Any book that has a warning for cursing has already hooked my attention. The world in this book is unique on to itself. Cool magic systems set in dark academia setting with some great characters. I don't read a ton of urban fantasy but this book makes me want to read more, especially the next one in the series. The romance does follow the bad boy with a dark past cliché but I really like those (probably a lot of people do, that's why so many get written). Overall solid story, and I'm excited to see where these characters go.

Thank you very much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review in return for my honest opinion.

I have to be honest, I did not finish this book. It really wasn’t my cup of tea, the blurb sounded like this book would be my ideal read... but it wasn’t. I struggled trying to make myself read this, which is never a good sign.

4/5 stars

POV: Slate & Cadence
Pacing: quick
Tropes: YA urban fantasy, friends to lovers, magical challenges and treasure hunt

<u>Overall</u>
I really enjoyed the start to this fun YA series with plenty of magic, adventure and some romance. I loved the world building that set this story and the magical challenges in a quiet mysterious French town. The magical history surrounding the town and its occupants was immersive and I loved it. The cursed magical artifacts and the challenges each character faced in order to locate the treasure were entertaining and kept you reading! As far as the romance, the chemistry between Slate and Cadence was a good slow burn that took time to develop from friends to lovers. Overall, I recommend it for anyone looking for a magical adventure set with challenges and romance. I'm excited to see where this series goes next!

*Thank you so much to Twig Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was a bit apprehensive as I'm not usually a fan of books written by more than one author, but this one pleasantly surprised me. This fantasy novel has just the right amount of magic. You'll also find adventure, romance, and discover the secrets hidden by the families in Brume. The book is definitely a worth read, will be recommending.

Of Wicked Blood's strengths lied with it's characters. Slate was an easy character to root for with a great sense of humour and while I wish the relationship between him and Cadence hadn't been so insta-lovey they were cute.
A solid read with an interesting plot that did, unfortunately, drag at times. I'm interested in seeing where the story goes from here and what Cadence's dads deal is.

Of Wicked Blood by Olivia Wildenstein, Katie Hayoz
Publisher: Twig Publishing
Genre: Romance | Sci Fi & Fantasy | Teens & YA
Publication Date: February 2, 2021

Of Wicked Blood by Olivia Wildenstein & Katie Hayoz is the first book in The Quatrefoil Chronicles. I had not previously read any books the by the authors, but I know that will be quickly changing!

This books is filled with magic and romance, suspense and adventure, and such a joy to read!

The characters are fantastic, the storyline is fascinating, and there's more to come! I found this to be captivating and I didn't want it to end! I look forward to reading the next book, "Of Tainted Heart", which is scheduled to be released in January 2022.

I'm so grateful to Olivia Wildenstein & Katie Hayoz, Twig Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

#Of Wicked Blood is one of the best novels I've read lately. Authors # Olivia Wildenstein and # Katie Hayoz will keep you entertained. The review is on my Instagram blog under Maddie_approves_book_reviews.
Thank you for the advance copy,
#Netgalley, #Olivia Wildenstein, # Katie Hayoz and # Twig Publishing

This was a nice book, but not really my favorite.
The pacing felt wrong for me and I had a hard time really getting in to the book. It took me forever to finish sadly..

I am being honest - I mainly got this book for the cover. It looked very beautiful and the title? Lovely.
Sadly, this book was nothing for me. It could have been made aware to me by reading the blurb, but I wanted to give this book a chance.
I do not like this book. At. All.
First, it's so heavily hetero sexual that I want to cringe. I am not a big fan of hetero stories, but there can be nice ones. Sadly, this one wasn't for me. You know from the very beginning how this goes and I was bored after reading 20% which leads us straight to the next issue I had with this book: The pacing.
This book starts so unbelivably SLOW! It takes forever until something actually interesting happens and then, as it turns out - it's gone just as fast as it came. Uhm... Okay? I get that this is for Young Adults, but I've read other YA-authors who could put more action into a book within the first couple of pages.
I'd have preferred it if the book had started with the theft of the bloodstone and they actually had to find each other in order to bring the Four together, but... okay. Personal dislike, I guess.
I am not going to read the following books. If I want cringe, I have enough to chose from...

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of Of Wicked Blood.

I enjoyed this dually narrated story. It was fast-paced and full of action and mystery. I liked all the characters and the story line. I'm interested in reading more about Brume, it's mysteries, and the Quatrafoil crew.

3.75/5 stars

This was so fun i’m gonna need a MINUTE.

Of Wicked Blood is a contemporary fantasy following Slate, a thief who spent his childhood in various foster homes and Cadence, a teenage librarian born and raised in Brume, the alleged birthplace of French witchcraft. After Slate finds out that he is the last descendant of one of the founding families of Brume he, in a spur of anger, travels to Cadence’s hometown, and drunkenly steals an heirloom from a crypt— only to find out that said heirloom is cursed. This kicks off a series of trials, in which Slate and Cadence, along with two others, have to succeed at a number of challenges to restore magic. If they fail, Slate dies.

