Blood Debts was a well developed fantasy mystery with touches of romance and a heavy multigenerational family drama. I enjoyed the multiple point of views, although I preferred to read Clem’s the most, followed by Cris. The plot was complex and while the mystery isn’t difficult, the steps taken to get justice are intricate. The story ties with only part of it resolved and there is a cliffhanger ending. Overall, I enjoyed the rich magical culture and familial relationships that evolved throughout the book and plan to read the sequel.

The cover for this is hands down the best one that I have seen in awhile! The culture of it and all! LOVE IT!
While the writing for this book wasn’t what I expected it to be I still enjoyed it. I thought that it would read “older” at least older teen young adult YA but I’d honestly let my daughter 13 read this. Which isn’t to say that it isn’t a good book, just that it isn’t for the older crowd looking for a more in-depth writing style.

Obsessed with the plot line and CAN NOT wait for the finished book to come out! It’s going to be a good one if you can find the right people to market it to!

What did I not love about this book? Literally nothing. This was amazing and I will not stop raving about it for a long while, I’m sure. I’m definitely partial to witch stories, but this one was next level. Cris and Clem are descended from magical royalty, but there family is in disgrace after being accused of murdering the white mayor’s daughter 30 years ago. With their father dead and their mother suffering from an unexplained illness, Cris and Clem are left mostly to their own devices. But when they discover that there mother isn’t ill, she’s actually been hexed, they set out to discover not only who put the hex on her, but if their family really was guilty of the decades old crime. Danger lurks around every corner, but so do friends and family who are willing to help.

This was a delightful yet heavy read - how Benton-Walker interwoven the types of magic with left and right politics was fascinating and something I have never seen before.Highly, highly recommend.

This book was amazing. I loved all the magic in it, we go from love spells to necromancy to gods to moonlight to fire! It also tackles important topics and has great black & LGBT+ rep! I love the main twin characters but I'm super interested in Valentina and Aurora too. Really excited for book two already!

“Blood Debts” is an exciting contemporary fantasy debut that’s full of mystery, twists and turns and a beautiful story about family, generational trauma, love, loss and the ties that bind us and the things we inherit from our relatives, good and bad.I can’t express enough joy at reading a gay male POC protagonist in a fantasy story. There’s not enough of this. Gay men should get to be main characters more often in every genre! Overall I enjoyed it, but I do have some minor gripes. I wish that Clem and Cristina had more distinct voices cause I would find myself reading a chapter and some point forget which character I was reading and I usually don’t have issues like that. I also felt like the magic system could have been fleshed out a little more. The messaging at times can be a little strange in the way it’s delivered, it often feels like it isn’t growing organically from the storytelling. It also takes a little bit to find its footing and felt like maybe it was a tad too long. Still this is a fine debut that is sure to delight readers and it’s filled with characters and stories that don’t get enough attention and representation in the publishing world. This is an excellent start to what is sure to be a great series. Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for honest review.

As a Black women with the love of magic and fantasy I loved the story! this author has major potential and I will be sharing this with my friends and family.

‘Blood Debts’ by Terry J. Benton-Walker was amazing: magical, atmospheric, and emotional. Absolutely, highly recommended!

If you like the family drama, New Orleans setting, power struggles, and magic of The Originals you're going to love this book!

We follow Clement and Cristina as they try to uncover who cursed their mother. After their fathers death the siblings have a falling out. The investigation brings the grieving siblings together as they must uncover the truth about who cursed their mother before they become the next targets.

Clement feels abandoned by his sister and his aunt's when they decide to shut him out. As a way to cope he has a series of flings with boys. While Cristina carries a guilt that has caused her to turn her back on magic since her father's death.

I loved so much about this book especially the siblings and their dynamic. They fought but in the end they were there for each other and cared about each other a lot. The magic system was intricate and I loved that it called upon ancestors for it to work. I know the author took inspiration from voodoo and I think he took great care of the traditions he was inspired by. It was also refreshing to see that the teens interacted with the grownups which I don't see much in YA fantasy. I liked seeing their aunt's all with very different personalities come together to protect the family. The New Orleans setting was another thing I loved. It's such a history rich city that lent itself well to this story.

Seeing the magical power struggle between the different magic factions was also very interesting to me.

So if all of this sounds interesting to you definitely check out this book!!!
Out April 4 2023!

DID NOT FINISH! Stopped at 30% / Ch 10

Plot: The concept gets a 5. I wanted this book so badly and just...could not.
Characters: 2
Writing Style: 3
Cover: 5
Enjoyment: 2
Buyable/Re-readable?: Not for me.

→ Need to include the disclaimer that I am not Black, and therefore may have received this differently.

→ This book would have been so amazing! It has generational, light, and shadow magic branches, which sound neat as heck, coupled with Mages, Queens, Cardinals, etc. Generational has a focus on the Moon, Light the Sun...ugh, I wanted to bask in all of it.
→ Three voices - 1st POV for twins, Cris and Clem, 3rd for Val. Not sure why Mom and Granny, etc are in present tense vs her mom, etc. That style made for awkward reading, honestly. Thus far (chapter three), not much of a difference in voices. Plus, a Zachary, Lenora, Jean-Louise.
→ Like some name choices.
→ Stop telling me the same things over and over, please.
→ A ton of cursing… like, I get younger characters, but everyone swears a questionable amount (and I love to use curse words), including adults around younger characters. Like, every character is angsty AF (or badass or bold or insert similar adjective here, since the characters were all similar, so much so I would forget whose chapter I was reading).
→ Ch. 2 - Confusing scene with Cris re: Oz - loves him and then gets into major accusation fight? IDEK.
→ A few run-on sentences.
→ Ch. 6 - The character states they can't do anything to stop their aunt...but then tries to intervene. ??
→ Overusing the whole "it's all up to me" burden.
→ Overusing "Can't tell him, I'll lose him, he'll hate me," blah, blah, blah.
→ Points for discussing lynching, mental illness (a character takes and openly discusses anxiety meds).

