DNF'd I gave it a really good try but it just wasn't for me. I could not get into the story. It was super slow and not enough world building. I didn't connect with the plot or the characters. The title and cover were great. The story itself needs some more work. I may give it another try in the future but for now it just wasn't working.

It all started off very promising but then kind of fizzled out because I’d already put certain things together from the start so they weren’t that big of a surprise anymore

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

This novel had potential. It had strong female characters, Magic, mystery, and romance. However, it was hard getting into the story because the beginning was very slow. Also, the world-building was not developed enough and lacked many details on the world. Aside from the main leads, I thought the characters were not as developed and were stereotypical. I would have liked more focus on the characters. This, I would have liked it better had it been faster, more details in the world-building, and more focus on character development. Still, I recommend this for fans of Gail Carson Levine, Rachael Hartman, and Shannon Hale!

This one was not for me. I was thinking maybe I decided to read it at a weird time and that was why but then I picked the book up again a few months later and I still couldn't get into it. I couldn't connect with the characters and the story just didn't present to me very well.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This was an interesting story and I did enjoy the settings and the relationships between the characters. However the pacing was off for me, and I don't feel that this was as much up my alley as much as some other books I've read recently - just wasn't my vibe. I encourage readers to give this book a shot! I think it was a good start.

This book was really good, I have had my eye on it since it came out in the UK and was not disappointed. The story was well written and fleshed out, the characters vibrant. Overall a really good story

2 stars? AHHH how I wish I could give this book a higher rating!

I honestly HATE to write negative reviews, because as I said I always put myself in the author's shoes and realize the amount of work there was behind the book. It's even harder to write something criticizing a novel when it's not entirely awful, badly written, or even problematic. But to be completely honest, this book just didn't work out for me.

In its defense, I bought it and only realized when starting it that I had confused its story with another or maybe just mixed it up with something else. But that wouldn't have kept me from enjoying it, of course. What did was that most of all, the story was VERY slow, I felt like it was going nowhere. I had to drag myself through the entire thing, I had barely any motivation to finish it. I didn't like any particular characters, the "twist" at the end made no real sense and the "love" stories were just so plain and bland and useless...Agh, I know how harsh this review may sound, but believe me when I say it's rare I'm being this way.

It just didn't appeal to me in any way, I was bored throughout the entire book. Moreover, I just didn't really understand the concept of having two main characters who don't share the entire story. I mean I got the whole "they are secretly connected" thing, but it just felt like reading two different things at the same time, and I was really confused when I had to move from three consecutive chapters about one character, before having to jump into another perspective - and that over and over again.

Again, I'm not bashing the hell out of it, it did have some good points, and I'd understand why some people liked it. I was left quite unsettled by the connection between the two characters - or rather the lack thereof.

I really loved the idea behind this book but the pacing was so slow. I made i 50% and barley anything had happened and I was struggling to continue wanting to read it. Maybe at another time this one will be for me, but this time around it wasn't.

This book just wasn't for me. It gets two stars because I did not DNF it and I think some could enjoy it more than I did. I picked this book up because of its comparison to furyborn, which is a series I really loved to the earth and back. But, I was disappointed and I feel like I need to stop picking books up based on comparisons! My expectations get too high. I thought the writing was okay but I wasn't drawn into the story as I like to be usually. I think the cover is absolutely stunning though and I do wish this book the best of luck. I did like that this book is a standalone and there will be another, unconnected book in the same world coming out, as told by the author!

We Are Blood and Thunder is author Kesia Lupo's debut novel. This story actually features two main characters; Lena and Constance. Lena is a cryptling working for Vigo, the Mortician. She, like others who have deformities, are relegated to the darkness and they must hide their faces if they go outside. They are in all essence abandoned by their families because of their deformities. Cryptlings dedicate their lives to serving the ancestors. The Ancestors are the dead who are given specific rights when they pass from the world.

When she discovers an unusual metal butterfly, she wonders what makes her so special and keeps it hidden for years. When she learns that she has magic at the most inopportune time, she's found guilty of magecraft and sentenced to die. The cloud that hangs above the city of Duke’s Forest has brought pestilence, death, and misery for the people of Duke’s Forest. With the City under quarantine, 1/2 the city dead, a King who is no longer in control, it's a very bad time for Lena to be charged with being a Mage.