I’m always apprehensive about contemporary fantasies but I'm a sucker for eerie, atmospheric towns so the setting actually ended up being what I loved most about this! Brume is a small, foggy Breton town set on a hill with circles instead of streets and steeped in tons of history and folklore. Each of the characters' challenges are tied to the town's mythology, and thus with each mini quest we find out more about the magical creatures and their meanings, which, as someone who knows more or less nothing about Arthurian legend, I found really interesting. The plot hinging upon this series of trials contributed to a really fun reading experience with a relatively fast pace and excellent banter.

Though, while I really enjoyed Cadence's character & especially her love for history (side note: I think I'm hardwired to love librarian MC's), Slate took a while to grow on me. I found him to be irritating and annoyingly cocky throughout the first chunk of the novel (as a reminder— he literally robs a corpse and while he was indeed blackout drunk, I still feel like there aren’t a lot of ways to justify that morally), and thus, the romance between the two of them didn’t entirely convince me either. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how Cadence's dad's disability was handled (spoiler: as in, it being a "curse" and thus tied to magic). I'm not an own-voices reviewer, so my comment on this is by no means definitive, but that part made me feel uncomfortable. I also found that the ending leaves the reader with a tad too many questions; everything just kind of turned out to be fine without any explanation as to why and how, and I personally wanted more answers.

Overall though, this was a fun, fast-paced read and I now really want to spend my next New Years in a witchy town in Brittany.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital arc in exchange for an honest review!

Of Wicked Blood // by Olivia Wildenstein and Katie Hayoz // narrated by Holly Fielding and Thomas Locklear

I honestly don't remember requesting the original ebook for this and seeing that I've been avoiding YA fantasy the past few months, I didn't have very high expectations of this book. Oh how wrong I was! I don't know if it was the format I ended up using or what, but I could not stop listening to this book! I even put aside my very favorite book several times to clean the house (whaaaat?!?) because I knew that meant I could continue listening to Of Wicked Blood!

I have not read many urban fantasy books so I wasn't sure what to expect in that sense. I love the world-building and extensive character development that comes with epic fantasy so I thought the shorter length of the book and having it set in our "normal" world wouldn't be able to measure up. Cadence and Slate though pulled me straight into the story and didn't let go until the very end. I was impressed with how well the whole story worked out. Having two authors made me assume that each one chose a narrator and stuck with that but I wouldn't be able to say for sure because they flowed very well together and the conversations between those two were believable and gave me the same feel no matter whose side we were hearing them from. Having this story happen in France and including some of the language and accents made it just different enough for me to still get that feel of novelty throughout.

"He's not made of stone. Only of sin."

Even aside from the way the authors worked so well together, I loved the characters all throughout this book. They each have their distinct personalities. The two main characters especially were well defined from the start and it was great to get to know them more over time. They both surprised with their complexness and adaptability. And phew! Did those sparks fly between the two of them! I loved how natural their attraction and interactions felt! In some books this feels so stilted but there was zero issue with that here at all.

There are two things that I struggled with a little. The first was the ending. I did wonder throughout how they would finish this story yet still leave it open enough to not have it as a standalone. They definitely achieved this well but it felt like there was a big buildup to the climax and then it stopped abruptly. It's not a cliffhanger per se but it still felt like a rather quick wrap up (maybe I'm just mad that I have to wait for the next book now hehehe). The other issue was with the narrators. While I did grow to like them and felt that they fit their characters well eventually, some of the reading some overly dramatic and the emphasis on certain words just did not work well here and there. This wasn't an issue all throughout the book though, so it's not a huge deal. I also wasn't the biggest fan of some of the voices they gave other characters. The ones for their own characters sounded great but the others felt a little too... fake perhaps.

But please don't let that stop you from enjoying this story! I still had a really great time with the characters, the pacing was fantastic all throughout, and I'm excited for book 2 despite my usual aversion for YA fantasy! This book really took me off guard and I'm excited to see what else these two authors have to offer!

Warning: There is a LOT of cursing in this book so beware if this is an issue for you. It works for the character but I wanted to give a heads up anyways.

Thank you to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be. I find the books I request are not necessarily books I’m going to like anymore. My taste has changed and along with it so should be my requests. But this book seemed very juvenile to me and I think that’s why I should steer in a different direction moving forward. I wish I could have liked this book more given that the synopsis did lure me in.

Of Wicked Blood was a refreshingly different PNR Fantasy. Slate was doing just fine before he received a message from a professor from the small town of Brume informing him of a lost inheritance from his dead parents. When Slate arrives in Brume, an act of petty revenge results in a race to reunite a mystical relic called the Quatrefoil and restore magic to the world before an angry curse takes his life. All Slate wants is to put as much distance between himself and Brume as possible, but not only does his newfound legacy cause a wrinkle in his plan, but so does the professor's daughter, Cadence de Morel. Cadence has been raised on stories of magic, but when Slate comes into her life, she learns that all the stories she's heard is true. She also finds an unexplainable attraction to the new bad boy in town. Together, Cadence and Slate must reunite the Quatrefoil and unravel the complicated legacy of their legacies before it is too late.
I enjoyed Of Wicked Blood. First of all, I LOVE SLATE SO MUCH. He is so funny, so sexy and so irreverant that I really enjoyed his character. I also love the slow burn and enemies to lover dynamic between himself and Cadence. I thought that the lore of the Quatrefoil and magic in Brume was really unique and interesting. The fact that his book is set in a small town in France also lends to that unique nature of this novel. The stakes are really high with this one and there is an undercurrent of urgency in this book that keeps the pacing pretty balanced. But again, my biggest love of this book is from its characters. The ones I loved and the ones I hated all added a level of enjoyment to it. Of Wicked Blood is a story about lost family and forbidden attraction, and how the truths in both of these things have the power to change everything.

