Enemies to lovers clean romance!

Nikha is a heartsooth, a person with abilities to heal themselves and others. When she finishes healing a person as requested, the man turns her in and calls the Butchers. They cage her and take bids from buyers that visit her cage. She’s sold to a young woman who offers a huge amount of money for Nikha, Mimi Congmi. They travel to the Congmi manor where Nikha is asked to heal Hendon, the only witness to Mimi’s father’s death. Mimi and her brother believe he was murdered. When Nikha heals Hendon, the information he offers throws them all into a whirlwind of danger and deception.

Likes/dislikes: The mystery grabbed my full attention. The world building and character development brought the story to life. I enjoyed learning about Nikha’s background.
Mature content: PG for kissing.
Language: PG-13 for 17 swears, no f-words.
Violence: PG-13 for bloody violence- stabbing, gunshot wounds.
Ethnicity: Nikha has golden brown skin. Nikha’s grandmother has skin a shade darker than hers. The Congmi family has pale, rosy skin.

I didn’t get to finish this book so I DNF at around 40% … I didn’t like the MC as I find her a bit dumb and maybe if I kept reading a more smart and mature FMC I’d see .. but I just couldn’t keep reading… some of the characters also seemed a bit tedious and uncalled for ..

Love it! This is well written and such a great example of world building. I do not like the cover. It has a cartoon appearance that does not seem to fit the story. Besides the cover though it is a fabulous book!

Epic and emotionally gripping, this is a unique, fast-paced fantasy with a little bit of something for everyone. A fascinating magic system , a few twists, a dash of romance and a whole lot of heart, the character development and world building is chefs kiss! Definitely check this out for a compelling , fast-paced, satisfying fantasy.

Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group , Roaring Brook Press, Netgalley , and the author for a complimentary copy of this ebook. I am leaving a voluntary review. All thoughts and ideas expressed are my own.

Magic mystery and I absolutely love the cover. The book had its twist and turns and is an easy read!

This had an interesting and unique magic system that I think showed the author's knowledge of human biology. I looked at her bio and the amount of biology that is used in the story makes sense. It's a fast-paced story. I felt like I could connect with the main character, and at least one side character. But with the fast pace of the story, I also felt like I didn't have much of a connection with most of the side characters. Basically, when Nhika was reflecting on her connections with the people around her, it just didn't feel like they had spent too much time together to bond well; especially bonding without being at each other's throats.

Nhika has the ability to alter human biology by touch, making her a bloodcarver. Bloodcarvers are feared by most people and thought to kill for fun. When Nihka is caught using her abilities to heal someone during a fake medical job, she is captured and sold to the highest bidder. She is bought by an aristocratic family in the hopes that she will be able to heal the last witness to their father's murder.

I really enjoyed Nhika as a character, and thought she was well developed and fleshed out. She was headstrong, and guarded but had a deep empathetic side as well. The magic system was really interesting and I loved learning more about her blood carving abilities and the stigma/fear around it. liked that this had a murder mystery subplot, and thought the pacing of that was well done. The downfall for me was the romance. I didn't particularly believe the romance progression from enemies to lovers, and it felt a bit forced. I wasn't rooting for them in the slightest.

I love a good steampunk fantasy and The Last Bloodcarver doesn't disappoint! I was pulled in from the very beginning and enjoyed the world-building. It was done in such a way that it wasn't overwhelming! I think it would be great for a beginner fantasy reader!

**Spoiler**
This was on track to being a new favorite book of mine, but that ending?! I wish the epilogue was left out completely. It will be interesting to see how the author manages this conversation/situation in the next book.

It took me awhile to start this book, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. The ending was really unexpected, and I will absolutely be reading the sequel.

The opening action of the novel pulled me right in and I was fascinated by Nhika's magic. There were enough twists and turns to keep the plot moving and interesting without becoming convoluted or overly complicated. I was surprised by the ending and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I'm interested to see how things play out in the sequel.

I seriously can’t stop thinking about The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le. From the very first page, I was completely hooked. The world she’s built here is rich and complex, with a magic system that’s both unique and fascinating. The way Le blends magic, mystery, and danger had me invested right from the start.

What really sold me on this book, though, were the characters. The main character is someone you can’t help but root for. She’s tough and determined, but she also has her vulnerabilities, which made her feel real and relatable. Her journey, filled with self-discovery and difficult choices, is something I could really connect with. And the relationships she builds with others? So emotional and complex. It was such a treat to see these characters grow and evolve throughout the story.

The pacing was absolutely perfect, which is so difficult to do when building such a nuanced world. Le knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat—there’s always something happening to keep the tension high, but she also gives you moments to breathe and soak in the details of the world. The writing is beautiful, but also grounded, which made it really easy to get lost in the story.

This book has everything I love in a fantasy novel—an epic setting, rich magic, and characters that feel so real you can’t help but care about them. This one is a must-read. Don’t miss it!

A fantastic read for fans of Frankenstein and Shadow and Bone. Le creates a world so vivid that it felt as if I could step right inside the story with her fantastic characters.

As a B&N bookseller I was so sad this didn’t win our YA BOTY because I LOVED this. The pacing, the characters, the overall story were perfection.

Super cool magic system and Vietnam inspired setting. This was really cool and unique! Highly recommend (unless you don't like any gore)

Read for Book Committee 2024 (DNF - 0 - 1 - 2)
Rep: Vietnemese
Genre: Fantasy
As a debut novel this was pretty good. I was really interested until about the halfway point where things started to become predictable. It seems like the marketing team is pushing this as a romantasy, I think this is inaccurate. The romance was almost not in the book! ( didnt mind this personally though)
I really liked our MC Nhika and the writing style and the magic system. (Check out the Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia if you liked this but thought it was too long) I will probably not read the second book in this series but I would check out other books by Le!

Nhika can alter human biology through touch, placing a hefty bounty on her head. After her capture, she's coerced into solving the investigation of a high-profile murder. Despite her attempts to leave, a mysterious force—and someone— draws her back in.

This dark, enigmatic fantasy sets a compelling tone for Le's new duology. The author's masterful prose transports readers into a richly imagined world based on Vietnamese culture.

SO much to love with this one. The Vietnam-inspired world is fascinating and seems really well done. The magic system is unique and I really enjoyed it. The writing was pretty top quality and the plot intriguing. Definitely one I'd recommend for a lot of reasons.

However, I'm super nervous to continue this duology. The romance was the only thing in this book that I wasn't the biggest fan of the whole time. Like it was fine, just not my fave. Until the end. It was an unexpected ending to be sure, but not one that I liked even a little bit. With how much the next book is going to focus on the love interest (and in what way), I'm really torn. But, like, it also can't end like that??

"The Last Bloodcarver" by Vanessa Le is a captivating fantasy that intricately weaves themes of power and redemption. Its rich world-building and complex characters offer a gripping and immersive experience.

Nhika is a heartsooth, someone who can use magic to affect the body. She is an amazing character, proud of who she is in a land in which she is an outsider. She is an amazingly fleshed out character. She’s a survivor, but she’s flawed and sometimes naive. Through her, we’re introduced to a world where magic is being pushed out in favor of science, and pulled into a murder mystery. I absolutely love how magic and science blends together in this story, creating a beautiful world that I can’t wait to go back to in the sequel.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. Unfortunately, this book read like a paint-by-numbers version of a YA fantasy novel. Everything that Le included in her novel I have seen before. It read so much like someone made a list of the most common tropes, characters, magic systems, and events and Le put them all together in a decently written novel. Le has skill with her writing which is why I did not rate this lower than 3 stars. She did nothing stellar with the book though which left me disappointed.