REVIEW: A Promise of Blood by R. A. Sandpiper
Ooooh damn, A Promise of Blood doesn’t just deliver on all the great potential that A Pocket of Lies promised, but it completely takes the Amefyre series to the next level. It gets bigger, darker, riskier, sexier, and even more cruelly twisted, and it’s bleeding with the most exquisite tension, inner turmoil and emotional gut punches that just hurt oh so good.
Now, if there’s one thing we learned from book 1, it’s that Suri seriously can’t catch a break. After all the brutal trials and tribulations that she somehow managed to survive, she has now ended up in the legendary City of the Damned; the city under the rule of none other than our deliciously dark Fae Lord Kol, who believes her to be the key player in the prophecy that forespells his people’s salvation. In other words, hello deadly high stakes, hello forced proximity, hello complicated feelings, and hello forbidden desires… let’s goooo, I am so here for the drama!
You know, I really liked these characters in A Pocket of Lies, but I absolutely fell in love with them in A Promise of Blood. I mean, it’s not like this sequel is any less action-packed than its predecessor, but I personally feel like it was way less hectic and overwhelming. To me, Sandpiper really hit the sweet spot between the action and the emotion, and the amount of organic character-/relationship development really increased the emotional stakes to levels that were honestly dangerous for my emotional wellbeing.
Suri is honestly just my type of spunky, angry gal, and I really loved that we got to see so much more emotional vulnerability from her while still maintaining her total badass status. And Kol… my dear, dark, broody, and absolutely tortured Kol; he is truly down bad for Suri (even if she is still deep in denial country), and oh baby do I like the (filthy) mouth on this man. I was honestly eating up their deliciously risqué will-they-won’t they dynamic and couldn’t stop grinning over all their knife-sharp, teasing banter. Also, the little teases of spice… fuuuuck me, they are HOT together!
But what’s especially impressive to me is how the increased focus on the achingly slow-burn (multi-book) enemies-to-lovers romance somehow never even came close to killing the grimdark tone or overshadowing all the other intriguing aspects of this story. I loved getting to know the side characters better as we spent time in Kol’s inner court, and the tentative and unexpected found family vibes had me all in my feels. And you know, Scilla may or may not have become my favourite character in A Promise of Blood, which is a true testament to Sandpiper’s skill as a storyteller considering how much I loathed this woman in book 1. These characters are all so flawed, so messy, so complex, and so deeply relatable in the most painful ways, and I loved that they are constantly and continually faced with the heavy consequences of their actions and mistakes.
Moreover, the world also organically expands in both breadth and depth as we travel to new places and more of the history/lore/magic gets unveiled, which really added a nice extra level of immersion for me. I especially loved the moments in the Fae Glen, with all its deceptive beauty, wicked trickery, and arousing seduction, as well as the shocking unravelling of Kol’s personal backstory (the diary entries in the epigraphs are starting to make so much sense now!). The way that Sandpiper cleverly played around with familiar tropes and kept subverting my expectations was just so fun, and I really loved seeing how intricately everything is tied together; the revelations are just SO GOOD!
That said, I do have to admit that there were a few plot beats that felt either a bit contrived, predictable or purely forced in there for the sake of drama, and both Kol and Suri suffer from some severe cases of martyr complex, which made me want to strangle them more times than I can count (even if the chaos also kinda gave me life). Also, similarly to in book 1, the final act of A Promise of Blood felt maybe a bit messy to me, but the last scenes were absolute fire and all the implications got me equal parts excited and absolutely scared shitless for the finale.
Ultimately, my few little nitpicks didn’t stop me from devouring this book like nobody’s business, and I think A Promise of Blood is just a sequel done absolutely right. The Amefyre series is quickly shaping up to be the dark fantasy romance of my darkest dreams (or should I say nightmares?), and I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who has been looking for something to fill that Throne of Glass or The Cruel Prince void, but which just goes a little harder in all the best ways.
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