Whenever I’m browsing NetGalley, it’s always the cover that intrigues me enough to read the synopsis. The cover of Blood Heir is absolutely gorgeous, and I was in awe of the design. So then I read the synopsis of the novel, and that sold me instantly. I clicked on ‘request’, and the next day, I had been approved and started reading straight away.

In the Cyrilian Empire, Affinites are reviled. Their varied gifts to control the world around them are unnatural—dangerous. And Anastacya Mikhailov, the crown princess, has a terrifying secret. Her deadly Affinity to blood is her curse and the reason she has lived her life hidden behind palace walls.

When Ana’s father, the emperor, is murdered, her world is shattered. Framed as his killer, Ana must flee the palace to save her life. And to clear her name, she must find her father’s murderer on her own. But the Cyrilia beyond the palace walls is far different from the one she thought she knew. Corruption rules the land, and a greater conspiracy is at work—one that threatens the very balance of her world. And there is only one person corrupt enough to help Ana get to its core: Ramson Quicktongue.

A cunning crime lord of the Cyrilian underworld, Ramson has sinister plans—though he might have met his match in Ana. Because in this story, the princess might be the most dangerous player of all.

Whenever I think of Anastasia, I always think of the beautifully animated film that always had me enraptured. The storyline, the characters, and the amazing scenery had me obsessed. So, when I heard that Blood Heir was a re-telling of Anastasia, let me tell you: my expectations were automatically set high.

 

“But perhaps all monsters were heroes in their own eyes.”

– Amélie Wen Zhao, Blood Heir

 

The first thing that I noticed when I started reading this was that it was a very very loose re-telling. You could tell that there was definite inspiration from Russia with the beautiful descriptions Zhao used to portray the world to the reader.

When it came to the characters that Zhao had created, Ana was someone who I could relate to on such an emotional level, and it made me love her instantly. Her power was somewhat scary, but her journey of understanding it was interesting. We were treated with two points of views in this novel: Ana and Ramson, a con man whose chapters kept me entertained (and sometimes I even preferred them to Ana’s.) There was also a character called May who was a younger character than Ana, and the relationship between them was almost sisterly. It was so precious and I loved May so so much. She was such a fierce, strong character who did everything that she could to help those she loved.

 

“Choices were for those with privilege and power. When you had none, all you could do was survive.”

– Amélie Wen Zhao, Blood Heir

 

The writing was so beautiful, and Blood Heir is definitely going to be a book that I’m going to read again. I read this book as an e-arc, so I know that quite a bit has changed throughout this book, so in the near future, I will give it another read to see what was different, but also to prepare me for the second book: Red Tigress.

Now, as you have probably realised, I gave this book four stars, not five. There were a couple of things that let this book down. The first was the number of clichés that were used. There were quite a few and it just felt… unnecessary. Of course, there are going to be a couple of cliché sentences. It’s very hard to not use them sometimes, but there comes a point where there were just a few too many, and I rolled my eyes a couple of times.

 

“Life is a masquerade. Everyone wears masks.”

– Amélie Wen Zhao, Blood Heir

 

There was also a little bit of an info dump at the beginning of the book. In fantasy novels, it’s so hard to build a world, and show the reader the magic of the world without being info-dumpy. But, it was too much, and I was so tempted to give up. But, I decided to carry on because of the beautiful writing style.

Overall, I think it’s safe to say that this was an amazing fantasy novel, and was so different from other fantasy novels that I’ve read before. I’m interested to give this another read to see what was changed, but I’m also so excited to get my hands on the second book because that ending blew my mind.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

 

 

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