This was my first 5 star read of the year. I’ve been a huge fan of Jensen since I read The Bridge Kingdom (another 5 star book) a few years ago. This is another example of her fabulous storytelling.
Jensen’s voice really shines through in “A Fate Inked in Blood”. As a fan of her work, I was immediately impressed with how well she does creating a setting just through the prose. One thing that Jensen always does well is create real characters and she did the same in this one. The main character, Freya, springs off the page. She immediately makes decisions that feel inline with her as a character and, even as she’s straight up killing people, you want to love her. That was honestly one of the best parts.. This character is a killer, kind of wants to be a killer, and is expected to be one. This was a nice change from other books where thee MC says she’s a ruthless villain but you never see it. I also truly loved the mythology that was included in this book and the magic system itself was very interesting.
As for the romance…. ooh boy. I loved this bit. Jensen, yet again, created a swoon worthy romance between the pages of this book. I loved Bjorn as a character and truly cannot wait for the next book in this series. I need it immediately.
I will say that I guessed the few major twists in this story early on. However, I’ve trained myself what to look out for so I don’t think it was too obvious necessarily…but I could see the argument for some of the foreshadowing being heavy handed. Even with that, the book was so well polished and the characters, setting, and worldbuilding so freaking good… this received an unequivocal 5 stars – no questions needed.
I will continue to recommend this author and cannot wait for the next book in this series. Excuse me while I go cry while we wait. Pick up A Fate Inked in Blood as soon as you can!
