Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for granting me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Normally I would summarize the book prior to reviewing it, but I’m unable to do that for this book as I was 60% of the way in and was still unable to distinguish a clear plot.

What worked: the diversity is great and feels natural, the New Orleans setting is interesting, and the system of magic is unique and exciting.

What didn’t work: there is a difference between a mystery and telling your audience a confusing amount nothing, this book does the latter; characters and details kept being added with no real introduction or method to clearly distinguish or keep track of them; many plot elements were introduced and not adequately explained; there were major problems with the writing itself.

Let’s be clear: I really really wanted to like this book. It has a lot of fascinating and unique qualities, my favourite genre of magical realism, not to mention it was shaping up to make social commentary with an engaging plot. This did not happen.

I was honestly really surprised that this book made it to ARC stages in the shape I read. It had the writing quality of a wattpad story, not a published novel. I was so frustrated by the poor sentence structure and non-stop “telling not showing” that I struggled to keep reading. Based on the relatively high rating of the book, I expected the story must get so good that I could overlook these flaws. I was wrong. I made it over 60% of the way through, and there was still little plot revealed and too many elements at play. There were also too many POV’s used, and the tense of the writing changed in confusing and unnecessary ways in some of them.

There were two main things that would frustrate me to the point of having to put the book down.
Number one: this book seemed to have no idea how old it’s main two characters, siblings Cris and Clem, actually are. They talk and act like they’re in their early to mid 20’s but then the book makes sure to mention that they’re still in high school with very immature details that simply don’t match their behaviour. It felt like the story had originally been written with university age characters, but then the author thought it would sell better as a YA book and added references to high school instead of actually re-writing the characters.
Number two: for the first 40% of the book, every time Cris mentioned magic (which is extremely often in a book revolving around magic) she follows it up by saying some version of “but I will never be able to use it again… because of my guilt surrounding… the incident.” Each time delivered so dramatically that it felt like overdone SNL dialogue. This happens so often it is sometimes twice a page. I thought I was maybe just being overly critical or was misreading, but I had a friend read a few pages and they immediately noted the same thing. It was incredibly annoying, and felt like the author was trying to hammer a point into the reader that had been very clear from the first time it was mentioned.

I am so happy that people are enjoying this book. I think we need to hear and tell more stories with this sort of setting, characters, and socially tied premise. However, I didn’t think this one was well done at all.

Istarted this book the day I got it, and did not complete it in the nearly three months I had to read it. Normally I finish a book of this length in a week or less, so I think that says everything you need to know.

Set in contemporary New Orleans, Terry J. Benton-Walker sets the stage for much intrigue, magic, drama and strife, as he centres his novel on sixteen-year-old twins Cristina and Clement Trudeau. They are part of a powerful magical family, who, thirty years ago in 1989, were vilified, harmed dreadfully, and lost their position as rulers of the magical community in the city.

Christina and Clement, unknowingly, set out on a course of righting several old wrongs when they discover that their terminally ill mother is actually the target of a magical curse, set by someone on the magical council. The twins begin searching for the perpetrator, unearthing lots of bad blood amongst magic practitioners, finding and losing romance, and forcing their mother and aunts to reckon with their pasts.

The atmosphere is great, as we see the events from the twins' perspectives. The teens grow and deal with some of their issues, though not conclusively with what has driven a wedge between them since Cristina chose to give up practicing magic a year earlier, fearing that something she did killed their father. The novel also charts how they grow more fully into their magical skills and identities, becoming forces to reckon with.

The twins are so well characterized, so much so that I kept wanting to tell them to sit down and really talk through all the secrets and evasions that had built up between them.

I had a much harder time getting my head around the rest of the cast, which is big. Even though there is a family tree included, I still kept getting some characters and relationships mixed up. I suspect it was more me than the author.

The author built a complex plot with two terrific protagonists, many twists and reveals, and though I didn't fully resonate with the story, I can see how its narrative could sweep other readers in to the surprising and deadly end.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Wow!! Blood Debts is one of the best YA fantasies I've read since Legendborn!! There's something about a story of a world where magic is alive and flourishing with New Orleans as the epicenter that makes me want to hunker down and get cozy for a few hours. Since New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, I could get lost in this world and just vibe with the characters and their drama.!!

