While the publicized synopsis of the Inked in Blood and Memory is intriguing, it does not do the story enough justice as it is so much more than just a tale of two women in a cabin, trapped within the pages of a book.

Inked in Blood and Memory has three main POV characters: Sophie, Ren and Jeremy, three childhood friends that grew up with parents collectively involved in a demonic cult. In return for wealth and success, the families committed to sacrificing their first born sons. Sophie and Ren lucked out in the genetic pool, but Jeremy was not so lucky. On his 10th birthday, Jeremy was sacrificed to the demon and presumed dead - only he didn’t actually die and now after over a decade trapped in the darkness with the demon, he’s a bit pissed off at the family and friends he left behind.

Fourteen years have gone by and both Ren and Sophie are now in their 20’s dealing with the aftermath of their parent’s choices - only now they have new worries as Sophie’s parents had a late in life second child and his sacrificial date is looming. It’s at this point that Sophie and Ran are trapped in books and what ensues is a menagerie of horror obstacles that they need to overcome to escape (can you say murderous teddy bears?).

My only critique would be the romance aspect of the book - while I appreciated that it was clearly a secondary element to the story, there were times that it felt thrown in at inopportune moments - i.e. you are being chased through a horror landscape trying to beat the clock to get back to the real world in time and suddenly you are making out in an alleyway. I think the romance felt like a natural aspect of the relationship between Sophie and Ren, but given the circumstances of their journey it was weird seeing them get hot and heavy when so much is hanging on the line.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and found the plot twists to keep me invested in what would happen next. I would be very interested to see more work from Allison Ivy.

I almost didn’t read this book after I saw at the very start the author’s attempt to bribe people with money to share this book with people in the publishing industry. That immediately turned me off this book but I decided to give it a chance anyway and read and review it.

This was an interesting premise but in my opinion was poorly executed. I DNFed at 50%. This story felt incredibly rushed. All the jumping around the timeline made it confusing and hard to follow. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters. Even after reading half this story I still feel like I know nothing about them. All the different nicknames Ren had for Sophie was annoying and cringey rather than sweet. This very much felt like a first draft and I think it could have been a great story with more time put into it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ebook ARC.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book, it had that element that I wanted from the gothic horror element. It had that romance that I was looking for adn worked with the fantasy overall to tell the story. The characters had that feel that I wanted and was glad I read this. Allison Ivy wrote this so well and was glad I got to read this.

Inked in Blood and Memory was an experience in book form! I rated it 5 stars because I can't rate it any higher! Such a good story, characters, plot... so good!

(3.00)

Rounded to 3 stars. I was so incredibly confused throughout the whole book. The first chapter was clear and immediately threw you into the world and I thought I got it… but I didn’t.

At first I thought it was smart writing, making it so confusing (it is a horror after all, we’re meant to not know what’s gonna happen), but then I quickly realised it was due to the big disconnect between reader and characters that left me so confused + the timeline jumps.

We kept jumping through timelines very quickly. I think there was a 12 years ago (the sacrifice), 6 years ago (Carter was born), 6 months ago (they got put in the book) and the presence (trying to get out of the book). This was then combined with other characters jumping in as POV (Jeremy and the devil dude) that then each also went between these time frames. Clearly, it was confusing as hell.

At 60% I still had absolutely no idea who Ren was even though it was a 50/50 narration between her and Sophie. I think it was due to the timeline jumps, because any time we got a flashback of her she was in a different phase of her life and seemed like a completely different person. Sophie was more constant, I liked her but I feel as if the shift from insecure wallflower to sudden post-apocalyptic badass was done way too swiftly. I felt disconnected from them both in the end.

The dynamic between Sophie en Ren was cute (with the nicknames mostly). Very straightforward. I didn’t really get why they never got together before because it seemed very clear to me they liked each other. Then suddenly they switched the relationship, why had Ren never done that before? She’s depicted as quite impulsive and had always felt attracted to Sophie. But they were still enjoyable.

All in all, the plot was very interesting but the execution wasn’t great. The pacing was strange, timeline jumps left me confused (in the wrong way), some decision making made no sense and I was confused (the parent situations frustrated the shit out of me). Characters were cute together but it just fell a bit flat. It was a quick and easy read, so if you’re looking for some interesting plot (there were some cool fantasy-esque themes) to read in one night, this is an okay book. If you’re looking for a more realistic and interesting plotting with character dynamics, this book isn’t it.

Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for approving me for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a random Netgallery read for me, i just happened to stumble into, which seems to be how i find a lot of books these days.

This is a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 because it was good, but just a slow burn, spooky read. Nothing awful, but just a solid read, nothing wrong with that.

Tension was good, story line was good, and i loved the LGBTQ+ horror aspect, we need more of that out here. I liked the creepy aspect of is this crazy or is this supernatural, some authors toe that line so well, and this was one of them .

Would recommend this to friends who like spooky not scary terrifying horror and honestly i had a good time reading it.