 | Title: In Blood We Trust
Sexual Content: A couple moderately graphic sex scenes. A scene that almost turns into an orgy. Rating:
Okay – A few good points, but with significant flaws. Library/swap/borrow if you want. |
Description
Only monsters--and lovers--call the Bloodlands home…
They are monsters: Mariah--the reluctant rebel who has become a god to others of her kind. And Gabriel, the vampire, who loves her at his own peril.
Together, they freed the unhuman and inhuman from captivity, to lead them in reclaiming the land. But even Mariah can’t keep the newly liberated monsters from quarreling among themselves.
And then a murder occurs and Gabriel is suspect. Facing a death sentence, the two flee—
Back to the Bloodlands, where their story began. To face the horrors of Mariah’s past and the uncertainties of Gabriel's future. To make a final stand, for their lives—and their love.
Review
Trilogies have have wonderful opportunities to tell expanded yet concise stories that fully explore a world and the characters that inhabit it without ever growing stale or redundant. The Bloodlands trilogy takes full advantage of this. Each book has rippled out and revealed larger and larger realities about this post-apocalyptic setting. From the cave settlements and small cast of characters in BLOODLANDS, to the city life of the hubs in BLOOD RULES, and now the surrounding cities as well in IN BLOOD WE TRUST.
As you can imagine, as this world has grown, so have the number of characters. The additional POVs introduced in BLOOD RULES are back and given much more prominence and even distinct storylines and romances. Again, I felt this came at the expense of the primary story arc and relationship between Mariah and Gabriel. While I appreciate the varied insights these other characters provided, I never really connected with any of them and found myself rushing through their chapters.
I also had some issues with a few scenes that crossed over into the ‘ick’ category for me. A near orgy that broke out with Mariah and Gabriel at the center, a hot and heavy sex scene that took place literary rolling in the blood and remains of dead bodies, and a romance that developed between a man and a Tik-Tik woman (a creature who kills pregnant woman to eat babies). It was enough that I almost put the book down several times.
Overall, this was a series that started out with a ton of promise, but with each subsequent book, that promise diminished. The worldbuilding and mythology remained consistently strong and fascinating throughout, and I was completely hooked in the romance between Mariah and Gabriel, but I wish the tone and intimacy of the first book had continued through IN BLOOD WE TRUST. Taken as a whole, the Bloodlands series is worth reading, even if it doesn’t finish as strongly as it should have.
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First off - love your name - Abigail.
ReplyDeleteSecondly - I just recently got the first book and I'm seriously looking forward to it. I mean come on = vampire western!!
Yikes two, two's in a row. Thanks for suffering so we don't have to!
ReplyDeleteAnd this is the reason why I don't buy a whole series. Thanks for the review Abigail, I have book one and plan on reading it soon. We shall see how I feel after that. Sex on dead bodies...yuck!
ReplyDeletePabkins - Thanks so much! The 1st Bloodlands book is fantastic and really different. All three fit together to tell one big story, so I hope you try them all.
ReplyDeleteAnon - I might have enjoyed this one more if book 1 hadn't set the standard so high. Check out the excerpts before deciding to skip these or not.
Rain - You'll be hooked after book one. Hopefully, you'll have a better idea of what to expect from books 2 & 3 and can appreciate the story as a whole...until you get to the sex stuff ;)