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 but rounding up to 3 stars.
Judging by the gorgeous cover and the setting being magical New Orleans I wanted to like this book so bad. And there were parts I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the dynamic of Clem and Cris, and as a twin myself it felt like a genuine depiction and was easy to connect with. My other favourite relationship was between Clem and Yves. While maybe a tad rushed, they were just too cute not to immediately adore. Though the family dynamics were by far the highlight of the book.
Unfortunately there was a lot that I just couldn’t get into. I went in knowing that it was a YA debut however the prose really through me off. It just felt a bit to immature even for YA. The povs that weren’t Clem and Cris felt thrown in unnecessarily and took away from the overall plot. I also really hate the “homophobic bully is secretly gay” trope which was present but honestly could’ve been removed and not taken away from the story.

Overall I enjoyed the idea of the book, and certain dynamics but there was lots that could’ve been edited out that made it a miss for me.

This book sounded so good, but I ended up not really enjoying it. The writing and story was just dull to me. Not for me.

This ended up being so much better than I was expecting. It hits on so much relevance in the world today in a way that young people can truly see and feel seen.

Magic and mystery two of my favorites.

This book is an emotional roller coaster.

I read it in one sitting.

I fell in love with some characters, hated other. I felt love, anger, despair, and hope.

The book made me leave wanting more

Highly recommend

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

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The plot of this book was so interesting to me, and it was incredibly well crafted. I found that it progressed well for the most part, but it definitely did drag on at points for me. The characters were the shining spot for me - they were all very well crafted and multifaceted. I was incredibly grateful to be able to experience how cultures other than the "majority" interact with magic (and by "majority" I mean that so much of fantasy is white, and as such is grossly considered the default by many). Having Black culture intersecting with magic is an important aspect of the genre that needs more focus and attention. Overall, I really liked this book, and the only reason it is getting 4 out of 5 stars is because I went into it expecting a bit more mystery, and that aspect of the plot didn't quite do the trick for me.

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Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book*

"Blood Debts" is a contemporary fantasy novel about New Orleans, about magic, about intergenerational curses and feuds, and about racism, lynchings, and the aftermath of slavery. While the magic system is influenced by voodoo and the author's own heritage, it does not feel stereotypical. I had some trouble to get into the story though because there was so much past history, ongoing mystery, and the connection to various characters that I somewhat lost track. I could also foresee some of the major twists and was not really surprised. In addition, the ending felt kinda rushed and I feel like there's a sequel lurking in the corner because the fight very much isn't over. But overall this was enjoyable and nicely queer. 3.5 stars

This sits somewhere between a 3 and 3.5 star read for me. I enjoyed the story and world it was set in, I just think it sits a little too far on the younger side of YA for me to really LOVE it. I do think more books like this, with diverse characters and fresh new magic systems that tell the stories of other cultures is very important, so pick it up if you get a chance!

Full review closer to publication date!

I'd like to thank the publisher, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Teen and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Blood Debts by @icecreamvicelord is a great read! Thank you to @netgalley and @torteen for an advanced copy of this book.
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For me, this is a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ book. It is an extremely solid read that establishes a magical world and history for (hopefully) many books to come. I loved this magical system and want to explore it more.
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I found that this book really came to life for me once the historical murder mystery had real time consequences for our characters. Once the mystery got another layer, I was hooked, prior to that I was slowly chugging away at it.
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My preference was Clem as our narrator because of his cute love interest - obviously 🥰. I suspect future books will see Clem propelling the story more. But Cris really drives this story of revenge, consequence and retribution - and I don't think she would be concerned about it being described that way.
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This book also left me waiting for more resolution. I think it potentially threw a few too many balls in the air for a sequel but fingers crossed we get one ☺️.

Im a bit torn on this book, but I feel like the people on the younger side of the YA audience could enjoy this.
Our two main characters were written with such care and I appreciated the fact that despite being twins, they were each given their own unique personalities and struggles. Clem and Yves complimented each other really well and even if it was insta-love, they were very endearing. I also loved the way the family was so loving and actively involved in the main characters lives as I feel that is not something I often see in YA. That being said, I felt like the villains were very two dimensional and their occasional perspective chapters did not add much to the overall story. The concept of generational magic and how deeply it is ingrained into Black New Orleans culture was intriguing, but I struggled with the world building, which was at times very vague and at other times very info-dumpy. I try to be more lenient when I read YA, especially a debut, but I got annoyed that all it took was a couple of pleas and some sad-puppy eyes and all of the adults would immediately spill all of their family secrets in order to give the main characters all of the information they needed to solve the mystery and further the plot. Finally I felt like even with all of the chaos happening around these characters, everything wrapped up in a bow way too easily so Part 3 had no suspense or excitement. I seem to be in the minority with my opinions here, but there is definitely people out here who would enjoy this.

I loved this world. Yes I know it was just New Orleans but the magic made it so much more.
No one character really stood out to me but as a whole they all killed it.
The lack of communication is always annoying and it happens with every. Single. Character. But when it really matters they all come together.
I loved the magic system presented with this story. Though the author said it is based on Voodoo they did make it their own thing.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story. The writing was beautiful and I'd really like to see more from this family