This book rocked my socks. A mixture of creepy and sexy, disturbing and exciting and all-around compelling.

Pros:• It didn't have a love triangle.• Parents weren't completely absent.• Siblings weren't annoyingly complicating things.• Other kids weren't shown under a bad light to make the main characters look better.• Not as much angst as there could have been.Cons:• Boring.• Instalove®.• Did I say boring?• Dual POV that didn't work (Both Nicholas and Silla acted like two girls in love).So, yeah. I didn't even hate it enough to give it one star. Just meh.

It's just a little over four hundred pages and, honestly, there may have been one chapter (or fifteen) too many. From the get, the first thing that came to mind was that I'd read it before: a girl with a tragic past meets hot boy who doesn't get along with his stepmother. Then there's the alternating points of view between Silla and Nick as well as glimpses into someone's past. It was a chore! Normally, switching POVs is something I enjoy... What's not to love when you get the same story told by...

I can't finish it. My tolerance for YA PNR is very low, but I was looking forward to reading Blood Magic after seeing some really favorable early reviews of it. Can you blame for hoping this book will be another Unearthly?The novel starts with Silla performing blood magic for the very first time at the cemetery where her parents are buried. Her mother and father recently died in a horrendous murder-suicide; and an enigmatic friend sent Silla her father's notebook of spells which each requires th...

Review courtesy of All Things Urban FantasyAuthor Tessa Gratton is a member of the illustrious Merry Sisters of Fate writing group (which includes Maggie Steifvater and Brenna Yovanoff), so before even cracking the cover of her debut BLOOD MAGIC, I expected the writing to be lovely, the romance bittersweet, and the emotional payoff to be huge. Check, check, and check! But I was also pleasantly surprised to find a chilling mystery and a villain so believably evil, that my blood boiled while readi...

Hello, people. I like writing in bold letters because it is fun. You know what else is fun? Reading book reviews ... like this one!*Ah-hem* Anyway. Hello. It's almost 1 AM and I feel strangely perky. But knowing me, I will probably randomly conk out any minute. And for some reason, I always think it will take me such a short amount of time to write a book review even though it always takes me ages. But, oh well.I'll start off by saying, I had mixed feelings about this book.The first time I stumb...

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I liked the story. I enjoy when authors insert diary entries, or else even just flashbacks to the past. And I think when they leave it so you don't know for sure exactly who this person from the past might be in the present time story it adds a bit of mystery that I like to try to figure out as I read. Now, I understand that the title is blood magic, and that means that blood is needed for the magic, but it was a little too much cutting for me at times. And...

One of my first DNFs. To this day I'm still not sure if this book was just bad or if I can blame this on the translation. (Read in Czech).

4.5 starsBlood Magic isn't like any of the hocus pocus books I've read before. This one had a very unique flavor racing throughout the book. Tessa Gratton writing is cunningly crafted in a way that makes this book standout in a mysterious lushish way.The atmosphere has a life of it's very own. Thick, rich and intoxicating, while these characters have the most intriguing energy.There is a lot of blood in this book. It's frequently talked about, thought about and basically dripped out of these pag...

I LOVE this book…..so much, in fact, that I can’t possibly write a review without sounding like a 12 year old girl gushing about Justin Bieber. You deserve better than that, so I’ll simply bullet the things I liked best about Ms. Gratton’s writing style, and Blood Magic specifically.• Ms. Gratton weaves this compelling enchantment by letting the characters have their own voices. Sometimes Silla is telling the story, sometimes it is Reese, or Nicholas and sometimes, we are shown excerpts from a v...

I'm warning you, it's long. When I picked this book up, the plot reminded me of Gillian Shields' "Immortal", which I liked; I'd probably lower the rating if I read it again, because back then I was a very lenient reader.Now on to "Blood Magic." There are choppy sentences, unneeded and unwanted details, and it's repetitive. I think Tessa (the author) hates the word "that," or doesn't know its use. Tessa likes to compare things to stone. Why is this book so long and slow? Nick and Silla's first ki...

