so interested to see where this story goes. What is Luther going to do next? Are they going to Scotland to find her? What is her mother going to say about her deal with Kane?

I can't wait to learn more about WHY her mom faked her death and to learn about what happened to her dad.

Routing for Kane 100% - please tell me they get together in the next book!

Can't wait for book 2 - a must read!

I give this book a 3.5 star. I felt like it kept pulling me in and then it would back off a bit and then pull me again. This happened a few times throughout the book. I also felt like it opened up so many questions but didn’t really answer any of them either. A lot of my questions revolve around Azreal why was he really even brought into it right now. I mean I understand there is a bigger plot and most likely a huge twist that will come from his character but he just kinda felt redundant at this point in the story. I also felt like the story really jumped around a whole lot and the major conflict wasn’t solved. Right now we are left with multiple conflicts and really no resolutions besides staying with Kane.
Those being the things I didn’t really like or understand in this book i do have things I liked a lot. I really loved Shadows character and Kanes. I can see how both of them are going to play huge roles in Averys lives. I also really loved how fire is made a fox. It has left me wanting to know who or what her next to spirit guardians are as well as what happened to Kane’s hand in the library. It obviously had to be something big as both of them seemed to change as soon as the agreement was made, I did really enjoy the world that was created in this story as well as some of the characters,
Unfortunately because of the pushing and pulling of my attention I can’t give this book more than a 3.5 star. I do however still plan to read book two when it comes out!

I really liked this book!
The plot itself is slow paced, but even though I felt nothing *significant* happened in the book, it gave us great insights on the main characters and their motivations. It was more like an introductory book for a new series to unravel.
I really felt all characters were well built, their stories glimpsed at while still bringing in a lot of questions as to what will happen in the next book.
While it didn’t specifically end in a cliffhanger, the book itself left us with a lot of interesting questions, such as:
- why did her mother abandon her?
- where is the twin?
- what happened between Kane and Azrael?
- why/how did Luther help restrain Azrael?
- what really happened in the past’s love triangle?
- what will happen in this new love triangle?
- why is Avery so attracted to Kane and Azrael?
- what is gonna happen in the upcoming meeting with the witches?
There are thousands more questions which makes me crave the second book!

I absolutely LOVED this book! The story captivated me from the first page until the very end and left me wanting more! So much more!

A Dream of Blood and Magic begins 5,000 years prior in a realm outside of Earth. Immediately, your heart feels for this family and the secret surrounding them. Quickly, the reader is transported to present day New York City where we've got vampires running nightclubs and military ops, strong-willed witches... and Avery. Avery who's an orphan and has vivid nightmares that she draws on paper to calm her mind. Avery who's like the Snow White of magical animals. Avery who soon discovers that she is also magical.

I can not wait for the second book and to see how this new (but old) relationship begins and evolves. Can witches and vampires really all get along for the good of themselves and the world?

This book is as addictive as Avery's blood is. :)

5 stars - a slow burn urban fantasy with vampires and witches.

Averys life is turned upside down when a bird crashes through her apartment in Brooklyn. As her dormant witch magic awakens, she is thrust into the long standing feud between witches and vampires. Avery turns out to be a special witch called the spirit marked, who can unlock a portal into the witches original homeland but in doing so, cause irrevocable damage to our world. The witches have also freed a decades old Vampire Azreal who was captured by his brother Kane who Avery has been unexplainably dreaming about. Tensions fly when Avery and Kane meet.

I absolutely loved this one - the world building and plot was phenomenal and captivating. A slightly slow start but once it got going I was hooked and it was hard to put the book down. The romance is slow burn and only begins to heat up towards the end of the book as the author teases more tension in book 2, that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

I felt Averys confusion and heartbreak as she learned more about the true world that had been hidden from her. I loved her relationship with her spirit guardians and I hope we get to see more of shadow in the next book.

Mostly dual pov between Avery and Kane but we also get to see Azreals pov which I enjoyed and I have the feeling her will be more ally than enemy in future books.

Would highly recommend for fans of serpent and the wings of night or kingdom of the wicked.

