Blood Passage

All images courtesy of Freepik & Pinterest.

Penned by one of my favorite authors. Blood Passage was a book that I was highly anticipating reading this year. In preparation of the book, I even went ahead and re-read Exquisite Captive, which turned out to be a great idea since I was a little fuzzy on some events. In many ways, Blood Passage was a stronger novel than its predecessor, a sign which indicates just how talented Heather Demetrios is, but I did have one minor person

All images courtesy of Freepik & Pinterest.

Penned by one of my favorite authors. Blood Passage was a book that I was highly anticipating reading this year. In preparation of the book, I even went ahead and re-read Exquisite Captive, which turned out to be a great idea since I was a little fuzzy on some events. In many ways, Blood Passage was a stronger novel than its predecessor, a sign which indicates just how talented Heather Demetrios is, but I did have one minor personal qualm.

One of Heather Demetrios' strongest points is her characterizations. In any kind of series, it's extremely important to see character growth with every book, particularly the main characters. In Blood Passage, readers are treated exactly to that, especially when it comes to our heroine Nalia. In Exquisite Captive, I wasn't really sure what to make of her character. Some of her actions and decisions were questionable and she took some time to really grow into herself, but by the end, I liked her enough to want to get to know her better. In Blood Passage, she was a much stronger character, who fought for what was right and was willing to go to lengths to keep her friends and loved ones alive. Nalia suffered relentlessly in this book, but despite the crushing circumstances, she put on a brave face and stood up with her chin held high for the sake of Arijinna, the jinn land. She grew to become a character that I absolutely loved and I'm rooting that she is able to find her HEA in the final book.

Raif, the leader of the jinn rebellion, was my favorite character in Exquisite Captive, and over and over again in Blood Passage he reminded me why that was the case. Raif has all the qualities that I look for in a book boyfriend ; loyal, kind, protective, but allows his heroine to be independent. He was all those and so much more in this installment. I'm not sure how anyone can dislike this guy. We also learn much about Malek, Nalia's master, and his past in Blood Passage. You begin to understand why he is the way he is and how he became to be this shady character. I did feel like Demetrios tried to redeem him in certain ways, but I still didn't have any love for the guy.

In terms of the plot, I thought Blood Passage moved with an excellent pace. If you've read Exquisite Captive, you know that Nalia and co. are on there way to find Solomon's Sigil, a ring that will help Raif in the rebellion against the dark Ifrit. Their journey wasn't smooth sailing at all and they encountered one terrible obstacle after the other. My emotions went haywire at some of the heartbreaking twists and turns. By the end, I felt wrung out, but I was also dying in anticipation of the sequel. The world building also beautifully expanded and we learned more about the different jinn castes and the war that killed all of Nalia's species.

Now that I've talked about everything I loved in Blood Passage, let me get to the personal issues I had. The romance. I absolutely adored Nalia and Raif together. In this book, Nalia pushed Raif away for many many different reasons, all very valid in my opinion. Regardless of Nalia's pushing away though, Raif remained determined in his love for her aside from a hiccup they faced midway through the book. I loved that he constantly reminded her of how much she means to him and there were some seriously swoony and steamy moments between the two that were the highlight of the book for me. My problem though, was the "triangle". WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD: (view spoiler)[First off, it's clear that Nalia doesn't have any feelings emotionally towards Malek. She mentions that repeatedly throughout the book. But her body is undeniably attracted to him. Malek forces her to kiss him multiple times during the book, scenes that I found were repulsive and honestly, made no sense to me. Nalia is disgusted during most these scenes, but I felt like they could have been avoided. There were also times when we begin to see Nalia sympathize with Malek and along with the fact that she had some morsel of attraction towards him, it made me antsy that something would happen between the two eventually. It doesn't, because by the end, Malek sacrifices himself for Nalia, but throughout most of the book, I still felt that irritation and frustration because I was nervous they would get together at some point. And about Malek's death. While I'm glad that he is now out of the picture, I'm not going to lie, his death felt like a very convenient way to get rid of the triangle once and for all. It's a plot device that I don't really care for in books. (hide spoiler)] Besides the romance though, I really enjoyed the sibling dynamics that was explored in Blood Passage, especially between Raif and Zanari, who made me smile with how solidly supportive they were of each other, but also with how they teased each other.

My spoiler is the main reason why I dropped my rating from a 4 stars to a 3.5 stars. It's obviously not something that will bother every reader, but I thought there was no harm in detailing it out for those of you who are curious. Regardless, the whole thing didn't entirely taint my reading experience, but I know I would have loved the book more had it not been a part of the book. Overall though, Blood Passage was a solid sequel and I'm looking forward to reading the finale which is sure to end with a bang.