Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zhao - OPTIONAL

Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zhao, 453 pages.  Delacorte Press (Penguin), 2019. $19. 

Content: Language: PG-13 (44 swears); Mature Content: PG; Violence: R.  

BUYING ADVISORY: HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Ana is the princess to the Cyrilian Empire.  She has the magical affinity of blood which keeps all the magic in the land in balance.  When Ana is framed for killing her father, she has to escape the empire and find the killer.  What she finds along the way is Ramson Quicktongue, a notorious criminal.  Ramson and Ana have to work together to figure out who is behind the overthrow of the Cyrilian Empire and keep the magic in balance.  

So maybe the story idea isn’t a new one, but the characters are easy to love and I got caught up in the action.  The magical elements to the world are easy to understand, but Ana’s blood affinity is gruesome and pushes the book rating to optional.  I loved the banter between Ana and Ransom and their friends who join them along the way add to the fun.  I can’t wait to read more from this series.  The violence is death, blood and gore, murder and torture.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.