Double Review: Of the Blood & Of Fire and Water by Cameo Renae

“when a wicked heart remains in the darkness too long, it begins to crave that darkness, until there is no light that can drive it out.”

of the blood, cameo renae

Summary: Raised in a war-ravaged continent, temptation comes to Calla Caldwell in the form of a charming and mysterious stranger. Giving in to his intimate seduction, her world is forever changed by a single bite. Calla quickly learns the handsome stranger is vampire prince, Trystan Vladu. His bite was an attempt to claim and save her from a plot of vengeance generations in the making. However, the claws of that ancient vendetta are scraping ever closer. Thrust into a new nightmare by the Prince of the corrupt kingdom of Morbeth, Calla is captured, tortured, and starved in the dank confines of his dungeon. While in captivity, she takes part in a séance with a witch of light where she contacts a departed relative—a Princess of Incendia—who bequeaths a gift to Calla that will tip the scales of good and evil . . . if she can learn to harness it. With a dark tapestry of secrets, lies, and murder unraveling around her, Calla must learn to embrace the power roiling through her veins, or be snuffed out by the strangling fist of a malevolent darkness.

Rating:

Thoughts:

I feel quite conflicted about this book. I swung so many times between loving it then feeling my enjoyment noticeably lessen with parts of it. Firstly, I feel that Renae did such a good job weaving the fantasy and paranormal genres together. The world the story is built in is so unique and quite complex with its complicated, detailed history and various magical beings that exist. I particularly enjoyed the complexities added to the typical vampirism with the way some are able to possess magic or manipulate the elements. I also enjoyed the many places we got to travel within its pages, from the main character’s homeland to her journey through a dangerous forest to a rival vampire’s castle to a pirate ship–there’s truly so many interesting places. And I also really like the overall premise of the story with a vampire biting a human in order to save her from other vampires. I’m still curious if Trystan’s motives were as pure as they appeared at surface value or if there is something more sinister to it. I hope we get an answer in the sequel.

I didn’t really become invested in the characters or the plot until around 50% of reading it. The plot really picked up there and I flew through the next 35-ish% because I was so eager to find out what happened next. Our main character Calla starts off as a really relatable character in my eyes but the way she captured nearly every single male’s heart she came in contact with really started to grate on me by the end of the book. I actually got tired of reading about every man flirting with her immediately upon meeting her. The book had a lot of “telling” instead of “showing” which made my mind drift off when reading the multiple large portions of dialogue where different characters would spell out what was going on or explain the past in detail to the main character. There was no room for the reader to realize things on their own or have that aha! moment that many of us love to have because the book spent so much time explaining the obvious to us in these huge dialogue blocks. I also didn’t particularly love the way a pseudo-incest situation was portrayed (pseudo because nothing actually took place but a great-uncle wanted to engage in a relationship with his great-niece). Instead of there being disgust over the characters’ actual blood relations to each other, it was more of a you’re-a-bad-person-so-I-hate-you vibe. Lastly, there were a lot of spelling errors and grammar mistakes. It was really distracting for me when I stumbled on a word like “bridal” trying to puzzle out why someone was suddenly getting married when the author actually meant “bridle” and to curtail someone’s behavior which made a lot more sense. It really broke up the flow of reading for me.

Overall, I’m intrigued enough to read the sequel. There are so many characters and plot lines that need to be tied up that I’m eager to see what takes place in the next book. I’m particularly interested to see if anything comes of the foreboding feeling I got near the end of the book when something is implied about the main character’s necklace. I’m also hoping to see some actual romance in the next book since it feels a bit odd to me that this book is labeled as a romance when there really isn’t much of one to be seen. I was hesitant to even tag it as such in my own shelves. Regardless, onto the next!

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Summary: Calla escaped Morbeth only to find herself fighting for her life once more. Incendia seemed the perfect sanctuary of escape. The stories told of the mystical island claim all inhabitants were annihilated. Those tragic tales . . . were lies. Desperate to keep their truth hidden, the islanders take Calla and her friends prisoner. Despite her dire situation, something about that beautiful—yet deadly—paradise speaks to Calla’s soul, whispering the powerful secrets pulsing through her veins. As Roehl hunts for her, eager to claim his murderous vengeance, Calla searches for answers she believes only Incendia can offer. Can Calla harness the power surging within her in time to protect herself, and those she loves, from Roehl? Or, no matter where she runs, will the twisted royal continue to chase her to the farthest reaches of any realm?

Rating:

Thoughts:

Wow this book went so differently from what I had anticipated going into it and I think it’s safe to say it managed to avoid middle book syndrome for me as well. The world this book is set in continues to be one of my favorite things about it. I loved getting to explore even more of the continent and to experience more of the various cultures built into the world. They’re really all so unique and I particularly enjoyed the nuance that came with how different cultures treated Calla’s vampire status differently. I also liked seeing Calla start to come into her own with this book. You can tell she’s starting to gain confidence and she’s no longer the meek, hesitant girl we met in the first book. Another one of my favorite things about this book was the relationships in it. It’s so refreshing to see healthy female friendships instead of seeing females pitted against each other, especially considering some of the romance details that developed in this book. I’m definitely rooting for a second romance now!

The book was a bit slowly paced for me again like it was in the first. I didn’t get truly invested in the storyline this time until around the 70% mark when things started to pick up but I wasn’t bored for the previous pages by any means. The book definitely has some interesting twists that I didn’t see coming such as the true extent of Calla’s powers. And that twist with the romance! I felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest. The book closes with a cliffhanger which is different from its predecessor so I’m eager to see what happens in the final book and how the various characters and storylines are resolved. My ARC copy has a note from the author saying she hopes to have the next book out in the next 3 months so here’s to hoping that we don’t live with questions for too long!

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