Review: The Blood of Doves by Melissa McSherry
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Introduction:
As an orphan, Kasia was raised in the slums of Lethe, forced to steal and kill to survive, but somehow always managed to evade the law. Her luck eventually runs out when she finds herself on the brink of death. A handsome stranger rescues her, bringing her back to his realm. Once there, he informs her of her past, a past she refuses to believe to be true. The last Satori heir? She couldn’t be…could she?
After years of being on her own, Kasia struggles to open up, to trust and rely on those around her who wish to help, but as more time passes, she begins to let them through her walls and into her heart.
With the truth of her past revealed and her powers continuing to grow, Kasia learns to control them, but will it be enough? What will it cost her to destroy the usurper who killed her family and stole her throne, and how much is she willing to give up?
Review:
Reviewed by Nethra Deckland
This standalone romantasy novel by Melissa McSherry had such potential to be a great book but it failed my expectations at every turn. It was very difficult for me to watch the author squash it’s chances of being a great book with each page as I read on. The book was too short. I have no idea what Melissa was rushing towards but she was certainly rushing towards something, perhaps the end, maybe? because everything felt hurried and unexplained leaving me dissatisfied at the end.
The world building was terrible. Nothing was explained properly. I didn’t understand why the author couldn’t spare a few paragraphs or at least a few sentences to set a good foundation for the story. Character building and development was worse. We were ‘told’ a lot of things but were never ‘shown’. It almost felt lazy on author’s part. I am not sure whether an editing team was involved because there were weird tense changes and sudden pov jumps for few a minutes even when that chapter was someone else’s pov. There were so many unnecessary chapters, for example, like the one where an entire chapter was dedicated to Kasia taking a bath.
Kasia as a main female character was dreadful. She was very unlikable, reckless, stubborn beyond reason and had a habit of making self deprecating comments about herself. I mean, this was a girl who had gone through so much hardship growing up, faced countless traumas, even with what we were shown in the first few chapters, and I should have been yearning to root for her. But because of the author’s poor writing and character building all I did was roll my eyes whenever Kasia opened her mouth. And, I am getting sick and tired of romantasy authors using ‘heroine or hero stealing from rich to feed the poor’ trope. Also what’s with this nickname kink? So far in romantasy novels I have experienced (from what I can remember), little mouse, song bird, butterfly, bird, little viper, starlight, and in this case little dove. Is this a thing that turns people on? I am genuinely asking.
Xerxes or Sir Sex (that’s what I called him) was his name sake. He didn’t know about space. He was so horny from the moment he laid eyes on Kasia and couldn’t wait to get into her pants. Each conversation he had with her, he had to somehow make it sexual. Let’s just blame it on the ‘bond’ ok? And I had no idea why the author included that one scene with Nymaria at the beginning where she ran her mouth about Kasia when she didn’t even know her. All it did was inadvertently giving us a glimpse of how Sir Sex treated women if they were not his ‘bonded’. And he only went into bloodlust when someone hurt Kasia. Even when he knew his sister had been sexually assaulted, she was given a ‘promise’ to seek vengeance.
I don’t even want to go into their chemistry and physical intimacy scenes. They just felt unnatural and out of place.
I am sorely disappointed in this book. Such potential. WASTED!
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