A Dream of Blood and Magic is the first in a brand new series by Olivia Boothe. This is the first book that I have read by this author, but it certainly won’t be the last. I loved getting to know Avery’s character and couldn’t get enough of the start of her journey. I couldn’t put it down. It pulled me in from the very beginning. I love how independent Avery is, but that she also craves friendship and love at the same time. I love how her and Kane’s chemistry just leaps right off the page. This story is the perfect blend of swoon worthy romance and fantasy. A Dream of Blood and Magic does leave you hanging at the end, which means you won’t know what happens until book number two of the Spirit Marked series comes out.

Give me witches, vampires and magic and I’m hooked. Loved this book. Well written story with all the elements that I love. Can’t wait for more.

This book started off interesting and promising! But then... I no longer really liked the main character? And things started to go in every other direction? I'm not dismissing this book though - I am still curious to see where the author is going to take things, but I think it does need a bit of fine tuning.

Wow. Now THIS is how you tell a story!

Unpredictable, mysterious, riveting and elegantly seductive.

What a great start to this action-packed Urban Fantasy Romance about vampires and witches, that had me guessing the entire time. I cannot wait to get my hands on book 2 (no release date yet). The romantic tension just gets going towards the very end, leaving the reader wanting more. Such a tease! A complex world waiting to be discovered, with so many interesting characters.

What a thrilling ride! It is so beautifully and eloquently written, with the imagery, action, and emotions, all in perfect balance. It was very hard to put down. World building is complex but is written in a way that makes it accessible to the reader.

I also loved all of the characters (even the evil ones). Avery, our MFC is 21 years old, living in Brooklyn. Despite her young adult age, she’s been forced to mature fast, having been orphaned at a very young age. She’s a fighter with attitude. The two MMC’s are millennia old vampire brothers who’ve been at war for centuries. One of them seems to be more on the heroic side and the other more on the villainous side but I guess time will tell. Both are sexy and alluring. Although by the end of Book 1 the romance seems to point more towards one brother, I’m going with the “anything can happen” approach.

📚 Series: Book 1 in the Spirit Marked series (definitely not a standalone)
🎬 Ending type: To be continued… no shocking cliffhanger but the story is definitely not over
🏷 Genres / Tropes: Urban Fantasy Romance. Witches, Vampires
👫 POV / Tense: Triple POV (Avery, Azrael & Kane), 1st person, past tense.
🌎 World building: Set in present time, there are flashbacks to events that happen in other realms and other centuries (even other millennia), creating a complex history between witches and vampires.
🌶 Spice: 1 out of 5 for Book 1 which was perfect in my opinion, seeing as it would have been out of place at this stage in the story. There is exquisite tension build up with some teasing naughtiness towards the end. Author mentions that the heat cranks up in book 2
🤦🏻‍♀️ Issues: Absolutely none. I loved EVERYTHING about this book
⚠️🚩 Triggers / Warnings / Audience: Author says it’s intended for audiences 18 years+. Blood and gore, death and graphic violence, explicit language, some mildly sexually explicit content, stalking, abductions, mention of young girls being trafficked for blood, mention of mental illness and emotional childhood trauma.

i really enjoyed a dream of blood and magic! the premise was amazing and i knew i had to read it. the gothic and darker imagery in this story made for an immersive reader experience. i can appreciate a slow burn plot, but keep it mind when the author said slow she really meant it! lots of worldbuilding in this book for those who are fans. the ending was questionable and definitely leaves your wanting answers. all in all, i rate adobam 3 stars!

thank you so much olivia boothe and netgalley for the ARC! ☾₊ ⊹

“You’ll need to work on masking your desires, little monster.”

📖5⭐️

This book gripped me right from the start! I was so sucked (pun intended🤭) in reading I didn’t realize when I was at the end! Lol imagine my disappointment that I have to wait to see where this story goes. I really hope we get book 2 soon!

Kane and Avery. This is all. I’m rooting for them! I enjoyed the world building and the direction the book was headed. If you like reading about vampires, witches, and magic then I highly suggest reading this book! The author does an excellent job weaving this story together!

✔️Romantasy
✔️Vampires
✔️Witches
✔️Dual POV
✔️Forced Proximity
✔️Shifters
✔️Enemies to..?
✔️🌶️🌶️.5
✔️Book 1 ends in a cliffhanger


There are minor punctuation or spelling errors but a fun read nonetheless!