The two main characters of this book were excellent but the supporting characters were just as wonderful. Fantastic plot that moves quickly. Lots of magic and sexual tension. Very solid start to a new series. I will definitely be looking for the second installment.

OF WICKED BLOOD, by Hayoz and Wildenstein.
By the 20% mark of this audiobook, I was totally hooked and had that "AHA- this is how clicks together" moment. It follows the main character, Slate, as he travels to the bizarre, magic-worshiping college town of Brume where he learns that he has long lost roots- and a good sum of inheritance. Slate's years in the system shaped him into a sassypants of a self-started and a hell of a big brother. So when he's called to Brume, he only has two plans in mind: get the money and loot the old man that knew he was alive and kept him in the system, anyway. Needless to say, Slate seals his own fate when he robs the wrong item from the family crypt and is plunged into a magical do-or-die scenario. Slate and his team must reinstate magic by putting all the pieces of the mythical Quatrefoil back together and face their elemental demons before Slate's time is up.
I'm a sucker for a loudmouth, bad boy, antihero that ends up only hurting himself through his bad boy ways. An audiobook perk for me was the narration by Thomas Locklear and Holly Fielding. The story is written in two POVs that alternate between Slate and Cadence (the old man's daughter). I found both narrators to be so entertaining, especially as the novel progressed and... is it just me or were Locklear and Fielding having a little too much fun impersonating each other? This is the highly entertaining first book in the new "Quatrefoil Chronicles."
I definitely recommend this series to fans of upper YA urban fantasy.

Absolutely fantastic start to a new series! I adored this book so much and cannot wait to continue with Of Tainted Heart when it comes out next year.

Of Wicked Blood follows Slate Ardoin who has not had the easiest childhood in the foster system but he has now made a comfortable life for himself. He was not expecting to find out that his parents did not abandon him as he once thought but that they died. He was not expecting to find out that they had left him money. The letter tells him he must go to the town of Brume to arrange settling these matters and he intends to do this as quickly as possible and get back to his own life. Is anything ever that easy? After some poor life choices on arrival in Brume he is in possession of a cursed ring that he stole from a family crypt and now needs help from that family to rid himself of it...AWKWARD.

Cadence de Morel is none too impressed with the man who looted her family crypt and yet it seems she will now have to help him as he has unwittingly set off a chain of events that no one was prepared for.

This book has it all:
1) Great characters that you can't help but love (or hate). The characters are well fleshed out and enjoyable to read about
2) Exciting plot that has you speeding through the pages. The story follows Slate, Cadence and Co as they try and rid Slate of his cursed ring and possibly complete a quest never before been achieved.
3) Budding romance between uptight and reserved Cadence and maverick Slate
4) Excellent humour that is very reminiscent of early season Buffy and very much to my taste

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Since reading it I have purchased a physical copy as this book needed to be on my shelves.

This book strongly reminded me of Vampire Diaries, since it's mostly consists of Unrealized Sexual Tension between Teen and/or Young Adult heroes with a pinch of magical background. The characters are all rich, beautiful, well versed in ancient languages and have parents who are either dead or extremely shady. The tropes are all there - the Innocent Betty-Cooper-character, the Sexually Promiscuous Friend, the Nerdy Guy, the Sexy and Snarky Guy with a Dark Vibe, The Mom Character and The Golden Boy. Good thing is the story's very quick-paced, but there's a cliffhanger at the end, so it doesn't really resolve itself. If cliches like I've mentioned are your thing you should totally go for it and read the book.

Get ready for ghosts, dragons, sirens, Greek mythology and so much more with every page that you turn. The main characters, Slate and Cadence, were very well written in this slow burn romance novel. With the added elements of an amazing plot, mystery, friendship with even better secondary characters, family and magic; the authors have quite the world building ability.

The storyline is that they're looking for four pieces of the Quattrefoil and with each piece comes with its own battles of demons that they have to slay. The story moves out of really good pace, not slow not fast, really immerses You into the world. Admittedly, my favorite character is Slate with his childhood upbringing and his current past time of being a thief, therefore he has quite the confident and charming element to him.

Overall a very fun read in which my twin teens and tween thoroughly enjoyed. A little mix of everything as we follow a treasure hunt like a Goonie.

this book.....THIS BOOK

it was exactly what i needed: a refreshing story to get my out of my reading slump

such a great book! I enjoyed every bit