💬: "I’m a cadet. I’m nowhere close to his rank. I’m also so much more than that and good ol’ boy Radson decided to fuck with me on the right day. I smile at Radson while motioning him forward. Feeling the severe strain of my cheek muscles, I know I appear a little psycho."

Davenport, N. E.. The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology Book 1) (p. 9). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: fantasy, sci-fi, romance, adult, 

📚Page Count: 453

🎧Audiobook Length: 18h 20min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5/5 
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The Blood Trials by N. E. Davenport is a sci fi/fantasy ADULT story about a Black woman 
who lives in a racist and misogynistic society who finds out her grandfather was murdered when she previously thought he died of natural causes. Ikenna is spending her last night as a cadet with friends when she privately gets the news, she instantly decides that she wants revenge. Joining The Praetorian Trials means that Ikenna can get close to the people who might have had a hand in her grandfathers death, so that's what she decides to do. She's sure that she cans survive the challenges, because she was trained by the best (her grandfather) and she has a secret blood gift to help her. Will Ikenna be able to survive the challenges while also figuring out who killed her grandfather? 

There were plenty of things I really liked about this book. I love how the main character made impulsive decisions, now these decisions weren't always the best ones but I felt as if the character's personality really shined through and it was consistent. I liked how Ikenna often remembered her grandfather and how she would think about what advice he might give her. The action scenes were really well described in this book. And although some of the twists in the story were predictable, the story was written well so it was still interesting when revealed. 

There was only one thing that I didn't like. I couldn't understand why the challenges were so hard, there were characters dying left and right and it felt like the Praetorians reasoning for the challenges being so hard didn't make sense. If no one survives your challenge then who actually wins? Literally no one, because the Praetorians wouldn't gain any new soldiers. There were so many people dying that it no longer became a shock when someone died, and it was no longer impactful. It ruined the immersion for me. Thankfully the story was written well so I was able to re-immerse myself back into the story a few chapters later.

There was one spicy scene, it was written well but I'm uninterested in spicy scenes between young adults. I'm giving the spicy scene a one chili 🌶️ out of five chilies.

Overall, this book was really good. There was so much I enjoyed and very little I disliked. The theme of this book is "revenge" and it really reminds me of "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao and I gave that book a 5. This book definitely deserves a 5 as well. I'm giving this 5 out of 5 stars. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5/5  Stars

I listened to this for free on the library app [HooplaDigital.com]