Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Some spoilers at the end of this review. I will make it clear in this post so you aren’t spoiled.

4⭐️
As an avid fantasy reader and life long Harry Potter fan I was all in when I heard the MMC was like Draco Malfoy. Tough exterior and a bully at first glance but will kill for his girl. Love that.

This book had so many tried and true themes. Academy setting, trials, enemies to (reluctant?) lovers, dragon lore. A lot of call backs to Harry Potter and Hogwarts but the author made them uniquely their own but checked all the boxes that made me love this genre. I’ll definitely be continuing this story with Blake and Medra, and recommending it!

Now for the spoilers. Read on at your own risk.



What. The. Hell. I don’t usually post with spoilers but this needs to be said: where did the character development go!? Blake just feasting on Medra at the end without warning her or talking to her? It seems so rushed and totally against everything we have been working toward. I understand the author has a plan that I know lot of, and this could easily be part of it but it was so crushing to see him almost revert back to who he was in the first pages. And Medra…I don’t have many great things to say. I didn’t enjoy her wishy washy feelings and attitude about everything and how some of her choices seem so off from who I thought she was in the beginning.

While I did enjoy reading on wings of blood, I found the story to be quite predictable and it used themes I have read in a lot of other romantasy books. The middle was a bit slow, but I did enjoy the action and got through the story very quickly. I would have liked more backstory about Medra and seen more of her elven skill set. I will definitely read the next book in the series as I can see potential.

Thank you so much the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. This author said 'Dramonie' vibes and I was here for it. As a huge Harry Potter fan I loved reading something similar with vampires and blightborns. The push and pull between Medra and Blake kept me hanging on for more, and I LOVED the rivalry between Medra and Regan.

✨️✨️✨️✨️

“It's not protection, little dragon. It’s a claim."

✨️✨️✨️✨️

The possessive behaviours Blake displayed, and the way he protected Medra was swoon worthy!

✨️✨️✨️✨️

He kissed me as if I were air and he couldn’t get enough. He kissed me like wildfire, consuming everything in its path. He kissed me as though I were the last drop of blood in the world, the only thing that could ever sate his hunger.

✨️✨️✨️✨️

I can't wait for the next installment and find outbwhat happens next! I mean that ending! Wtf?!!

This book is perfect for fans of vampires and Harry Potter. The world-building in this book is phenomenal. The writing is descriptive and really puts you into the story. I felt like the forced boarding school read YA. The 4 houses with specific insignia, the sorting into those houses, and shared dining hall all felt too reminiscent of Harry Potter and reinforced the YA feel. I think new adult readers especially and fans of dark academia would really enjoy this book.

A 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 character-driven romantasy! I haven’t read a good dark academia book in a while and mix it with dragons and dragon lore- yes, please!

Brief synopsis: 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐚 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 died to save the ones she loved. Except that she isn’t dead. She wakes up and finds herself naked in another world ruled by vampires. 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 (vampire royalty) finds her and takes her to his powerful vampire uncle who decides to bond Medra with Blake (forced betrothal) and sends her to Bloodwing Academy. It is here where we are met with betrayals, school intrigue, dragon lore, slow burn and dislike-to-lovers.

Main characters: I liked Medra from the start- she is fierce, determined, loyal and just. She made the most of being in a new world with a species she doesn’t know about. Blake was our grumpy/broody vampire house leader (with blonde hair…what?!) with great character growth; however, he was at times OVERLY possessive. I don’t like how he handled the last scene with Medra. This is true dislike to lovers with them; however, they don’t fully get to the ‘lovers’ part. The tension and banter were done well. I enjoyed the dual POV but would have loved more of Blake’s POV.

Side characters: I like Florence. She is a kind and loyal friend. Kage is another who caught my attention. He is one of the four vampire house leaders at the academy. I really liked him and feel like he is going to play a big part in the next book. Maybe we will get some of his POV in the next book?? I hope so.

--- Below contain spoilers ---
Thoughts: I want to know more behind her death and the world that she left behind. I am sure that will be revealed in book 2 but I was eagerly waiting for it in this book. Also, I found it weird yet intriguing that her mother somehow saved her from death, but then got stuck in Medra’s body and then a dagger. She didn’t know her mom because she died during childbirth, but Medra didn’t really try to get to know her while she was in her head. I would be asking her a million questions. I am intrigued to find out more in book 2!
Rating: 4.5/5

❤️🖤 Thank you @netgalley for a copy of this eARC.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Briar Boleyn, and the publishers for this ARC, because wow—On Wings of Blood was a dark fantasy dream come true!