Posted on: http://bookpassionforlife.blogspot.com/I’ll admit I was a little bit hesitant before I started Blood Magic mainly because I’ve read quite a few magic/witch books and none of them have been as good as I would of hoped. But, wow, where to start with Blood Magic!After the horrific deaths of her parents, Silla has never felt right. She doesn’t fit in at school anymore and only has a few close friends. While trying to make sense of her parent’s death and believing there is something else g...

Strong writing & creative mythology make for bloody good debutIn Tessa Gratton's debut novel, BLOOD MAGIC, Silla Kennicott has taken to keeping to herself after her parents' apparent murder-suicide. When a mysterious book of magic arrives, Silla decides to see if the spells work...and they do. Soon intoxicated by the power of magic, Silla also finds herself growing increasingly close to the new boy in town, Nick, who has powers and secrets of his own. When it becomes dangerously evident that her...

I can pinpoint the exact moment when I stopped trying to enjoy Blood Magic. As the book began, I was uneasy about the wordiness of the prose, but this is the point at which I gave up:My heart beat faster, and I had to blink away the halo surrounding him. He was Mephistopheles, smiling and tempting me, his Dr. Faustus, to dance.If this crazy talk had happened even after a lifetime of knowing each other or under the influence of recreational drugs or if they were both 600 years old, that sentence

I absolutely adored this book! It completely drew me in from the very start and I just could not put it down. Cemeteries, blood magic and bodies being possessed were the recipe for an absolutely freaking fantastic story. I can't believe this has been sitting on my shelf for so long and I've been missing out on its greatness. Seriously, I couldn't have loved this book more. It was deliciously creepy and strange and I'm absolutely dying to get started on the second book!

Blood Magic is about witches: Finally something other than Vampires and Werewolves! I liked it, I thought it was fun and fresh, but it wasn't enough to really compel me to say "you know, this is a very good book". It was missing something though I cant quite put my finger on it. Regardless, I still almost gave it a 4 star.The plot is part magical lore, part mystery. Silla's parents died tragically, and although everyone is convinced it was a murder suicide, Silla is not. After receiving a spell

Tessa Gratton has created a very unique world in Blood Magic. The story centers around exactly what the title suggests, blood magic. Silla, a junior in high school who has lost both her parents to a gruesome death, unexpectedly receives a journal from somebody named the Deacon and within this book she finds secrets that her father has been keeping from her whole life. With the help of her brother Reese and the new guy in town, Nick, she uncovers that blood can do so many other things besides kee...

Because Blood Magic isn't out until May, I don't want to give too much away. Really, here's all you need to know: this book is fantastic.I love literary books, and I love a good paranormal story -- the darker, the better. However, I haven't found that many books that combine both: literary, layered writing in a ultra-dark paranormal that's super-commercial in concept. Blood Magic is all that, and more.From the first page, Tessa's prose blew me away. It's absolutely gorgeous. She's one of those w...

TEN STARS!! :DMinions and Minionettes of Awesome, I'm here to tell you that there's *way* more to this novel than a B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. cover ... which, incidentally, has everything to do with the story and is about ten times MORE gorgeous in person ... matte, lumpy, shiny, *SQUEE* ... :D Blood Magic is one of the most W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L. books I've ever read. Take my word for it: Paranormal Young Adult doesn't get a whole lot better than this."I am Josephine Darly, and I intend to live forever."A...

I had many problems with this book, but one overall trumped the list. I. Was. So. BOOOOOREEEDDD!!!!Usually, I never not finish a book. I usually find some reason to plow through.But this... I just--. I don't even know. The summary on the jacket basically explains the first hundred pages. Silla (Drusilla) heroine of mysterious dead parents gets magic book written by father, figures out it works, proceeds to make stupid choice after stupid choice all the while swooning over her love interest who i...