Week 33 Review: Blood Like Magic

From Goodreads:

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.

My Review:
Wow, this book was utterly fantastic! I loved everything from the magic to these characters, to this futuristic world! And the plot was so excellent and there were some really hard choices, and it was an amazing read! I loved reading about Voya, with her decision paralysis, and the tough choice in front of her!

One quick thing that I have to mention that I loved, was that this takes place in Toronto! There's not many books that take place in Canada, and now we've gotten 2, what with A Dark and Hollow Star. But this one was always in Canada, so that's fun.

Something that I didn't know before going into this book was that it was futuristic. Sure, there's the genetic matchmaking program, but I didn't know that this takes place in the 2040's or so. I loved the technology, and how it contrasted with Voya's home life, where it's difficult to stay afloat, that the oven needs to be replaced because it keeps turning off mid-cook.

The big drawing point of this book was the fact that Voya had to fall in love, and then kill that person. It's a pretty horrifying concept, and boy, this book doesn't pull any punches, though not in the way that you'd expect. There's the question of how she's going to actually kill this person she's going to fall in love with. And what questions I had, they were answered in a way that I enjoyed so much! 

This book fairly wraps up the plot, as far as I can tell. Maybe there's some lingering threads to that ending, but I have no idea where book 2 is going to go. But I'm excited to see it, because this book fundamentally changed Voya's life, and I can't wait to find out what will happen next! 

I loved this book, and I can't wait to see where this series goes! 

Author: Liselle Sambury 
Series: Blood Like Magic #1
Read: August 16th, 2021
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a DAC Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2021 Book, WoW Book and a WTC Book! 
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry  
Published: July 15th 2021 

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars