3.5 stars
So I loved the premise of this book. I loved the jungle, I loved how it called to Victoria and I loved all the terrifying creatures that lived in it. I loved the idea of having this tour group take people through the jungle to the other side. I did not like how the tour workers were treated and I did not like the romance. I am just not a fan of insta-love and this one was kind of weird and not believable.
I read the first third of this book in one day and I was completely hooked. I was hoping for this crazy treasure hunt in the jungle and after the first third I got this weird insta-love non-treasure hunt walk through a scary jungle that wasn't all that scary after the first third.
Though I didn't like the romance, I did love Victoria's relationships with Bunny and Samson. She cared so much about them and it was very sweet.
The Wildblood's "powers" called blood science was a little confusing. We have no idea why there are Wildbloods, where they came from or why they are hated. The power itself was pretty straightforward I think, I just wish it had a little bit more backstory.
The very ending was done well I think and honestly went the best way for my own opinion. It was very different than what I was expecting.
Though this had a few things that I didn't mesh with, it was very unique and I think I would still recommend it.

This one was not my favorite. The concept is so cool and I think a ton could be done with the Wildblood characters. This was too much character's thoughts and not enough plot. The forest was definitely my favorite character.

Wildblood is the story of a girl from the jungle. Victoria was kidnapped when she was six by cruel bosses at the Exotic Lands Touring Company. She is forced to take tourists through the dangerous jungle- lethal to everyone except her and those with magic in their blood. When a gold-miner books the company to go to the heart of the jungle, Victoria instantly knows it is a bad idea. The jungle does not allow itself to be invaded. With her ex as the tour leader, Victoria will need to work harder than ever to keep her found family and the gold-miner safe as she decides what she truly wants.

Lauren Blackwood has done it again! Wildblood is her second book and it is just as enchanting as her debut. In the sentient jungle, lost souls roam, and the jungle punishes those who invade. River Mumma was such a mysterious and vigilant presence in the jungle. I loved learning about her enigmatic relationship with Victoria. Outside of the jungle and its creatures that love her, Victoria is surrounded with found family who she will do anything to protect. Dean, Victoria’s ex, is a volatile and demanding presence who once betrayed Victoria unimaginably. Even so, I appreciated how thoughtfully Blackwood navigated their tense and toxic relationship.

My favorite character (besides Victoria) was undoubtedly the sentient jungle!! Blackwood describes it with spine-chilling horror and beauty. The perfect example is the Bloody Lady: a pretty and poisonous butterfly. As the tour group processes further into the jungle, every instinct in readers will be to flee in the opposite direction. I wish I could see visual art of some of the spooky creatures that haunt the trees, especially Biggsy!

Wildblood is a haunting, atmospheric, and vivid adventure. I would highly recommend it! I can’t wait to see what Lauren Blackwood writes next. Thank you to Lauren Blackwood, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, Wordpress blog, and Barnes & Noble etc

FLEW through this excellent, incredible book. Tightly written, earnest, laugh-out-loud funny at several parts—one of the best YA fantasy books I've read in ages.

I loved these characters. They were so great. I loved their background history and their chemistry, the love and support for one another, the angst, the push and pull, the tension between them, everything was so well executed by the author. The characters were not perfect, they had their own struggles and obstacles they had to overcome before they came to the realization that they are better together than apart. I’m so happy with how everything wrapped up at the end. It was such an enjoyable book.

I loved the concept and set-up in WILDBLOOD, and the way the author used it to show the relationship between victims and their abusers was very powerful. I would 100% recommend.

3.5 stars!

Wildblood was an immersive, well-written adventure fantasy. This story contains exciting action scenes, found family, and interesting magic.

What I loved the most was the Wildbloods' "science" that they can use to manipulate blood in the dangers of the jungle. My favorite part was the beautiful magic of the jungle, filled with fascinating creatures and monsters that gave me goosebumps. I loved how the main character was a powerhouse! And her relationship with the jungle was so intriguing.

Unfortunately, the relationships and character development fell short for me. I felt like I should have cared more about Victoria's relationships with Samson and Bunny and Thorn... But none of them really meant much to me. The relationship was too insta-love for my liking. There also were twinges of a love triangle, or rectangle maybe? But none of them felt like one I could really root for.


I enjoyed the themes in this novel of recovering from trauma, environmental respect, and finding freedom. I appreciated that the author provided a content warning as some topics could be triggering to readers.

Some of the writing was repetitive, like the use of the phrase "kiss my teeth"/"kisses his teeth" thirteen times!

Overall, if you enjoy fantasy romance, a cool world with magic, and adventuring through jungles, check out this read!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC! I'll be sharing my review on social media closer to the pub day.

I deeply enjoyed Within These Wicked Walls, so I was pumped for an ARC of Blackwell's second book about a group of kidnapped kids giving tours of the Jamaican jungle overrun by ghostly monsters.

As a whole, I loved the story and the characters. Victoria was fiercely loyal and fiery, though a lot of that goes out the window when she meets the charming tourist Thorn, who she is partnered with to protect on their journey. Her "boys" Sam and Bunny and the relationship with them was sweet. And even her complicated frenemy situation with Dean was intriguing.

There were some really cool moments in the jungle when the group was faced with its monsters. I loved Victoria's connection to the wild and the way the jungle pulled from Jamaican lore to build its rich existence. I was hanging on to every word, wondering what creature would present itself next.

The only thing that held me back was their "science". The Wildbloods have a sort of magic that helps protect them and the tourists they're leading from the ghostly ways of the jungle, but this "science" isn't well explained or predominantly used and I had a hard time really picturing it in my mind.

I read an ARC, so maybe this is smoothed out a little more in the final copy. I do think it would lead to a very interesting magic system if the story committed to it earlier than the climactic moment towards the end of the book. But at the time of reading, it could have been left out and I probably wouldn't have missed it.

I absolutely loved this book. Wildblood is a young adult fantasy story full of forest magic and I thought it was such a fun story. We follow Victoria who is trapped working at this company providing tours through a seriously deadly forest along with other wild bloods like her, who are local natives with blood magic that allows them a way to stay safe in the woods. Victoria has a closer relationship than most to the forest but she feels a strong need to protect her close friends that are also trapped in this company so she stays to try to find ways to keep them safe. These children are essentially kidnapped when it is discovered they have magic and are kept as slaves in all but name and subjected to every kind of abuse imaginable. It is very difficult to read about the abuse but it is so important to touch on it and I think it is important for it to be shown for the horror that it is. The forest magic and the blood magic is also really cool as well. Lauren Blackwood is definitely an author I'm keeping on eye on because this is now her second book and I've really enjoyed both which is exciting.

This book had a really interesting premise, but it never really came together for me. And when my least favorite plot device InstaLove came on the scene and permeated all the following pages with its unbearable inanity, the existence of the cool, dangerous, sentient jungle still wasn't enough to keep my attention amidst the nauseating number of "Beloved"s. Victoria is a reviled Wildblood, kidnapped at age six by the Exotic Lands Touring Company and forced to work for them, enduring physical and mental abuse. Now that she is 18, she is desperate to become a tour leader and help a younger Wildblood break free of the company. When her scheming ex gets the promotion instead (is it a promotion if this is all basically just slavery?), Victoria is forced to work with him escorting high-profile clients deep into the deadly jungle, where only she feels truly at home and can save them all with her sciencey-magic - or is it magicky-science? The blood powers that Wildbloods have are hardly described at all, with no background, and seem to work like a magic system despite repeatedly being called "science." I'll be honest, this read like the author had a cool idea but didn't really flesh it out in her own mind other than on a very superficial level, because usually even when I don't totally grasp a book's magic system, it's clear the author understands it and things become clear in time. Never happened with this book. And, as mentioned earlier, Victoria's InstaLove with the client, Thorn, had no development and no believability. Also, there is an awful lot of death in this book. I liked the very end, but I also thought Victoria would be a little less... okay?... after so much loss. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for a digital review copy.

Thanks to NetGalley & Wednesday Books for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I dropped the book at 40%.

It had a really cool premise and great descriptions of the forest itself, but my GOD the soap opera drama between the boring humans was driving me nuts. I think the MC was crushing on like 3 people? I think everyone in the tour group had a major crush on the protagonist, ha.

I did like the forest and wildblood magic but it kept getting shelved in favor of the most boring people drama. I'm sure it gets explained more later in the book but I was getting sick of it, so, lol. Sorry, cool idea and all but it definitely was dropped in favor of boring love triangle drama. :(

Wildblood is a sharp YA fantasy with a lot to say about social and emotional issues that adds a dash of romance, and then slips and adds the whole bottle, making it a very different story than expected.

The concept of Wildblood takes the stories of ye olde expeditions of the Victorian era and flips them right on their pith-helmeted heads. On top of that, Victoria, our heroine, is a strong and fierce character whose powerful is equal parts intriguing and terrifying. She is comfortable in the embrace of the jungle only because of her own traumatic past, and because within the trees and vines she isn't subjected to the discrimination her race, gender, and power all lay upon her. Her relationships with her friends, and those who have betrayed her, are also fascinating. All of this is the makings of a really rich and interesting novel filled with nuanced characters and moral shades of gray.

Which is why it was so very frustrating to me whenever Thorn, the sexy expedition leader Victoria must protect, came onto the page. Because on top of the intricate scaffolding Blackwood builds for us is a romance as subtle and nuanced as one of those giant stuffed bears holding a glittering heart between his paws. I often found it difficult to focus on the worldbuilding and the peril of Blackwood's really cool plot because of how much of Victoria's focus is on Thorn.

I'll admit I can see the utility of the romance in how Blackwood builds to her ultimately satisfying ending, but it feels like things progressed too hot, too fast for the satisfaction of a slow-burn romance, and there's too much peril for a hot and fast relationship to seem fitting. No matter how much I was drawn to the premise, I think the hard truth is that Wildblood is just not for me. But with a premise as cool as it has, I hope it finds a solid home somewhere.

(A longer version of this review, which includes a brief synopsis of the book, will appear on RingReads at the link provided on 14 February 2023 at 3:29 p.m. MST.)

This book was an instant favorite!

Simmering romantic tensions bring the heat to a jungle where anything from ghosts to butterflies to the river itself may be trying to kill you.

When a group hunting for gold hires the Wildbloods - wielders of blood magic - to protect their journey, Victoria is determined to be the expedition leader, and not just because of the charming investor Thorn. She desperately needs the money to help her brother Bunny escape the cruel life filled with beatings and torture that they are held in by the Boss. But her ex-best friend and rival, Dean, gets himself named expedition leader.

Victoria convinced him to let her help lead the expedition through the haunted, dangerous jungle, where everything’s trying to kill them. They get two warnings to turn back, and the jungle doesn’t normally give a third.

The author has brought an unforgettable, haunting jungle world to life. From the pickney ghosts to the beautiful, venomous butterflies, I wanted to see this world so badly, but from the safety of a movie screen! No way I’d brave the jungle myself.

Victoria’s both fierce and vulnerable. Whether she’s fighting monsters, dealing with her past pain from the Boss’s abuse or falling in love, she’s a heroine to root for. Thorn’s sense of humor is a delight, and Dean’s a great antihero with complicated motives.

Though the ending wasn’t quite what I hoped, it was still perfection. After finishing the book, I didn’t see how it could end any other way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a fantastic book! Lauren Blackwood tells Victoria's story through beautiful visualizations and language. You truly feel immersed in Victoria's world and the story as it unfolds. The jungle ghosts and creatures are very creative. And I love the connection we see between Victoria and the jungle. This is a very captivating story that also deals with how to overcome trauma in your life. We also see different types of love and how relationships affect us. Wildblood is a wonderful book and I will highly recommended it to my friends.

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!

This was a beautiful adventure into a mystifying jungle in Jamaica.

This story takes place around the mid 1800's just to give you an idea of the time period. The tour group that Victoria and the other wildbloods "worked" for (more like slavery with a very small payment to specifically make it not slavery) had a British overlord that was quite cruel and abusive.

Victoria joins her archrival's side to lead the next tour into the jungle. The main concept that I really observed while reading, and what I really appreciated, was Victoria's relationship to this wild jungle as being one of comfort while her relationship with other humans and her job (basically her abusers) was where the real harm came from in this story. The jungle, while having so many dangerous and unknown factors, was more of a safe place for her, especially considering her origin.

There were some things I thought were too simple. Like a specific love interest for Victoria in the story. Just seemed a little too candy sweet for me to believe it to be genuine. But otherwise, I thought this was a magnificent story about understanding a victim's of abuse relationship to her abuser.

Out February 7, 2023!

I received an ARC of Wildblood from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book. While I wanted to like it, something was holding me back. It had a lot to do with the writing.

There were a lot of really cool things going on in this book. I thought the characters and setting were interesting, along with the magic system. It reminded me of blood-bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of my all-time favorite shows. The setting was fabulous, mainly because the jungle became a character in and of itself, and I really enjoyed it.

However, I could not get past the writing. It was confusing. I’d think I was in one place and then be somewhere else entirely. And on top of that, there were barely any explanations for anything happening. Like, I still don’t understand precisely how the Wildblood magic works. And much as I liked how the jungle became its own character, I didn’t understand anything about it either. Everything happening inside the jungle was very confusing, especially the supernatural happenings. While I know that magical things aren’t supposed to be totally understandable, it was a little too hard to follow.

I also want to mention that the ending really bothered me. We spent all this time having the characters grow and learn and begin to think for themselves, and it felt like the end negated all of the progress. I’m not sure what I wanted from the ending, but what I got wasn’t it. Let’s not forget about the romance. It was very insta-lovey.

I thought the plot was there, but the execution was lacking.

DNF. I’ve tried to get into this twice now and I just can’t seem to connect with it. And I refuse to make myself read books that I’m not enjoying. This is such a disappointment because I loved Lauren’s debut novel so much.

So I really liked the start of this book. I loved the setting and the world that she created. I don’t know that I liked the characters necessarily, but I liked what the characters were. I did not like the ending of this book, I want it to end differently, can you get what she did but I wanted something different.

*I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.*

I LOVED Lauren Blackwood's WITHIN THESE WICKED WALLS, so I was all too delighted when NetGalley and St. Martin's Press / Wednesday Books gave me the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of WILDBLOOD.

First things first, it should be noted that WITHIN THESE WICKED WALLS and WILDBLOOD are drastically different. While the former is a retelling of Bronte's Jane Eyre, Wildblood is an original fantasy. There is a content warning at the beginning of the novel for blood, gore, physical/sexual assault, sexual trauma, and death--for good reason. I really appreciated this.

It took me a while to get settled into WILDBLOOD. Overall, I feel like the story could have used at least one more developmental edit, The premise is original and fascinating, but there was something lacking in the execution. The pacing and development of the story and the info-trickle to get readers settled into the world and the magic system definitely could have been sorted out a bit more. I feel like it took me longer than usual to get oriented to what a wildblood is and what their science is. However, in terms of writing, it was the same atmospheric, lyrical writing we saw in Blackwood's debut. Her writing really is just consistently stunning throughout the story.

In terms of characters, Victoria is a likable, sympathetic heroine. But I did feel a little annoyed about so many male characters being madly in love with her. And I was never really sold on the romance between Victoria and Thorn. It felt very insta-lovey (though, to be fair, both characters acknowledge how quickly and surprisingly they develop feelings for each other) and I wasn't a fan of them calling each other "beloved." That felt a little forced and cheesy.

My favorite parts of the story were definitely the magical elements of the jungle, like River Mumma, the pygmies, the duppies, etc. Blackwood's imagination is incredible. So while WILDBLOOD was not my favorite, I would still be eager to pick up Blackwood's next story and look forward to what she comes up with next.

→ 2.5 stars.

i haven’t read anything by this author before, but i heard great things about their previous book, within these wicked walls, so i was quite excited to pick up wildblood. it definitely did not disappoint, as it was a quick, fun read, but i wasn’t impressed either. overall, it wasn’t a bad read, but i feel like it needed a bit more polishing, as some parts felt a bit rushed. the romance was honestly my least favourite part of the story, as it was insta-love and i truly dislike this trope.

i have to start by saying that the author did an amazing job at creating the setting – the jungle descriptions were vivid and i was awed by how imaginative the different entities that lived in the jungle were. it honestly read a bit like something you’d see in a ghibli movie, especially the bull spirit and the faceless ghosts of children they see at some point. the atmosphere was deliciously creepy and i was constantly amazed at the vibrancy of the forest. another nice touch was the river being sentient and having such a distinct personality, river mumma was such an interesting character and i truly enjoyed learning more about how her magic worked, as we do gen some glimpses into it during the book. the wildblood magic was interesting, but i wished it was explained a bit more in-depth, as i was a tiny bit confused at some point, but i don’t want to spoil anything so i won’t mention what happened exactly.

the romance was the one thing i truly disliked as they fell in love instantly, so their relationship wasn’t developed at all. i did not root for them and i didn’t like how, after constantly being betrayed by most of the guys in her life, she was so open to trusting thorn instantly, without any proof that he did deserve it. thorn himself didn’t feel like a well-developed character and he came across as very sketchy because he was constantly cheery and optimistic, so i was waiting for some sort of plot twist based on that, but nope. this is just how his character was written. i liked victoria’s relationship with samson and bunny and i kinda wished we saw a bit more of them, but alas. dean’s character was kind of inconsistent throughout the book and i’m not sure if it was on purpose or not. the justification of his actions constantly changed and his behavior never align to what he claimed he thought and felt, especially when victoria was involved. kinda sucks that he was forgiven so quickly, because he was an unlikeable character.

the plot itself was alright, albeit a bit lacklustre and poorly developed. the writing, however, wasn’t good at all. some sentences were redundant and repetitive. if i took a shot every single time someone “kissed their teeth”, i would be in an alcohol-induced coma. i genuinely don’t even know what kissing teeth means and i’m not sure i want to know, but all the characters kept doing it, multiple times. i get really liking a phrase, but this one was overused to the point it got annoying. another thing the book struggled with was giving each character a proper motivation for their actions – i feel like, overall, every single character was a tiny bit directionless, with little to no explanation for their choices. so, to move the story forward, the book uses tragedy as a way to switch to another conflict, which didn’t really work. we’re expected to understand how heartbreaking these deaths are for victoria, but she simply moves on in a couple of pages, so it’s not really believable. and yes, i get she’s in a deadly jungle and there’s probably no time to properly mourn, but her actions go against her words. for example, there’s a sex scene that happens right after the death of someone she really cared about, which makes her character very inconsistent.

the ending was so frustrating, to be honest. i feel like the whole book tried to portray victoria as a character that simply wants to run away from the forest and not give in to her nature, just for her to do a 180 at the end. this made the whole insta-love relationship kind of pointless. dean’s character arc was also confusing and i am still not over how easily she moved on from all the things he did.
i truly have mixed feelings about this book, as it was enjoyable and i didn’t fully hate reading it, but i wished it was edited a bit more, just to make everything flow better. i’m probably going to read the author’s other work, as it seems promising. i think others might love this book more than i did, so give it a go if it sounds like something you’d like.

I found this read to be repetitive and redundant at times. The immature writing and slippery plot line make it fal short of what you hope it would be. It could amazing and know the writer will improve with experience and growth.