This book was action-packed with Black Girl Magic and filled with the strength of the Black family from start to finish!! It will have a reluctant reader engrossed in the story. If you like magic, teen angst, family drama, and voodoo folklore. This story is for you!!!

So damn good. This is typically not a genre I feel comfortable in but the characters just jumped off the page. A book I won’t stop thinking about for awhile.

DNF @ 32%. I tried really hard to get into this book. Nothing about the plot particularly grabbed me. I also thought there were too many POVs and would have liked it to be limited to one or two.

-Black characters
-witches
-New Orleans
-interesting magic system
-multiple povs
-LGBTQ rep

I really enjoyed this. It is what I expect YA to be: exciting, and full of the impulses that teenagers should (and do) have in real life.

I enjoyed being in these characters minds. They felt like real people and I just wanted more.

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- this was an okay read, but i felt the story and characters lacked depth and motives that felt realistic and whole, which took me out of the story and made me feel emotionless while reading. it’s unfortunate, because i can tell the author has a lot of love for this story, but their work feels lackluster in execution.

The premise of this book sounded so good yet ultimately I was a little let down. There were too many perspectives that it started becoming a little confusing. The plot wasn't flashed out very well for me either.

Set in New Orleans, BLOOD DEBTS by Terry J. Benton-Walker follows Clement and Christina Trudeau, twins from a powerful and magical family who have suffered generations of deadly curses and threats against them. Now with the death of their father and their mother on her sickbed, the twins are determined to uncover the truth behind evil that lingers around their family.

The family dynamics in this book are great. I enjoyed how it was able to take on sibling relationships, friendships, sexual consent, mental health, homophobia and intergenerational trauma while also highlighting the importance of having a supportive community and self acceptance. There was certainly no shying away from difficult topics here!

Personally I think we only needed POV’s from Chris and Clem, having chapters from the ‘villains’ created an empathy for them which I didn’t want to feel at this stage as it seemed contrary to getting justice and hindered the overall character arcs. I can imagine that the following book will hopefully delve deeper, I’m hoping for more from the aunts too, as their drama could be a story in itself!

While I originally struggled to get into Blood Debts I generally really enjoyed the story - the audiobook made it easier to get into so I definitely recommend that. I enjoyed the story overall!

I let myself get drawn in by the very pretty cover. Urban fantasy isn't usually my genre, but the mix of magic and New Orleans sounded like something I could get into. Unfortunately, Blood Debts just didn't do it for me. There are way too many perspectives in this one. Sticking to just Cris and Clem would have been enough. There was also too much going on and too many characters. It all started to bleed together until I didn't completely know what was happening and didn't really care to figure it out. There was a lot of potential in this; I think the basic premise of the story was good, but the unlikable characters and overly complicated plot just didn't work for me. I did enjoy the way magic was handled in this story overall, especially the creative way Clem substituted items for spells and details like that. The bones of the story and some of the attention to detail in Blood Debts were pretty compelling at times, which is why I'm giving this one 2.5 stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I loved the magic system and the atmosphere! That's what originally drew me to this book was that it was set in New Orleans.

Blood Debts was a beautiful adventure and I can’t wait for the new one. I love a good family drama, however, it was a little disjointed for me to follow so that was hard. I can’t wait for the next one so I can see where the author is going.

Twins, Clement and Cristina Trudeau who are sixteen years old are mourning their father's death and taking care of their sick mother. This all happens on the thirtieth anniversary of a young woman being murdered, a family being lynched, and one of the greatest magical massacres that occurred in New Orleans. But, the twins learn something. Their mother really is not sick like they thought, but is actually cursed and she has been cursed by someone on the magic council that their family used to rule. Someone is probably going to come after them next, but who? What will the twins really discover?

Blood Debts features black representation as well as LGTBQ representation.

When starting Blood Debts, I thought it was super promising and would be something I would absolutely love. Cristina was my favorite character at first due to her mourning her father and then having to go through a deep betrayal. Then, the other promising thing I thought Blood Debts had going on well was that the writing was good.

I quickly ended up loosing interest in Blood Debts and kept putting it off and down a lot. It took me over a month to even finish this.

I felt like the writing, the magic, and the world was not crafted fully and just skimmed along the surface to where everything fell flat. Due to these things, I felt like a not a lot of things were really going on and when it came to the twists, they felt like randomly occurred, but oddly were the type that did not even phase me. Additionally, I really do not feel like there was really any magic implemented in the book and was just mere mentions.

