Review: The Blood Curse by Annette Marie

The Blood Curse (Spell Weaver #3)
written by Annette Marie
narrated by Melissa Moran and Tim Paige

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Post-apocalyptic Urban Fantasy
Age Category: Young Adult/ New Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Clio thought she was helping her brother save their kingdom. Instead, she set off a chain of events that will lead to its downfall—and the ruin of all magic.

She must find Bastian and take the shadow weave back before he unleashes it, but the mere thought of confronting him after learning about his lies and betrayals is unbearable. Actually defeating him will be impossible.

Lyre is painfully aware that his creation has fallen into dangerous hands. But even as he and Clio race to recover it, he knows a far worse danger is closing in. Lyceus has joined the hunt for his rebel son, and there’s nowhere in the realms Lyre can hide.

If he’s going to survive, he’ll have to face his father. And when he does, he’ll need a weaving more sinister than anything he’s created before to win against the deadliest weaver alive.

Their enemies are powerful, but Lyre and Clio are only just beginning to realize how dangerous a master weaver and a mimic together could become. If they can combine their strength, they might have a chance. If they fail, the realms will pay the price.

—
Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the best-selling Steel & Stone series, the second edition of The Blood Curse features a revised story and new cover.

Note: The Spell Weaver and Steel & Stone series are set in the same world but can be read independently.

My Review

I received a free copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series and was excited to see how the series would wrap up in The Blood Curse. The Blood Curse was another action packed installment and I liked seeing even more of the world and the characters. The romance deepens in this one and that was great to see. And there are some interesting twist and turns plot wise. All in all a great ending to the series.

The Blood Curse starts shortly after the end of book 2 and were the other two books had a slower start this one starts right with action and danger. They have to stop Bastian from using the clock spell again and they get to that right away. Clio and Lyre have teamed up with Ash in this one, so there’s a bit more about Ash too in this one. The plot had some interesting twists and turns. I hadn’t expected a certain event to happen until the end, but seeing what happened next it made sense. There also was a battle I wasn’t sure how they would win and it was great to see that play out.

The ending wraps things up very well, but it does have a note of sadness. I had actually expected this due to reading the first few chapters of Chase the Dark a while ago, but those scenes still hit me in the feels. I liked how the motivations and actions of the characters involved made sense and there was a very good reason for why these things happened. There is an epilogue set after the Steel & Stone series, so I’ll get that after I finished that series as well.

I really liked seeing how Lyre and Clio have changed throughout the series. Especially Clio has come so far and I liked seeing some more confidence in her and how she handled things now, but she also still is that same Clio from book 1 and has her clumsy and naive moments. Lyre on the other hand has learned there are people who care about him, but still has that wary edge to him due to how he grew up. Seeing their romance deepen even more was awesome and I really liked seeing them grow even closer. I appreciated they had some quiet and calm moments to explore what was between them, before they had things to do again.

The world building in this series has been awesome and I hadn’t expected there would be so much of it still in book 3, but I was delighted that there was so much. Clio and Lyre travel to the dessert where the griffins live and I liked reading about their city, the people and their culture. Then later on they visit a big city in the underworld and there is more about that city and the underworld castes that live there. The world building has been very unique and fresh and I like reading about all the magic. A lot of the battles involve weapons and magic and they made for some exciting actions scenes.

The two narrators for this series were great and I am really glad I listened to this series as they really help bring the world and characters alive.

To summarize: This was such a great ending to the series! The plot was engaging with plenty going on as well as a few quieter moments. I liked the twists and turns and seeing how it all plays out. the ending wraps things up well, but also has some sad parts and those hit me in the feels despite knowing some of what was coming. I liked seeing how much Lyre and Clio have changed throughout the series and seeing how their romance deepens in this one. I really like them as a couple. The world building in this series is awesome and I liked seeing even more of both the overworld and underworld in this one and especially the scenes in the griffin lands were interesting to me. All in all I had a great time with this series and I look forward to starting the Steel & Stone series soon.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.