I ate this book up in a 8 hour day!!!!! So many pages ,so much to love!
I haven’t been this excited about a book in ages, and this one checked every box for what I crave in a story: high-stakes action, immersive world-building, and characters that linger with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Boleyn crafts a world that is dark, beautiful, and filled with mystery. The way she builds her setting felt like watching something cinematic—each location is steeped in atmosphere, whether it’s a mist-covered forest that seems to breathe with magic or towering citadels that feel equal parts awe-inspiring and dangerous. I kept pausing to soak in every vivid detail, and the immersive descriptions made me feel like I was there, experiencing every bit of it with the characters.

As the plot unfolds, the tension ramps up, and by the middle of the book, I was totally hooked. The story takes so many unexpected turns, keeping me on the edge of my seat with every twist. Just when I thought I had things figured out, another layer would reveal itself, and it was honestly thrilling. I found myself staying up way too late, unable to put it down because the stakes just kept getting higher, and I had to know what would happen next.

The characters… where do I even begin? MEDRA is one of the most compelling leads I’ve read in a long time. Her journey is emotional, fierce, and, at times, heartbreaking. She’s not only driven by her goals but also has such a raw, human vulnerability that made me connect with her on a deeper level. Blake, too, is complex and enigmatic, and the interactions between them had this underlying tension that made every scene electric. They have this dynamic that keeps you glued to their story, and it felt so real—like these were people I was getting to know and rooting for. Their struggles, their choices, everything felt intense and personal.

One of my absolute favorite parts was how Boleyn weaves in the subtleties of each character’s arc. Even the minor characters add richness to the story, making the world feel lived-in and real. And let’s not forget the action scenes! They were crafted with such precision that I felt every hit, every surge of magic, every heartbeat racing alongside the characters. By the end of the book, I was completely invested, both exhilarated and aching for the next chapter of their journey.

If there was one part that didn’t completely land for me, it was a minor subplot that felt slightly predictable, but honestly, this was such a small part of an otherwise phenomenal read. The overall story kept me fully engaged, and even that subplot added to the layers of tension and intrigue.

On Wings of Blood is everything I’ve been waiting for in a dark fantasy. It’s intense, breathtakingly beautiful, and filled with characters who feel so real you almost expect to see them around the next corner. Boleyn has truly outdone herself, and I’m already counting down to the next book—I need to know where this story goes from here! Five stars without hesitation, and I recommend this book to anyone who loves dark, immersive fantasy with deep character work and high stakes. This is one you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve finished!

"𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆’𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒕. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒚𝒆𝒕. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔."

📖🪽 On Wings of Blood 🪽
🧚🏻‍♀️ Briar Boleyn
📚 Bloodwing Academy #1

On Wings of Blood is the first book in a riveting new saga where she's a half fae, he's a high blood vampire and they CONNOT withstand each other ... Or can they ?

Lemme first introduce you to the tropes
🩸 Romantasy
🪽 Dark Academia
🩸 Enemies-to-lovers
🪽 Banter
🩸 Ohh the Tension and slowwwww burnnn❤️‍🔥
🪽 Found Family
🩸 He Falls First
🪽 Vampires and Dragons and one half fae
🩸 Morally ONYX MMC with tattoos 🥵
🪽 Fierce FMC
🩸 Endearing Nick Name
🪽 Forced Betrothal
🩸 Court / Political Intrigue
🪽 Cut throat Tournaments

Yet another incredible story and world building by one of my all time favourite authors Briar Boleyn!

I am absolutely head over heels for the MMC Blake and his moral onyxness , his tattoos and his love for fluffy pets 😋
And oo , he calls HER Little Dragon ( brb, gonna swoon some more !!)

The FMC (Medra) is someone I admire since I read the series " Blood of a Fae" where we got to know her early life, and seeing her story play out in this book was awe-inspiring!

I enjoyed every aspect of this book and the ending was PHENOMENAL!!!

I cannot wait for Book 2 in this series 💜💜


Thank you soo much Briar Boleyn and Netgalley for this amazing ARC 🩸🪽💜
It was a spectacular tale which left me yearning for MORE 🥹

Briar I am just not a fan of school settings, please forgive me. :| Writing is great as always, descriptive, great characters. I just cannot connect with a boarding school type setting.

The premise and description of this book interested me. A Zodiac Academy meets Harry Potter book with Draco vibes and dragons? I’m in!

However, I was a bit disappointed in the way this book was laid out. There are a lot of Harry Potter references in here. So many that it felt like an AU fanfic rather than its own story at times. A lot of the high level plot points felt very similar to other books and I kept waiting for a new thing to pop up. Perhaps the next book will be different with the way things ended?

