Of Wicked Blood features a myriad of compelling tropes twisted together in an irresistible tale:
- Orphaned prodigal son grows up in extreme poverty and abuse
- Sheltered, naive, girl-next-door bookish girl has her world blown apart
- Small country town brimming with history, cobblestone streets, and best of all, magic
- A cursed magical item that propels a crew to go on an epic and super dangerous quest
- Enemies to lovers

Summary: No rest for the wicked... or the cursed.

SLATE
I didn’t mean to steal the Bloodstone from the De Morel’s crypt.
Scratch that, I did mean to steal it.
Until I realized it was a curse-magnet that only comes off if I, along with a jolly trio, successfully defeat four curses.
If any of us fail, I’m dead.
I’ve never been a glass half-empty sort of person, but my glass looks in dire need of a refill right about now.
The only highlight of this wicked treasure hunt: feisty, entitled Cadence de Morel.

CADENCE
I was raised on tales of magic, in a small town reputed to be the birthplace of French witchcraft.
Did I believe all the stories I heard? Absolutely not. I mean, if magic existed, Maman wouldn’t have died, and Papa wouldn’t be stuck in a wheelchair, right?
Wrong.
The night Slate Ardoin waltzes into my life, wearing a ring he stole from my mother’s grave, I call him a monster.
But then I meet real ones, and Slate, well . . . he becomes something else to me.
Something frustrating to live with but impossible to live without.
Something I will fight for, no matter the cost.

Thoughts:
- I loved the atmosphere of this book, and honestly, that is the best word to describe it: atmospheric. Brume is quaint, ancient, and brimming with beautiful dark French academia vibes.
- The historical layer truly makes this book for me because its the birthplace of French witchcraft (it's stated that Brume rivaled Salem, Mass. for the sheer number of witches burned) and is rumored to be the place where ancient sorceress Viviane traps Warlock Merlin (yes! THAT Merlin!) in a neighboring wood. So enchantments and spooky vibes abound!
-Slate Ardoin carries this novel. The End. Period.
-Cadence's naivete is a major setback for me and I can only hope beyond hope that she grows into a fully-fledged person in book two. Slate even reminisces in chapter 57 that when he first met Cadence he viewed her as naive, spoiled, and two-dimensional. He was not wrong.

Of Wicked Blood was such an interesting and great read! I love fantasy and really like that this book is contemporary since many of the fantasy novels I read are not. It was a refreshing change. The story and writing of this book was done wonderfully. Wildenstein and Hayoz described Brume so well that I could completely picture the dark, magical town and feel the bone-chilling cold. It made Brume feel all the more real and like one of the characters.

Of Wicked Blood follows the perspectives of both Slate and Cadence. Slate has had a rough upbringing in foster care, learning to take care of himself in order to survive. Cadence was raised in Brume, where she has received a great education and upbringing in a lovely home with her father. The two characters are very different, but come together to help restore magic in Brume. It is during the trials that Slate and Cadence's general attraction begins to turn into something deeper. With the trials taking precedence in the story, the romance is a slow burn that I really enjoyed and found myself more invested in as the story progressed.

The ending caught me off guard a little because it felt very sudden, but yet didn't have an exciting cliffhanger. I guess it felt a little lackluster. I still very much enjoyed Of Wicked Blood and am interested to see where the story takes Slate and Cadence in the next book. There are many unanswered questions that I hope we will delve into further in book 2. I can't wait!

Received an ARC for reviewing from Net Galley! Wow what a wonderful book and great world building! I love urban fantasy with adventure!!!

This book is right up my (e-G)alley! Fraught with mystery, secrets, magic, cursed objects, a little bit of romance, all wound up in a great fantasy. Thanks to #NetGalley for the audiobook preview, #OfWickedBlood gets 5 stars; I can't wait for book 2!

With thanks to Olivia Wildenstein, Katie Hayoz and Twig publishing for an audio arc of this book.

I have read this book before but has a lover of an audio I want to see how the production compared with my initial experience of the book, I'm delighted to say that it is brilliant! Somethings a narrator can really take away from your perception of a character, however in this case it merely added to the enjoyment.

Original review for reference;

This is going down as my best Netgalley find in my 3 years here.

I read this book in one sitting, cause I could not put it down!

The book is set in a small town in France called Brume, that has a rich history in magic. The setting is so charming, and rich in descriptions of festivals, and cultures.
The plot is fast paced, and the banter between slate and cadence adds a lot of humour, and makes the characters so likable.

I would highly recommend to anyone (all ready have to everyone I can personally get near)

***I received a copy of this audiobook from netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

Dark academia in the French countryside???? Sign me up! <b><s>Slate</s></b> <i>Of Wicked Blood</i> had me hooked from the start. It is a bit of a genre bender… is it suspense? Heist? Murder(?) mystery? Urban fantasy? It’s a little bit of <b>everything,</b> and it kept me on the edge of my seat. The pacing was perfection, and the stakes seemed to rise with each new plot twist. The romance was exactly as trope-y as I wanted from this type of book. I loved the setting, the unique and not overly dense magic canon, and the building friendships throughout. The writing itself was fabulous! I can’t wait for book 2!

I am head-over-heels for sarcastic bad boy Slate. A foster kid with a chip on his shoulder and propensity for cons/thieving, he is about as cliché as they come. What can I say? I’m a basic b*tch with simple tastes. I love him. Cadence was the worst (most annoying) character of the bunch… a bland, goodie-two-shoes daddy’s girl. I’m really hoping that her character arc in the next book(s) has her growing in some big ways. I can’t wait to learn more about badass Mama Gaëlle… and Adrien I <i>guess</i> (he hasn’t grown on me yet, but he was getting less annoying as the book progressed so that's something).

The narrators were good, but I don’t think they were the correct choice for this project. Both had very obvious American accents for a story that takes place in France. It distracted me throughout, as my subconscious brain tried to convince me they were in the US or Canada until the writing reminded me it was France.

I accidently spoiled this book for myself and I was damn near an emotional wreck at the end of this book and there wasn't enough book left to rebound from it. While I understand that the cliffhanger work as a hook to the next book in this series. It also left me with a bad taste in my mouth, due to the lack of substantial answers. To the ten million questions that were posed.

I loved Slate from the get go, but Candace took some warming up too.. I'm not sure why but at the beginning I felt very meh towards her. But she did grow on me, and became a character I thoroughly began to enjoy by halfway through the book. What I didn't really enjoy was, how and when explicit language was used along with the randomness of sexually charged narration.

The premise is incredibly interesting, and I did find it enjoyable but I think it would overall be better read once the next book (and possibly the whole series) has been released. Just because of how unsatisfying the ending of this book was.

I loved the premise of this book, which was sort of a combination of Hunger Games and Halloweentown. However, I don't think the book delivered on the premise's promise.

Hands down, one of the best things about the book is Slate. From his back story to his relationship with his foster brother, his cocky attitude to his desire to punish De Morel, I was there for all of it. For me, Slate was a wonderfully crafted, multi-dimensional character.

On the other hand, Cadence came across nearly one-dimensional, which I felt was a huge disservice to her. On top of that, I absolutely hated how judgmental she was of Slate. By the halfway mark of the book, I was so exasperated with Cadence and thought Slate could do better.

As for the plot, it was interesting, if a little less adventurous than I was expecting. One of the best scenes involved Slate battling his curse, which was written perfectly creepy. And, though I understood why the authors wrote the ending the way they did (to keep readers hooked for the rest of the series), I thought it was a cop-out and a huge let down.

As for the audiobook, both narrators were very good. Holly Fielding, who narrated Cadence's chapters, did an excellent job voicing male characters, Slate especially. I also really enjoyed Thomas Locklear. There were odd moments in the production of the audiobook where you could tell a scene had been done separately because it didn't match up with the rest of the narration, but it wasn't anything that would pull you away from the story.

Please forgive my honest review, but I could not finish this! It was a DNF for me as I just couldn't get into the main character Slate, I found him to be whiny and unlikeable. I'm sure this story will appeal to other who like Urban Fantasy, but it was a pass for me.

Slate is grew up an orphan and struggled to get through life. Then, he receives a letter stating he comes from a prestigious family and can inherit the money left behind when his parents died. He learns that he comes from a family with magic after stealing a ring from Cadence’s mother’s corpse. He now has to collect the pieces in order to save his life and restore magic. He must take the help of the other magical bloodlines to complete this quest. In the process he discovers Cadence.

Of Wicked Blood is an adventure/mystery/romance. There is so much in this book betrayal, jealousy, romance, friendship, deception, mystery, mythical creatures, and more.

While it took me a while to get into this book, once I did it was great. I finally got into it about 20% into the story. I also disliked the female voices of this audiobook. I sped it up and decided it wasn’t so bad. I would not recommend listening to this at the speed that the preview was set at. There was also a lot of unnecessary sexual dribble in the beginning of the book that could have been left out or adjusted and have been better.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who loves good story with a bit of everything in it and doesn’t mind a slow start. I am looking forward to listening to book 2 when it comes out.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Twig Publishing for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an absolutely intriguing well thought out book with fully developed characters and a colorful world to explore. I had never heard of either author and selected the audiobook because I liked the cover...haha...but I am so glad my gut didn't steer me wrong. I'm an avid audiobook listener and an even more avid reader, so this book has me wanting to go back and read the story myself!! It's that good! I love Slate and the entire town of Bloom and CAN NOT wait to see where this series goes from here!! My only suggestion would be for the audiobook readers to have read male and female characters throughout versus reading the point of view chapter and all of its characters. I had a little bit of a struggle connecting the character's 2 different voices (one from the male reader's perspective and one from the female reader's perspective) to the same person. I hope that makes sense! Otherwise, spectacular and I highly recommend it!

An orphan, Slate, receives a mysterious letter claiming to know information about his parents, his former life, and an astounding inheritance that's just waiting for him. Skeptical, Slate makes his way to the origins of the letter. While there, he robs a grave and steals a magical ring that unleashes several curses. Slate is then given the option to reunite the quatrefoil unleashing magic in the town once again or die.
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I wanted to like this book so much, but it just didn't work out for me. I liked the idea of a character bringing magic back into the town and the challenge of finding the four pieces to the quatrefoil but that was about it. After four days and making it over halfway through the ALC, I decided to purchase a physical copy of the book which made reading "Of Wicked Blood" a much better experience, but it was too late. I already really disliked the characters and after making it to page 320/398 I couldn't bear it anymore and decided to DNF this book. I 100% contribute my dissatisfaction to both narrators. For one, they read incredibly slowly. I am not one to increase the speed of the audiobook, but I was listening to this one almost on 2x. Another thing that really bothered me was the choppiness of the book as they narrated. It wasn't smooth. It wasn't seamless. The narrators made this book unbearable (especially Slate's narrator). Thank you NetGalley, the authors Olivia Wildenstein and Katie Hayoz, and the publisher Twig Publishing for the chance to listen to this ALC in return for an honest review. I plan to reread the physical book in the future and hope to have a better experience.
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Overall: ⭐️⭐️(2)/5

This book had all the trappings to be amazing: historical intrigue on mythical pieces that bring magic back, a feisty MC and downright lovable bad boy lead, family fueding, and a harrowing adventure that's a race against the clock. Cadence is a privileged but humble teen in Broom, France, living with her disabled father and fantasizing about kissing her family friend at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Slate is a prolific urchin, orphaned as a boy who's worked his way through life one thievery at a time. When Slate hears about the Blood Stone ring, which happens to be on Cadence's dead mother's corpse in their family crypt, he steals the gem and immediately regrets his decision. A chance encounter at the New Year's Eve party sets off a chain of events that weaves its' way through elements, mythical creatures, and blossoming romance. You pity Slate, you want to push Cadence forward, and as the reader, you're dying to see them come together and find all the pieces of the quatrofoil before it's too late. Unlike other fantasy tales of similar topics, this one takes place in modern times, so while there's magic, there's also cell phones and technology. By the last few chapters, you're racing to the end with the characters just to see if everyone makes it out alive.

The only disappointment with this novel is that ending. While this is the beginning of a series, so naturally those unanswered questions will likely be answered in the next book, the epilogue gives the reader more questions than answers, and rushes to find a sense of resolution before it's clear completely how you, as the reader, got there. Hopefully the next installment in October 2021 answers these questions and more, and if it were the authors' goal to keep us readers intrigued until then, than bravo because this reader cannot WAIT to read the next novel in the series!

I must admit I do like that cover but not sure if I like the description enough to pick this up for a read. The main reason was that I was curious about netgalley app for audiobook and this one was the only 'Listen Now' that I found remotely interesting. So I decided to give this audiobook a listen.

