Daughters of the Blood, Anne Bishop

Please remember my reviews are one of many. If you disagree with the review please leave (nice) comments and let me know! I like knowing if others hate or enjoy the same books.

This review will be biased as this is one of my favorite authors of all time. I will note: You must like Dark Fantasy to enjoy this author and her stories. This is also a general review of many of her books.

The plot isn't too bad. (Brief without trying to spoil) Queens are the rulers which is a slight twist, but often are abusive toward males of their court depending on the queen. People have magical abilities based on their jewel color and of course the main characters are the strongest. If there was any draw back to this book I would state that it was too obvious to make the main characters the strongest and that having them a bit weaker might have been more redeeming. Everyone is waiting for the one queen to come, who will change the fate of how everything has been occurring and there are different prophecies about her and what will happen. There are battles to keep her from power and battles to get her a throne, and so the adventures start.

The first book can be a bit hard to get into without having read the previous series, but I have yet to read that series and probably never will. After a third through the book I couldn't put it down. Each book of the Dark Jewel trilogy is more and more intense, and it was heart-breaking when it all ended.

This book in particular is interesting, focusing a bit more on developing and explaining the growing plot in comparison to the other books in this series. There are some parts of the books you'll question, and I would say this is not always a book for the faint of heart. Description isn't overly detailed but some of the more gruesome scenes are questionable in content.

I find Anne Bishops writing style to be easy to read, and a good flow between dialogue and description. The times where there are pages of description it's written in a way that is captivating and explanatory-- it's not pages of nothing that you can just skip. Her dialogue between characters is often witty, hilarious and sarcastic.

The character development is well done, you get a feel for each of the individuals, their stories and how they all connect together. I personally am not a fan of the main female character as I find she's a tad annoying. The redeeming factor is that the two lead male characters are to die for. Anne Bishop has created wonderfully dreamy dark fantasy based male characters that grab at your heart as they struggle through different adventures. As her series grows you get a feel for different characters, although the trilogy focuses on Jenelle, Damon and Lucifer as well as others, more books are introduced where secondary characters become primary ones. At first I was hesitant about this but find that it actually helped built the world and made it more realistic.

Finally, the romance is perfect in this book. A great balance between teasing the reader with more than satiating that want a few chapters down the road.

So I hope you enjoy this series, it's well worth it!