I ended up really getting annoyed with Clem and Cristina as the story went on due to their actions and inner thoughts.

Clement and Yves meet and I enjoyed their relationship and I felt like both characters were great for one another. I know this is a hot topic, but there is sex in this book and people either want sex in a young adult book or they do not. I really do not mind it as long as it does not go into full force smut, which this is what happened to the point I felt uncomfortable. I think I would not have been uncomfortable though if these characters were eighteen or over, but in reality these two characters are sixteen years old.

I really wanted to love this book, but really struggled. The writer does well with how they craft their writing, but ultimately fell flat. This definitely could have been amazing and I probably will check out this authors future work one day to see if their writing has changed.

New Orleans + Magic + Gods + Vengeance = a book I should have picked up a heck of a lot sooner because it is so good! “Blood Debts” follows Cris and Clem, twins who must learn to depend on each other again when they realize someone is coming after their mother. As these two put together clues to solve years-old mysteries and protect the ones they love, their relationships with their own family and friends, magic, and one another are challenged.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The haunting setting of New Orleans is just perfect for this particular story, and I loved how it addressed how complicating and frustrating it can be to come together as a family when wounds run deep. The magic systems at play in this world were fascinating, and the revelations were at turns heart-breaking and shocking. The pettiness, overwhelming desire for power, rage, and hidden histories worked together to make for a page-turning story that had everything one could want in a tale. While the ending of the book leaves it open for a continuation of the story, it also has closure. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who loves stories of people coming into their own, tales of justice and vengeance, and family.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Absolutely loved the audiobook, would not have been able to finish without it. I did however thing that the book was a little all over the play. the middle of the book was my favorite part but I did like the story overall.

This book had me hooked from the first couple of chapters however, it dragged a bit in the middle. The story was told from multiple perspectives and I feel not all of the perspectives were necessary. Also, at one point in the book they said that 1989 was eons ago and while it might feel that way to teens it still hurts my soul. It was an enjoyable read with BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ representation.

I really didn’t know how I was going to review this book. I liked it a lot, but it also wasn’t without it’s flaws. It’s not that it was bad, more so it had too much happening? Idk how to explain it.

Ok so first of all the characters in this made me want to shake them. They kept getting themselves into different situations that they didn’t have to do. Like the end with Cristina and the book? And Clement and the love interest? Idk it seemed like they were just getting themselves into trouble for no reason. And I get it, a love interest hardly seems like “no reason”, but it was more like the things they did. It was just weird. I didn’t actually care for the multiple POVs tho. Normally that didn’t bother me, but it was accompanied by all those different plot lines, and it was just confusing at some points. i had to keep looking at the beginning of the chapters to make sure it was done.

The plot was what made me take some of my rating away. It just had too much going on. It was a mystery, but it was also fantasy. And while that’s fine, it’s just that there were so many OTHER plot lines also included, like there was one about racism, then all the family drama, all the while still trying to explain the magic and the magic system. It just seemed like everything was being piled things on top of me over and over. And normally I like that, but this just didn’t explain everything? I don’t know how to explain it.

The magic system was cool. There’s spells and spell books. And a good and bad side of magic and the reasoning behind both of those sides. It was definitely cool. I really wanted a little more indepth of an explanation on how it came to be etc., but it was ok without it. I think it would have made another plot line, but it would have been cool to know. Like it gave us what happened, but I wanted more. And then there’s the gods that were in there. I would have liked to have seen more than just the one.

I’m super glad this is a series! The ending (and many of the pages before that) had me going like WTF. But what I really wanted to know wasn’t actually addressed in the end, so I was happy to see this was going to be a series. It made me think tho, what would I do in this situation. I don’t know if I can definitively say I couldn’t do it.

Overall, this book was such a surprise. And it was full of surprises. I can’t wait to get to the next one and make sure all these things get wrapped up. Also, I really need to see how ol girl is going to be once she finds out what happened to dear old granny………

I do think this is a solid book that is fun to read however I will say it isn’t my favorite. I appreciate how developed the characters are and how realistic they are especially in emotions but I wish the setting was described more and that overall we were just given more detail. I felt like we were being told more than shown in this book and felt pretty predictable.

Wow! What a JOURNEY. This book is so twisty and dark and there are layers to every plot point that took my breath away.