Thank you NetGalley for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️

This prologue of this book had me hooked from the start. The back story was interesting, and I was thoroughly invested in this world, characters, and magic. The 5,000 year time jump into present day New York in our world was a little bit jarring after that.

The beginning of our actual story was a little bit of a slow start. There were different types of supernaturals to learn about, as well as factions within them that I wasn’t fully invested until about 20-25% into the book. Once I had my bearings though, I couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in one sitting.

I found the different POVs to be really well done. I honestly wasn’t sure who I’m supposed to be rooting for (other than Avery and her spirit animal things) for pretty much the whole book. I know I definitely do NOT like Luthor, but I still don’t know about Kane and Azrael. I feel like they both could go in either directions as characters and I like that I was kept on my toes the whole time and likely will be into the next book as well.

The author is definitely setting up a love triangle here, or possibly even a square, or maybe just straight up why choose. I honestly can’t tell you which of the men she may end up with (I vote all 3!) but there’s some tension and things mentioned with 3 guys and I’m excited to see where that goes. There’s not really any romance or spice yet, but there’s some pretty good banter and some scenes that let you know the spice will definitely be good when we get to it in later books.

So far we haven’t learned too much about the side characters, but the baseline is there and I’m excited to learn more about them.

I wouldn’t say it ends on a cliffhanger, but it ends right before we’re about to get so many answers and I hope book 2 comes out soon!

Overall I really liked the book and will definitely be continuing the series.

Beautifully written and engaging. I loved the way the beginning of the book took different pov and a mystery to try and figure out what was going on. I only wish I was longer to see where Avery’s story is going.

Oh how I wished this book was for me.
Vampires, witches, ancient secrets and world building?! It was all the right things for me. But, I struggled with it.
Cons for me was the parts of the book that were slower, moved glacier slow. I didn’t really like the FMC all too much. But aside from that, the parts where pacing was fast I was enraptured and completely lost in the world. I really like Azreal character a lot. His POV was always my favorite when I came to it. I am giving this a solid 3.75 because I just know that someone else will fall in love with this book.

First of all, a big thank you for letting me read this story!

Are you ready to meet our new badass stabby chosen one girl who doesn’t know that she is but always kinda felt that something was wrong with her? Bundled with not just one but two hot dude vampires losing their heads over her while the big bad enemy witches are waiting to take over the world? Then you’re at the right place.


Something that becomes clear early on is that there is a lot of telling instead of showing going on, and thus way too much exposition through text and thought. The action scenes (action, as in, the plot moves forward) are interesting and keep you going, but most of the time, the characters just stand and talk.
I think it’s done to set up the lore, given how much there is know about all those monsters and it’s frankly the easiest way, but at some point I just started to skim through the text because it’s just lots of info dumping. I was checking the pace when I was 50% through the book, and it still felt like the story has yet to start. Everything happening until then could have been contained within half of the number of pages. There are also multiple POVs (and I still don’t know why we got the Luther one?) which is kind of confusing, because you don’t have the time to actually get to know any of those characters properly. I honestly mixed up Luther‘s and Kane‘s chapters once and I got very confused about what’s happening, until I realized my mistake. The idea is really neat though and the story itself meets the important points of an urban fantasy book.

Azrael and Kane, our two bad boys. I can see why many root for Azrael, but for me it’s Kane. I think? Though I’m not so sure, neither of them really captured my heart, but he was a bit more sympathetic. The backstory between those two and Arabelle (I think that was her name?) is dropped in breadcrumb form throughout the chapters to keep you guessing what’s going on. When you then meet those two, finally, you’ll still be focused on puzzling out their relation to Avery, Arabelle, their own sons and the world. Not a bad thing at all, but especially around the middle of the book, there were so many open questions that it was hard to keep track of them all.

It was like having too much salt in my soup - a tad bit too many questions, some of them that stayed unresolved, while hugged by a drawn out amount of talking heads.

The good is embodied in Shadow though. You saved this. I was very intrigued by him and I think him nuanced written, enough to keep going. He takes up with Avery‘s childish tantrums and he does that with such patience. You need a raise. 🫡

The writing, in general, was actually ok and you could actually get lost in the writing. (The purple prose only stays contained within the first chapter so don’t lose hope there). The dialogue itself is actually very good too, though if it was just a bit less of that, it would have been even better.

All in all, I probably won’t throw in my stars rating (on goodreads) yet because the series has potential to get better., especially now that the lore is set up and we can continue with the fun part - the action.

A heartfelt thank you to Netgalley, Three Brothers Press and Olivia Boothe for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review, all thoughts and murmurs above are my own.

