In Case YOu Missed It - Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

 

Published: July 2012, May 2011

Publisher: Bluefire

Pages: 408

Copy: Library

Summary: Goodreads

For Nick Pardee and Silla Kennicot, the cemetery is the center of everything.

Nick is a city boy angry at being forced to move back to the nowhere town of Yaleylah, Missouri where he grew up. He can’t help remembering his mom and the blood magic she practiced – memories he’s tried for five years to escape. Silla, though, doesn’t want to forget; her parents’ apparent murder-suicide left her numb and needing answers. When a book of magic spells in her dad’s handwriting appears on her doorstep, she sees her chance to unravel the mystery of their deaths.

Together they plunge into the world of dark magic, but when a hundred-year-old blood witch comes hunting for the bones of Silla’s parents and the spell book, Nick and Silla will have to let go of everything they believe about who they are, the nature of life and death, and the deadly secrets that hide in blood.

Blood Magic was an interesting read.  It took me a little while to get through, but really that was more circumstance than lack of enjoyment.  The story is -of course - about blood magic and how the discovery of it affects Silla and her brother Reese after the death of their parents.

Silla was a slightly different character, who tries to hide her true feelings behind masks.  I was a little confused about these masks, because at first they appear to be real, but in fact they are masks of her imagination.  Thankfully, towards the end of the book we find out where these masks fit into the picture - confusion gone! No love triangle in this one, but there is a romance and the hunk in question is Nick who, it turns out, is aware of the magic.  His connection with Silla is powerful and effective, and I loved the way he was always there for her.

Oh, and there is lots of blood, and magic - some interesting story development with that one. There are interesting diary entries from an older witch that help to bring the story to an exciting conclusion.  But not a final one.  Book 2 of the trilogy(?) came out in August 2012, so you may have missed it too, like I did.  I am positive that the reason I missed catching this one first time around was the cover.  The original cover was very blah and did nothing to excite me, but when I saw this new version, for the paperback, I loved it and picked it up immediately.  It is much more indicative of what the story is actually about.  Try it out for yourself.

I also found out there is a third book Crow Memory, which is tagged as The Blood Journals 1.5, I might have to find that one too. I can't find a title for a third (fourth) book so if you know of one, tellus about it.