YA Book Tour- Missouri

Rolling on with the YA book tour and the next stop is Missouri with Tess Gratton's Blood Magic.

Silla whole life was shattered when she came home and discovered the bodies of both her parents.  The investigation concludes her father killed her mother and then himself, but Silla never believes that. Months later a mysterious package shows up for her, a book of spells in her father's handwriting.

While trying out the book in the cemetery, her new neighbor Nick sees her. Nick knows more about this magic than she knows.  His mother worked in it, and it drove her crazy.  Nick recently moved to this small town after he inherited his grandfather's house, and his new stepmom thinks it would be a great place for her creativity process.

Silla and Nick grow closer, and know that there is more than blood magic between them.  They, along with Silla's brother Reese, explore exactly how powerful this magic is.  Together they learn that the power they found draws a darker practitioner of blood magic, and they must find a way to defeat her.

Silla's character never really had me forming an emotional attachment to her. She spends so much of the book hiding behind a mask, that even the reader does not get a real feel for her.  Mostly I can say she is a broken girl, and at the end I am not quite sure if she has healed or even is on the way to healing. She just seems very blah, I feel neither strong like or dislike for her.

Nick, at least, is a little better. I felt that he had more personality of the main characters. You could tell that he was someone that made up is own mind about things and did not just let what other people say form his opinion. He is loyal and funny at times, and for which I liked him.

The story itself, oh so many problems. First, Ms. Gratton angle's the plot so hard toward a suspected antagonist that I knew that it could have been any character but her, rookie mistake.  She, also, has this whole epic battle seen been our heros and the antagonist that feels like it should almost the end of the book, but, no, there is still like 20% of the book left, and it kind of drags after that.  And for characters she makes seem fairly well read, they sure seem to jump into blood magic with no clue.  Even I could tell that messing with blood magic is probably not a good idea, never leads to happy endings.

The idea for this book had so much potential, but it just seemed to fall flat all around.

Currently Reading:
Where Things Come Back
by John Corey Whaley