Bloodspell by Amalie Howard (Indie)

Bloodspell (Bloodspell #1)
Amalie Howard
Pub: June 1, 2011

The spell was simple... Cruentus Protectum (Defend the Blood).  But what do you do if your blood is your enemy?

Victoria Warrick has always known she was different. An outcast at school, she is no stranger to adversity. But when she receives an old journal for her seventeenth birthday, nothing prepares her for the dark secrets it holds -- much less one that reveals she's a witch with unimaginable power.

What's more, when she meets the dazzling but enigmatic Christian Devereux, she has no idea how much her life is about to change. Enemies will hunt her. Friends will turn on her. The terrible curse that makes her blood run black will stop at nothing to control her. And Christian has a sinister secret of his own...

Without knowing whom to trust, can Victoria survive her blood's deadly desires? Or will she lose everything, including herself?  

I'd like to give you the 4-1-1 on this novel, but I honestly don't remember too much of it, even though I finished just a few days ago. I'm not gonna lie, it took me awhile to read Bloodspell. The story seemed to drag on with very little action to keep me hooked (at least until the end, where it finally commanded some respect). I was actually looking forward to reading about not only a powerful witch, but a cursed one. In this department, Bloodspell delivered, because Victoria could do some awesome stuff. But sadly, the magical aspect of this novel was all I could categorize in the awesome department.

 

Hmm....this was the second novel in a row for me that had a lot of Twilight similarities. A boy and girl meet on her first day of class, and surprise, surprise, he doesn't know how to deal with her. He wants to be with her...wait, no he doesn't...he does...but he doesn't...it's forbidden...you shouldn't love me because I'm not worthy. Back and forth until the poor girl's got whiplash. This went on for a while. At least I think it did. I'll admit my attention zoned in and out a lot while reading this novel. Perhaps because it managed to hit several of my pet peeves:

1. It was dual point of view and difficult to follow. The ebook version I read had no clear segregation of POV, switching back and forth at the oddest moments. This made the whole reading experience that much more difficult, because it would sometimes take me a minute to realize it had changed. Chapter breaks or even page breaks to define separation would've been really helpful.
2. Addressing characters by their name. When you have a group, it's more understandable, but most of the scenes were between Victoria and Christian and they were using formal names every three sentences. No one does that in real life. With two people in the room, using names in dialog is unnecessary...and a little annoying. Furthermore, Christian couldn't decide whether or not to call her Victoria or Tori in casual conversation. Choose one already dude. One for daily usage, one for intimacy. Easy, done. Speaking of intimacy...when the hell did these two become an item? I was so put off by Christian's pulling and pushing her away, that suddenly they were just an item. What? Wait. What? This was just weird because I hardly remember them even kissing that often in this book. Probably because of all the...
3. Time gaps. Every once and while I'd be reading along to find out that weeks, if not a month had passed. I honestly have no idea of the timeline in this novel because it seems to leapfrog so much. Suddenly these two had been a couple for a while (when I never even realized they were officially on) and they still hadn't been together because Christian didn't feel he could trust himself around her blood. (Yep, Twilight again, but right now I'm supposed to be addressing time gaps.) Why so many jumps in time? Was it to put them in a longer relationship so it wouldn't be considered insta-love? Because honestly, it still felt that way because we never got to witness the missing weeks they were together.

Do I think Bloodspell is a good novel? Possibly, especially considering the cursed witch bit and the mad respect the paranormal world is about to unleash on her. The romance was disappointing for much of the novel, so much I would almost call it MIA. Unfortunately, I was hit with so many pet peeves that I was frustrated more than anything. So don't use my opinion too strongly in determining whether or not to read this novel, as plenty of people seem to like it. Unless of course you suffer the same pet peeves I do...

 

 Novel provided by author for honest review.