I did enjoy this book overall after getting past the first 100 pages or so (it felt like everyone was needlessly mean for the first hundred pages but it did get better, or more logical at least, after that!) and it was an easy albeit familiar read. I just kept hoping for something more and different!

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

4 Stars!!

Dark academia, dragons, enemies to lovers, and vampires?? I immediately dove into this one. Medra is forced to enter an engagement with a vampire in a new world she was just thrown into. This requires her to join the academy for the elite vampires and some other creatures. It definitely gave dark academia and Harry Potter vibes. I wanted to go to school here myself. Medra and Blake do not get along in most scenes. We see the cliques that are within the school and that plays a part. I LOVED the tension in the scenes we did get of them. I wanted more of them when the scene moved on. He doesn't want to like her but feels himself growing feelings? That's Blake to a T.

What I would love more of is Blake's pov. In certain scenes I found the chemistry between them to be missing or one sided. I think getting his pov earlier on in the book would've helped with this a lot. Also, I found some conversations or Medra's feelings repetitive, and it made the book feel like it was dragging on. I think the book could've been cut down a bit. Lastly, while this is definitely a slow burn, I think with a book this long we needed more to happen between Blake and Medra for the enemies to lovers to really click. I am not sure if I would categorize them as lovers just yet and I want to be able to.

On Wings of Blood has:
- Dark academia
- Forced betrothal with vampire
- Bully MMC
- Dragon Rider FMC
-Trials and magic
- Slow burn quite literally
- Dual POV eventually

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I am eager for book 2 after that cliffhanger!

"On Wings of Blood" delivered on my expectations for an academy romantasy and then some! The book had a lot of vampires, which I absolutely adore. Medra, the last dragon rider – she's a bada** in her own way, which I love in an FMC. Reading this was fun, and I'm excited to see where the story goes next. Blake better do some groveling for what he did at the end. Huge shoutout to NetGalley and Briar Boleyn for the ARC.

On Wings of Blood by B. Boleyn, published by Starwater Press is the first book in the new Bloodwing Academy Series and I can't express loud enough how much I love this book. I read the book, cover to cover in one sitting, I mean who needs sleep? Certainly not me when reading this fantastic story.
Medra and Blake and their story at BW Academy is all I ever could have dreamed of, the writing and storybuilding are excellent and I can't wait for the next book, can't wait.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read the authors previous books. I would give it 3 out of 5. I would have preferred more with Blake and medra.

Vampires, dragon riders, half-fae and so many other secrets. On wings of blood is the first book of Bloodwing Academy and it’s about Medra a half-fae who ends up in a battlefield and is rescued by a vampire prince. The leader of the vampires bonds Medra with his nephew Blake in marriage without her consent. She has to attend Bloodwing Academy where everyone hates her, and she has to survive or will get killed.
She tries to make friends but realizes that vampires are dangerous towards mortals and she needs to fight in order to be better than them.

I enjoyed the storyline but the book is a mix of fourth wing, and powerless. I felt like I was rereading one of those books and the trials and classes were the exact same. I really liked the idea of Medra being a half fae and having her mother’s soul bonded to her; but, overall the book was a combination of other books. It does have potential and I’m looking forward to reading the second book and seeing if Medra gets her powers back and if she will ride a dragon.

Thank you Net Galley and Briar Boleyn for the ARC.

Wow, fantastic book! I really enjoyed the book, and the slow burn! This book is a spin off from the Blood of a Fae series, featuring Medra (Arthur's daughter). You don't need to read the other series first but you miss out on Medra's background a bit. Major Harry Potter vibes throughout.
The ending is chef's kiss! Not a full cliffhanger but definitely a minor one, leaving me saying "more more more!" Can't wait for the next book in the series 😍
My one complaint is that the timing is too good. She ends up in a different world, is brought back to the main city, and the next day just happens to be the first day at the academy? Too coincidental imo.
Enemies to not-quite-enemies
Touch her and die
"Mine" "good girl"
🌶️🌶️/5

I am obsessed with this book! What a great start to a new series. From the start I was immediately drawn in. I mean the beginning was such an interesting way to start. We quickly learn main character Medra just finished fighting in her own world and then somehow she is now in Sangratha, a world of vampires. And she’s the last dragon rider from an extinct bloodline?!?! Absolutely love it.

The plot, characters, and world building were so well done. I loved the pacing of the book and felt like the story was really thought out. Plus I loved the Fourth Wing and Harry Potter vibes. The school was amazing and I loved hearing about the different classes during her first year. I’m so curious to see how the next years will go after that ending. I definitely hope to see more of the school.

