Blog Tour Review: Empire of Blood

Lilly Faine is tired of classmates dissing her family, and doesn’t care when she receives suspension for nearly punching the lights out of a classmate. Her father isn’t crazy, even if he does spout stories about a world full of magic, a cruel king who hunted him, and has a shattered amulet that tingles when Lilly touches it.

When an old enemy appears under Chicago’s beloved Bean, Lilly and her brother Gabriel are shoved into the impossible world their father believed in. Alone on opposite ends of a war, they race to rescue each other. Lilly finds aid and friendship in a band of rebels, but she is also hunted by the emperor’s personal assassin. Gabriel gains the help of the emperor, but Gabriel’s choices to do good may lead him into dark shadows he can’t find his way out of.

Magic thrums within their reach, promising aid, and Lilly and Gabriel both must decide if the magic they seek – and the causes for which they now fight – is worth the risk of their souls.

Content Warning: Two characters share a kiss. War/battle is a prominent element, so there are wounds and death, but no gore. One of the MC whips two characters. Language does contain a tiny amount of minor curses, such as “hell,” “damn,” and “bastard.”

It’s taken me a couple of days since finishing this book to actually sit down and write my review.  I’ve had such a book hangover, it’s not even funny! Over the past several years I’ve been gravitating towards fantasy books. I do not claim to be an expert, but I know what I like.  And I LOVED Empire of Blood!! (Adding an extra 2 !! for emphasis)

Empire of Blood began very slowly for me, even though there is an action scene almost immediately.  It took me 4 tries to get through the first chapter.  I think I must have been really tired each time I picked it up at the end of the day, so that didn’t help. But once I was able to get to the end of Chapter 2, I was hooked! All I wanted to do was read and read.

The plot to Empire of Blood is so much fun!  Lilly and Gabriel are siblings living in Chicago. They have grown up with their father telling them stories of a magical world that they, of course, didn’t believe in. Until one day when their whole lives are turned upside down, sending them both to this magical world but separating them from each other.  In this new world, both Lilly and Gabriel are met with completely different experiences and are exposed to opposing realities.  One is living the truth, one a lie. What happens as they try to find and save each other? Well that’s where the magic happens my friends!

Cornwell has an extraordinary talent for making the characters so real that they practically jump off the page!  I feel like I personally know each of these many, many, many characters. Did I say many? Many! Because holy smokes there are a lot of characters in this book.  I felt like I was reading Game of Thrones at times.  Personally, I could have used a character chart alongside this book.  At the end, I did find a character name pronunciation chart, also helpful as other than Lilly and Gabriel, all the other characters have non-traditional names and can be hard to remember and keep track of. But listen, the little bit of extra brain power I needed to expend on keeping track of said characters was TOTALLY WORTH IT!

My only grievance with this book is that it is a duology and I now have to wait for Book 2!  But guess what?  There will be dragons!  How delightful!!

And I guess I have a second grievance (but not really).  I am now the proud owner of the Empire of Blood paperback, even though I already have the e-book.  I loved it so much that I just had to buy the book to keep with me forever and ever! So now I have (intentionally) two of the same book.

If you like the Fantasy genre, Empire of Blood Book 1 of the Rebel Empire Duology is not to be missed.

BOOK LINKS

Goodreads | Amazon

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Olivia Cornwell is a storyteller with a love of dragons and magical worlds. She writes stories of hope and redemption and familial relationships, and far too many sarcastic characters. She writes to entertain her readers (and may or may not collect their tears along the way) and share the truth of her Creator. At least when she isn’t struggling to control her characters, drinking a lot of coffee, or hoarding chocolate.

She hides out in Ohio, and in her spare time Olivia cuddles her niece and nephews, and yowls back at her cat (who is most likely her familiar). She also enjoys adopting the characters from her friends’ novels and keeping them safe from their own dangers.

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