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Book 1
by Liselle Sambury
Book Reviewed by:A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family's magic. The problem is, she's never been in love - she'll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.
After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn't expect was to fail. When Voya's ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.
Voya is determined to save her family's magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she'll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn't count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?
With mounting pressure from her family, Voya is caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she'll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood is everything.
From the start of this debut novel, Sambury's excellent world-building is apparent. The book blends urban fantasy seamlessly into a sci-fi Toronto of the not-too-distant future — complete with technology like chips that allow people to read text messages as they flash before their eyes — and adds a dash of suspense. The futuristic setting is made even more interesting when combined with the role that family and ancestry play. While the plot makes for an exciting and high-stakes story, the reader is not given a whole lot in the way of plot development during the first half of the book beyond the idea that Voya must kill her first love, along with information dropped about a mysteriously missing witch. This can create the feeling of having to slog through the first two hundred pages. However, at the halfway mark, the story amps up...continued
Full Review
(719 words)
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(Reviewed by Althea Draper).
An exciting addition to young adult fantasy, Liselle Sambury's Blood Like Magic is a thrilling story of a Black teenage girl discovering her magical powers in a genre that has been disproportionately filled with white main characters for a long time. There are now plenty of fantastic young adult books out there where Black girls are no longer relegated to being side characters and are instead able to flourish in their own magical ways.
One of the leaders in this new wave of YA fantasy is Tomi Adeyemi, and it would be remiss to create this list without mentioning her well-loved debut novel, Children of Blood and Bone. Taking inspiration from West African mythology, the book is an action-packed story following Zélie — a maji...
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Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys
With high stakes, big heart, and lots of Black Girl Magic, Blood Like Magic is everything you love about paranormal fantasy. The fast pace, painfully relatable characters, and incredible generational magic system make Blood Like Magic unputdownable. Liselle Sambury left me with a massive book hangover that won't be cured until I get the sequel!