Justice rules the city with an iron fist. He truly believes that magic is the root cause of the pestilence and preys on the people's fears and exacerbates the entire situation resulting in a manhunt. Thanks to her mentor Vigo, Lena escapes the manhunt, the city and being killed by Justice's Hounds. In the Duke's Forest, Lena meets a young masked woman who is apparently a mage returning to the city. In the Forest, Lena also meets Emris Lochlade, a huntsmen from the City of Kings who has been searching for the masked mage who Lena encountered.

Emris calls Lena a Rogue Mage and takes her to the City of Kings where she must either be trained and initiated into a temple, or be killed. The City of Kings provides refuge to Rogue mages, to control their abilities and pledge their allegiance to one of nine temples throughout the city. As Lena begins training Emris, she begins to discover her powers which has given her a new identity as a mage. As she searches for answers, Lena looks in places that she shouldn’t, that Emris has explicitly warned her about, for there are 13 mages who are not beholden to a god, but to the king himself, and when one of them, Lord Chatham, discovers her abilities, he will do anything to have her forcing her and Emris to run back to the Duke's Forest where she will encounter Constance's machinations.

Meanwhile, the masked mage Lena encountered in Dukes Forest is Constance Rathbone, the first born daughter of the Duke who left 6 years ago under mysterious conditions and traveled to the City of Kings where she trained with Emris. Constance is shocked to see what’s become of her hometown after she left 6 years ago. The shops are no longer bright, the people are hidden away, the vegetation is dying and of course, the storm cloud looms Constance is confronted with her fathers ailing health and the oppression and cruelty of the Justice.

With her father slowly fading away, Constance hopes that with her half brother Winton's help, and other key players, she can petition and win the right to be named Protector of the City. Constance begins a quest to not only get all of the Wise Men to stand behind her, but to find an end to Justice's brutal rule. Constance also believes that she may hold the key to ridding her former home of the pestilence that has touched everyone. But, when the Ancestors begin to rise like the Walking Dead, Constance's unexplained absence raises suspicion among her kinfolk, forcing to admit that she's a mage and has chosen to claim her birthright as heir.

The chapters alternate between Lena and Constance as they try to search for the answers to their own questions until their stories merge and they find themselves fighting the same battle. But, are they on the same side? What is Constance really doing back in Duke's Forest? Can Lena survive returning to her home? Or, will Justice finally catch up to her? Will Emris, who had a relationship with Constance, and feels that Lena might be his future, change his mind when Constance's machinations are revealed?

Good news! This is actually a standalone! You can read this from beginning to end and know that a resolution is, in fact, coming! You don't have to wait for the second installment which should be called a companion novel. That is unless you want to see what Lupo comes up with next.

I struggled with this book a lot. The pacing felt off and I couldn’t connect with the main characters. The plot in itself is intriguing- magic, female protagonists, mystery... but it fell so flat for me. Also the editing of the ARC was absolutely terrible and words were broken up with spaces between the letters and it was so hard to read.

Unfortunately I was unable to get into this book. I kept trying to read it but was unable to be hooked and had to leave it unfinished.

We Are Blood and Thunder was told from the perspectives of two people who were very different. Constance was the exiled princess waiting to make her return and save her people, and Lena was the young mage who was learning to control her magic and learn more about the world around her. The premise itself was intriguing and We Are Blood and Thunder started with a bang, but in the end, the novel was missing something. The dialogue felt a bit forced which made it difficult for me to care deeply about the characters. Nonetheless, the ending grabbed my attention and I appreciated the journey.

We Are Blood And Thunder was an intriguing read. I definitely felt like this book had a unique story line. With a deadly storm cloud, mages, cryptlings (people who work with the dead bodies), two different story lines and a dark atmosphere. Something felt missing for me though. In the beginning I really liked Lena's story. I was drawn in by the cryptlings and the darkness of an underground world where they prepared their dead. The idea of the ancestors was really neat too. But then from there the story just became mediocre. I didn't like Constance's story nor her character. Ultimately this book had a lot going for it! The ending was such a surprise too!

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

There was so much possible for this book. I really was intrigued by it's summary. Magic? Female Protagonists? Death as a theme?

However, I struggled through this book. The first 1/3 of it felt oddly paced. I couldn't get a grasp on the characters and they didn't feel appealing to me. I really enjoyed the imagery of the world and the magic sense. I wish there was more exploration into the gods and the temples they serve. It felt very strange to give them a large exposition in the beginning of the book, but to do nothing with that.