Oh my good gracious. I absolutely loved everything about this book. The slow burn, the story concept, the lore, the connections; everything made my heart pound excited for the next piece. The characters are quirky and surprisingly infectious. The storyline and plot happens quickly but at the rate things would happen, at a rate you would expect. Love Kane and Azreal. The way everything comes full circle is executed exquisitely. I’m so excited for the next book.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! I love me a gothic fantasy romance. This had so many elements that I enjoy - multiple POV's, enemies to lovers, finding magic within, familiars, high stakes, slow burn. I'm already dreaming of getting my hands on the next book!

This book was everything!
Witches, vampires, ELEMENTAL MAGIC (my fave 😏)
And the story...woah.

We follow a young unknowing witch who's powers are manifesting whilst vampires fight to find her to use as a weapon. She is a bad ass. And the vampires and hot. I don't think I need to say anything else!

4/5 🌟 as I just know the next book is going to be even better
2/5 🌶

From the blurb, A Dream of Blood and Magic was an excellent match for me. However, when it came to reading it, I really struggled. Avery seemed too immature for her purported age and I found her inner monologues tedious. The chapters from Kane and Azrael's perspectives were better (though for someone imprisoned for 500 years, Azrael new a lot of slang), and I enjoyed the darkness in their characters. But there was a lot of info dumping near the start of the story, despite which I was still confused for the first half of the book, and a lot of repetition of information after that, which made me want to skim sections. The eventual love interest I assume will be Kane, but it wasn't clear, and I got irritated with Avery's constant dwelling on how hot all the men in the story were, even during moments when she was supposed to be in danger. I am giving it three stars. For major fans of the genre it will be worth a look, as the story premise was good, but I felt there could have been improvement in the prose/presentation.

I really wanted to love this book, but it was really hard to get into. There was a lot of info dumping for the world building, which made it a bit confusing at times. I also wasn't a point of all of the point of views, it made it really hard to establish connections with the characters.

I may be in the minority not falling over themselves for this title but I do think it shows promise.

Balancing a hearty premise and loaded lore, “A Dream of Blood and Magic” throws a lot at the wall and somehow manages to make a chunk stick. With setting up the mythology of our creatures of the night and wicked witches we shift between the last and present to unravel a tale that also sprinkles in some elemental magic right on top.

The characters were interesting and I sympathize with Avery as she struggled to come to terms with it all since I too had trouble but her friends along the way were some of my favorite additions to the story. Our vampires are curious and lean more towards that of Interview with a Vampire than Buffy with their bloodlust at the forefront and almost all snark is missing. Not sure what it is setting up romance wise but I’m indifferent enough at this point to make a call on who or what I wish to see win out in the end.

It was a quick read with lots to find enjoyment in but plenty of questions and a real worry that by time the sequel comes around I will forget a majority of what I’ve read today but only time will tell!

*special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review*

This was a fun read with some cool layers to peel back! There is a lot going on and it can be a little confusing at times but it does get explained (for the most part, it is book one after all).

Who is the love interest? I am torn between wanting it to be Kane or Azrael.

I really like the combinations of witches, vampires, spirits, and who knows what else!

There were a lot of POVs which helped with the worldbuilding but it made it harder for me to connect with Avery. I wanted more of Kane and Azrael instead.

A few super relatable things:
*Avery's dedication to CJ - there's nothing I wouldn't do for my bestie.
*Avery's distrust with new characters showing up in her life- I feel like immediate trust happens in a lot of other books so this was

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review!

There is potential here in the story, but with too many plot threads and almost nothing resolved this book felt like a really long prelude to a potentially interesting story. I know that this book is only the first of many, but this story just felt like it ended where it did for no particular reason. There were too many POV characters making it hard to get a sense of who they truly are or what their motivations are going to be in the future. I do not believe I will continue with this series.

A slow start, but there is a whole new world to build and it's built amazingly well. The connection between the two main characters is also a little characters is also a little challenging at first but there is a great promise of heat yet to come. I loved the connection of vampires and witches and the history between them. All in all a great book to start what I hope will be a brilliant series.

I enjoyed this book even though I had a few struggles. I like the characters and that we get a dual pov. The slow burn between them is amazing and I enjoyed the gothic vibes a lot. The one I didn’t like so much was our fmc Avery, who is quite immature, stubborn and bratty, maybe this will change but it’s not my favourite. The world building was amazing though! It did take me some time to get into it since the author spent a lot of text on that in the first half of the book but it’s worth it and necessary for a first book in a series.