I took some time to gather my additional thoughts on the novel before finalizing my review. Overall, it was great. The world in which this book is set is so interesting, as it combines magical creatures in an urban fantasy that is set almost within the bones of historical fiction. I was fascinated by the unique magic system that the author establishes. A witch ignorant to her own abilities that derive from a generation of women just like her, who she is actually able to embody and learn from in her dream walking abilities. Her ability to dream walk offered a unique opportunity to readers, as it established important backstory without straying away from the primary narrative and plot. I loved how her dream walker abilities gave the reader insight into her past, but I would have loved to see more development in her present relationships. While I enjoyed how fast paced and action packed the chapters were, i just wished the book had been longer and there was more time allotted to exposition. I wanted more of the relationship between Avery and Shadow to be fleshed out before he was captured, that way the reader could observe how their relationship developed, and her loyalty to him didn't seem so sudden given her untrustworthy nature. I wanted more character development and more details about the world and Avery's life before the major conflicts in her apartment with the witches and vampires. While I was devastated about Shadow, and understood the severity of losing a spirit guardian in the context of the book, I feel like his capture would have had more weight if the reader had more time to become attached to him and his relationship with Avery. While I can appreciate a short book such as this one, that makes for a quick read with its face paced story telling, as a reader I always love when authors have the time to explore exposition more than just action. It creates more suspense when conflicts do occur; given a readers attachment to characters when more time is allotted for their development, it makes for higher stakes and more to lose, which makes me that much more invested in said conflicts. Finally, I appreciated the descriptions and poetic narrative of some of the scenes in the novel. The imagery the storytelling evoked was beautiful, and I myself felt like I was lost in a castle in the Scottish Highlands. I had such an appreciation for the syntax and how the characters acted and spoke their ages. I cant wait to see how they mature. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, and I anticipate the next installment of the series, I simply can't wait to see where the next book takes Avery. This book incorporated a lot of my favorite tropes (close proximity, enemies to lovers, chosen one etc), in such a fun way, I cant wait to see what's next for this author. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, I look forward to new content in the future.

Trigger Warning: blood, gore, violence, death, human trafficking, explicit scenes, kidnapping, and past trauma.

It was an extremely interesting and exciting book. I had a great time reading about and losing myself in this magical world of betrayal, magic, and love. If you prefer paranormal romances with darker undertones, I strongly suggest this book and can't wait for the next in the series.

Gothic fantasy, enemies to lovers, witches, vampires, all the good stuff. I’d say this is probably slightly more fantasy than fantasy romance and it did take me a little while to get into but overall a good read that I’d recommend trying

Tropes: chosen one, enemies to lovers, forced alliance, miscommunication, prophecies, forbidden attraction

Pacing: medium-fast

This is an urban fantasy centered around a witch who comes into her powers as an adult. Her magic validates her feelings and experiences that were previously labeled as “madness” while in the foster care system. It provides you a magical system with witches and vampires who have an ancient rivalry that has implications and consequences in today’s world. Throughout the book you see how evil both vampires and witches can be. Both groups have smaller factions that are trying to protect innocents and their home world. The book ends leaving you wanting more and ready to read the second book.

Avery Jaxon is a 21 year old woman living in Brooklyn, New York. She’s had a very hard life growing up in the foster care system is very hard for a child. Her mother and father died when she was 7 years old and going from foster home to foster home made her have trust issues. She has a mouth on her that gets into trouble a lot, but most recently she’s found out she’s a witch.

Avery is the spirited marked, one of the most powerful witches that have walked the earth, the only problem is that she doesn’t know how to control her powers mostly because she’s never received training and her mother dying 14 year prior doesn’t help.

One day after waking up from a dream at 3 am Avery was sitting at her desk when all of a sudden a crow crashed through her window. She noticed that one of the crows wings were either broken or dislocated so she went and grabbed some things to wrap the birds wing. Avery then left for work at the local library and while she was at work, she had gone outside and saw a kid in the middle of the busy street and there was a bus coming, Avery panicked and all of a sudden a burst of wind blew and overturned the bus to make it stop. Avery then started feeling sick and hurried home. When she got home she hurried to her bed and passed out, when she woke up she saw a man in front of her bed and she freaked out.

The man in front of her bed was her spirited guardian she named Shadow. Shadow was anything but a man and her told her several times that she needed to stop thinking of him as a man because she was having sexual feelings out him. I’m going to stop here because I don’t have to give the rest of the book away but it is so good.

Oh my god! This book was so freaking good!! I just found my new auto buy author! Olivia Boothe you have outdone yourself with this book!! It had everything to keep me interested. I couldn’t stop reading it! I finished this at 3 am and I was sad when it ended because I really really wanted to know what happened next.

Wow! This book had me hooked. I found myself having to try so hard not to race through this to find out what happens next and I'm so glad that I savoured this story. I really enjoyed the style of writing and the different POVs. The vampires are, obviously, morally grey so it took a little time to figure out who the 'good' guys might actually be, and that is always fun when reading. I have a feeling there will be more twists and turns in the follow up which may skew this view and I'm here for them all. This book has witches, vampires, elemental spirits and magic.....it also gets a little spicy towards the end! An ancient prophesy and mysterious happenings, about which bits and pieces are revealed in the first book, but not too much. I haven't read much contemporary fantasy but this book I could not put down! I cannot wait to see how this story unfolds and what more there is to Avery and Kane's story

I don’t typically read urban/modern day fantasy—but this book may have changed me. If you’re like me, it’s the perfect intro into urban fantasy, due to the way it combines traditional fantasy with more modern elements. I found the fmc, Avery, easily likable, funny, and I love that she’s just a regular gal whose life gets flipped upside down. I tend to lose interest if a romance element isn’t brought in early on, but I read the whole thing in 2 days flat. The romance is sloooow burn, and you get to really know Avery as well as the other mcs in a way that drives the plot more than just forcing a romance right off the bat. I’m so excited for book 2, and also can’t wait to see where Avery’s story goes!