There are 2 POVs as noted in the book description, Slate & Cadence. I think it's also obvious from the description that these 2 are going to butt heads in more than 1 way. Whilst I do like their characters (they are easily likeable), the back and forth in the romance was a little too much for me and then, there is that whiff/hint of a triangle. If you know me, you'd know this little bit would've been enough to turn me off. Sorry... this is not a book for me and this is all me. I did however liked the whole mystery & quest for the quatrefoil and there are hints of darker acts at the end of this audiobook. However, I'm not sure if I'm curious enough to follow up with the sequel.

With 2 POVs, there are 2 narrators. Whilst I liked both voices, I found their disparate pacing to be off putting. If you listen to a lot of audiobooks like I do, I think you'd know that you really do need that consistent pacing through one a book or you'd have to readjust your listening each time and that's what I had to do for each alternate chapters. 

Oh, and that 'profuse cursing' warning is to be taken seriously. I would usually listen to my audiobooks in the car while driving my kids places and I really couldn't with this audiobook; not even for the 5 minutes' drive to school.

<i>Thank you Twig Publishing via Netgalley for the audio copy of this book in exchange of my honest thoughts</i>

Of Wicked Book was an interesting book and I really enjoyed the narrators.

It was an enjoyable audiobook but I’m not sure that the plot itself would make me hooked that much, if I would be reading it. I wasn’t happy about the swearing in the story, I felt like it wasn’t needed at all.

After all it was an interesting fantasy about magic and as it has lot of potentials I’m looking forward for another part.

I just can’t seem to get into it, perhaps it’s the right book-wrong time. The audio narration wasn’t my favourite, but it was interesting. I will be picking this up again in a different format.

I really enjoyed this book!! It was suspenseful and intriguing! I loved the main characters. They’re chemistry was great!! The banter in this book is what made this book for me. The humour was great!! Will be buying the book to add to my collection. I can’t wait for the next book!

Slate has lived a difficult life, shuffled from one horrible foster home to another, earning a living as a con man an thief. When someone offers him a full scholarship in Brume if he claims his inheritance, he doesn't see the harm in swindling one more person. Until he puts on a ring that won't come off, setting off a series of tasks that will result in his death if he or his crew fails. Cadence has spent her entire life in Brume and knows all the stories, but she's never been sure whether magic is real. Until a mysterious boy shows up with the ring he stole from her mother's grave. If she doesn't help him, magic will be lost forever. Is she willing to take that risk?

Let me start by saying that I really did like this book and am looking forward to the next one. However, it was incredibly difficult to read. It took a long time to get to the heart of the story. While the descriptions are excellent, they are also plentiful and distract from the story. They interrupt dialogue, making it difficult for me to follow the story. There are also many times when things are explained or summarized instead of shown. I would have liked to have seen more dialogue and have things told to me a little less.

I also had a lot of problems with the swearing. I understand that there is a warning in the description, but I still did not feel that the swearing was necessary. While I understand Slate's anger, I found his swearing excessive and offputting. It is one of the many reasons I had trouble reading the book. I noticed that the area where I became more engaged was when he started swearing less.

That said, there were a lot of things I liked about this book. I enjoyed the quest for magic and watching the characters grow. The end of the book left me with many questions, so I will have to read the next book to find my answers.

I really wanted to like this book because the idea of a story about the origins of magic which have to be rescued by completing tasks sounded fascinating. However the first disappointment was the narration. A story set in France but narrated by an unauthentic accent with some very strange pronunciation. Slate’s vocabulary sprinkled with unnecessary bad language as well as all too American terminology. Cadence is a slightly more attractive character but not enough to encourage me to complete this audiobook & certainly not read any further parts. Definitely not for me!

First of all, I want to thank NetGalley and the publishers for the possibility to listen to this audiobook.
I am still halfway through the story, but the only thing that I can say is that it is thrilling.
The story is settled in Brume (french word for mist), a small town in France were the magic origins of the place are emphasised in every way by those who live there. Through the pages you can follow the two main characters, Slate and Cadence who find themselves into an adventure. They discover that all those historical books about magic aren't different from the reality. In fact, they are obliged to deal with a difficult truth that brings them, together with other two people, to face difficult tasks that may lead to a horrible end.
I am loving everything of it, the characters, the adventures and story behind the Blood Stone. The narrators are so passionate while reading the pages that I always feel transported in Brume.


(4 March 2021, update) My opinion about the book hasn't changed, I love all of it and I cannot wait to read the following book. I was ready for everything, I had accepted how bad it could or could have not finished. Definitely a great reading for someone who loves fantasy books and needs to "get away" from our world.