Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

Summary:
Silla Kennicott had a pretty good life - doting parents, a loving brother, a shot at becoming an actress - until the horrific murder-suicide committed by her father. Silla refuses to believe her father would commit such an atrocious act, and when she receives a book in the mail containing magic spells, she's certain something else is going on. All the spells require blood, but Silla's willing to do anything to find out more about her father's past. That's when she meets Nick Pardee, a transplant from Chicago, and the two might have more in common than they think. This isn't Nick's first experience with Blood Magic, and their shared powers might be needed to defeat evil that's lurking in the shadows of their small town.

Review:
I thought that Blood Magic was okay - not great, not horrible. I will say that I enjoyed reading it and there was never a time when I wanted to stop. But there are so many better books out there that I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

I was most intrigued by the mystery, since I love suspense and finding out whodunnit. There are several points-of-view throughout Blood Magic and I liked reading the diary of Josephine Darly the best. Most of the entries are from the past so they were the most interesting because it explains blood magic but the main characters are still left in the dark. The other point-of-view switches are between Silla and Nick, her love interest. I did not like these because their narration overlapped and it become very redundant. It was also hard to tell the difference between their voices, which was aided by the fact that in six pages the POV would change 3+ times.

The romance was a big part of the novel and I enjoyed it for the most part. Though they have an "instant attraction" and can't get enough of each other after one day of meeting, the words "I love you" are not uttered until the end (I think...now I can't remember) which made it slightly more bearable. I hated, though, that Nick called Silla "babe." I guess it's not that big of a deal but it sounded sooo unnatural in the dialogue.

The writing was ... interesting. Sometimes it would be really good and pull me in, and other times there would be these awful similes that made me cringe (see: "I slept like ass." Yes that was an actual line in this novel). So that was weird.

Overall, I didn't mind reading Blood Magic, but there was nothing special about that. It was missing something that I can't put my finger on. So if you think you'll like this based on the summary go for it. If not, there are tons of better books out there.

Rating: 7 out of 10.
FTC: received from Flamingnet Book Reviews

2011/Random House/405 pages.