The twist in the story was interesting and I definitely enjoyed the last 3 chapters. I know this book wasn't for me, but I can think of a few students who would love this story as it is similar to favorites in our library. Just because it's not for me, doesn't mean it won't have a large following

We Are Blood and Thunder is a tale of hidden magic and betrayal. Lena is a cryptling, she is Marked and was forfeited to the crypt in Duke's Forest at birth to work for the rest of her life. Constance is a mage, which is not accepted within Duke's Forest, even though she is the heir to the duchy. Lena and Constance's paths cross as Lena is escaping the duchy after being convicted and sentences to death for being a mage. Constance is returning to the duchy to regain her rightful place as heir. Their paths will cross again, but in a much different context...

The magic system in WABAT is very different than what I've read before, and I felt like it could have been explained better. I am still somewhat confused as to how it works. I would have liked some more world-building. The characters were well described and given a clear background, which I always appreciate in fantasy novels as that can be skipped at times. There is a touch of romance, but not enough to take the attention away from the story line.

Overall, I was going to rate this lower until I got to the end and was completely shocked by the twist. I had a hard time getting into the book and being invested, but the twist ending caught me completely by surprise and I give the author a lot of credit for that! I automatically like a book twice as much if the author manages to surprise me with a twist.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsury YA for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

So many mixed feelings on We Are Blood and Thunder. Parts I loved, and parts I felt I would never get through. It did take me 9 days to read.

This was told in Dual POV – Lena and Constance. I liked Constance more. I could never tell if she was good or bad. I was questioning her thoughts and actions throughout the whole book, which I love.
Lena was more one-dimensional to me. She was just always very flat. She never showed a ton of emotion, and when she did (or tried) I didn’t believe it.
There was also a boy – Emris. He loved Constance once, and now loves Lena. It was a weird love triangle.

In the first 50% I loved Constance’s pov. I just wanted to keep reading her. At a little over the halfway mark Lena’s story picked up and gained some action. The last 20% or so was just hard for me to get through. I’m not sure exactly what it was. Everything was resolved. It just couldn’t keep my attention.

I also see on Goodreads this is book #1 in a series. I’m not sure what book #2 would entail – the story was very nicely wrapped up like a standalone. Maybe it will be in the same universe with different characters? I kind of hope so because I don’t know where else this trio could go.

I gave this 3 stars because I honestly liked a lot of the book. There were nice action scenes, magic, fighting. There wasn’t much of a love story, even with the triangle. But the last 20% or so really kept me from giving this over 3 stars. I was just ready for it to be over.

**Disclaimer: I was given a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.**

Title We Are Blood and Thunder

Author Kesia Lupo

Description

In a city where magic is feared and the dead are worshipped, life is overshadowed by a powerful and devastating storm cloud.

One young woman is running for her life. Another is trying to return home. Both are looking for a place where they belong.

But what Lena and Constance don’t realise is that the storm cloud binds them. Without it, neither can get what she desires.

Release Date March 3, 2020

Initial Thoughts

This book sounded super cool when I read the description on NetGalley. I love multiple POVs and this book had that and so much more.

Some Things I Liked

Dual narration. I loved seeing both Lena and Constance’s sides to the story. The transitions between the two were particularly interesting as scenes that had both characters would cut back and forth, creating more suspense.
Magic characterized by colors. I really liked the prologue of the book and Lena’s lessons about the magic in their world. I loved that the different types of magic were clearly distinguished and denoted by colorful differences in the practitioners.
Hero / Villain duology. I loved the secrets that Lena and Constance each had and the idea that you really don’t know their intentions for most of the story. I was almost torn on who to root for in certain moments.

One Thing I Wasn’t Crazy About

Death. I know this is a story about a culture that worships the dead, but there was a lot of death in the story. I wanted to save more of the characters so there could be more stories about them!

Series Value

I would read the next book in this series. I really enjoyed the world building and I think there is a lot more that could be done with the magic, gods, and different neighboring kingdoms mentioned in We Are Blood and Thunder.

Final Thoughts

I liked this book a lot. I thought the story was unique, the magic system was interesting, and the world left me wanting to read more about it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

Furyborn by Claire Legrand – if you liked the dual protagonists narrating the story, try this series by Claire Legrand.
Fawkes by Nadine Brandes – if you liked the idea of magic denoted by colors and masks with magical powers, try this standalone by Nadine Brandes.
Rule by Ellen Goodlett – if you liked the relationship between Constance and Lena, try this duology about sisters who discover each other when they are thrust into a competition for their dying father’s crown.