Author: Tessa Gratton
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: May 24, 2011
Genre: YA, paranormal
Pages: 405
Series: The Blood Journals #1
1. Blood Magic
2. The Blood Keeper (August 28, 2012)
Synopsis:
It starts off simply.
Draw a circle... place a dead leaf in the center... sprinkle some salt... recite a little Latin... add a drop of blood...
Maybe that last part isn’t exactly simple. Yet somehow it feels right to Silla Kennicott. And nothing in her life has felt remotely right since her parents’ horrific deaths. She’s willing to do anything to uncover the truth about her family—even try a few spells from the mysterious book that arrived on her doorstep... and spill some blood.
The book isn’t the only recent arrival in Silla’s life. There’s Nick Pardee, the new guy next door who may have seen Silla casting a spell. She’s not sure what he saw and is afraid to find out. But as they spend more time together, Silla realizes this may not be Nick’s first encounter with Blood Magic. Brought together by a combination of fate and chemistry, Silla and Nick can’t deny their attraction. And they can’t ignore the dark presence lurking nearby—waiting to reclaim the book and all its power.
From Goodreads
The first thing that drew me to this book was the author, Tessa Gratton, and the fact that she is a critique partner of Maggie Stiefvater (author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races). The idea of blood magic was kinda creepy to me, but I really wanted to give this book a chance. So I picked it up at the Maggie event I went to in Summer 2011, since Tessa was traveling with her. And I got it signed!
I only got to reading it this summer, but I’m really happy I picked it up. Once again, I loved seeing two narrators, but I also really loved the journal entries of Josephine Darly. We really get to know Josephine as a person, and it’s terrible to see that she’s truly a horrible person. Then there’s Silla, who has every reason to be insane, but is just doing her best to continue living day by day. And Nick is not Mr. Buffed Up Hunk, but he’s a whole different kind of tall, dark, and handsome. Having all these perspectives really gave the book depth, and upped the suspense level.
I liked how the romance progressed in this book. It was quick, since Silla and Nick’s feelings were revealed before the half-way point, but it worked. It enabled their relationship to be solid and true throughout the rest of the book. The whole story wouldn’t have worked out very well if Silla and Nick didn’t have the relationship they did. They needed each other.
The story was really suspenseful. It seemed like half the book was set in a cemetery, and the other half entailed a psycho terrorizing people. I will say that blood magic IS creepy, so I was right to feel that way even before the beginning! It’s really such a thriller of a book. It’s gory and scary and… just overall creepy! But it’s also so darn good. If I’d had the time, I know I would’ve had trouble putting it down.
However, my timing couldn’t have been better! Book two in The Blood Journals series is out on August 28, 2012!
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