Review: 4/5 for Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

Hardcover, 405 pages

Published May 24th 2011 by Random House Books for Young Readers

Source: eBook, purchased
Buy the Book: Amazon : B&N : Goodreads

From Goodreads:

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.

Tessa Gratton's intoxicating first novel will keep pulses racing, minds reeling, and pages turning right up to the very last drop of blood.

I was so excited after I read this synopsis. It has everything a girl could want: magic, different perspective, and sweet guy. Well, it lived up to that hype, but it had a couple small drawbacks.

The book has good characters that are very easy to relate to. Each have various depths that I enjoyed learning about. Many of them triumph over challenges they've faced in life. They take the challenges and still manage to strive forward. There was a characteristic that disturbed me though. I understand that for blood magic you need blood. I know there are many ways to retrieve said blood, but this book takes some of them a little over the edge. There were times I was actually uncomfortable reading about it. So if you're squeamish about this topic, this may not be the book for you.

The concept in this book was great and inventive. I loved the different perspective it offered. However, there were incidents and relationships that felt just kind of thrown together. It was like I would be at the end of an event and then suddenly I was thrown a curve ball from left field. This is good when it fits into that event, but most felt oddly out of place. It was like walking and hitting your toe on a rock that is suddenly thrown into your path. While that rock may be interesting, it didn't need to be in your path or at least at that point.

These issues aside, I really did enjoy this book and will definitely read the next one that comes out. Hopefully some of the kinks will be worked out, because I think there is a lot of room for these characters to grow and expand in attributes and plot.