But again that crazy ending! There is so much happening Medra and Blake are in for a crazy relationship. I am so excited to see what comes next and can’t wait for the second book!

OMGGGGGGGG YES. YES. YESSSSSSS. I haven’t been this excited about a fantasy book since ACOTAR. This blew. My. Mind. The tagline about it being a little bit Hogwarts a little bit Zodiac Academy is spot on. But top it off with a really great writing style and you have this book. I couldn’t put it down, I was dying to read the next page. The only thing I’m mad about is that I have to wait for the next book in the series. Briar Boleyn, you have outdone yourself, now please please please release book two…like tomorrow.

So beyond excited to get a copy of this from NetGalley, but it’s also available on KU now, so run, don’t walk people!

Being described as " Harry Potter mixed with Fourth Wing, Zodiac Academy and a dash of Arthurian" I knew I'd love this book right away.
I loved Medra's character so much and her being the only dragon rider left was such an interesting concept. Blake was honestly also such a good match with her and I think that the slow burn that developed through this book was perfect for their characters. I will say at times Medra did piss me off, but most FMC's have those moments where they do things that make you angry. Other then that I really enjoyed this book and just like always Briar's worldbuilding is amazing!
Thank you to Netgalley and Starwater Press for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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thank you SO MUCH to briar boleyn for the chance to review this book <3
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oh my god. OH MY GOD. okay. hold on. i need to gather myself.

WOW. wowowow. just wow. i mean, i knew i loved briar’s writing, but she is quickly becoming a new favorite author of mine. the first question i’m sure many of you will have is whether or not this is a sequel series or if it’s at all connected to the blood of the fae series. and the answer is: yes. kinda.

are there spoilers for it? yes. kinda. having only read the first blood of a fae book, i think that, so far, the spoilers for that series are pretty minor. the only thing that’s been spoiled have been things that, in my opinion, were bound to happen. just based on my experience with romantasy, i figured who the main character of that series would end up with, and figured a few other things. do i know how it happened? nope. and that’s what’ll keep me reading that series.

in the end of the day, i’d liken reading this book first to reading six of crows before reading shadow and bone. you know the outcome but none of the details. they operate pretty well independently and that’s what makes them so good.

i love love loved the world building in this book! it was clever and interesting and i found myself constantly wanting to know more. if briar wrote a freaking history book about the world of sangratha, i’d eat it up and leave no crumbs. the politics was also really captivating, i feel. the way the four houses work together but also lowkey hate each other was really cool to read, and i was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. i kept thinking “someone’s gonna snap and this peace is gonna end in another war…”

medra? our FMC? a queen. a legend. she is the moment. she’s half fae, or at least she would be if she was in her home world, but here in sangratha, the things that give away her fae lineage actually mark her as a dragon rider. the catch? there’s no dragons. at least not anymore. medra is actually related to the FMC of the blood of a fae series, and i won’t go into detail how, but she is royalty. she’s taught from a young age how to fight, use weapons, the whole nine yards, which really helps in this case. however, here in sangratha, where the highbloods (royal/noble vampires, basically) are the top of the pyramid, it was really awesome to see her come into her own and grow her strength.

blake. freaking. drakharrow. i hated him. i loved him. i hated that i loved him. he was so MEAN. but also inexplicably really sweet? i’m kinda obsessed with him. the romance does, in a way, give very “bully romance” vibes, which i’m not typically a huge fan of, but DAMN did it work here. there was the whole “hate to love you” aspect of it. there was banter. there was tension. they were constantly fighting. and it was AMAZING. it didn’t even feel like i was just waiting for them to finally admit there was something there because the fighting with the occasional sweet or sincere moment sprinkled in was just so GOOD. i could go on.

i had so much fun reading this book. it’s like 700 almost 800 pages but it didn’t even feel like it. the pacing was great and it didn’t feel like it dragged at all. by the time i was done i felt so shocked because it was so engaging i didn’t even register how fast i was reading it, which hasn’t happened in a really long time. i cannot wait for the next book in the series. i needed it yesterday.

the book was so good. i cannot express that enough. and it’s out now! you can read it for free if you have kindle unlimited, but if you buy it i can assure you that you will not regret it.

I ate this book up in 48 hours- I couldn’t put it down! What a captivating story that hooked me from the start. This book was interesting and unique. Amazing start to a series. I had such a great time reading this first entry into the Bloodwing Academy series! I read the previous series, (Blood of a Fae) and LOVED it!