Review: To Bleed a Crystal Bloom by Sarah A Parker

Bestselling author Sarah A Parker offers readers an eerie and beautifully illustrated retelling of Rapunzel with To Bleed A Crystal Bloom. Nineteen years ago, Orlaith survived an attack by strange creatures, wild beasts who were not quite feline, nor canine but who knew how to attack humans. (If, indeed that is what Orlaith is.) The same attack killed her family, her mother still in the process of dying when her lover from some years before arrives too late to rescue the family. A deathbed promise is made that Rhordyn, who is not Orlaith's father, will raise the child as his ward. But some promises are easier made than kept, and the years ahead are not easy for Orlaith, who grows up to be a recluse, or Rhordyn, a cool and morally grey character who requires a drop of Orlaith's blood each day for a mysterious ritual. It soon becomes clear there are many strange and mysterious things going on in the castle. But what will happen when Orlaith uncovers the truth about herself ...

If I had to describe this book in as few words as possible it would be page turner. Sarah A Parker has a talent for keeping the reader guessing and wanting to know more. Despite little actually happening in the book, the author finds a way to create plenty of melodrama and angst, and the kind of addictive soap like plot twists that offer readers a good giggle and a dose of escapism. Just wait to see what Orlaith does when Rhordyn goes and gets himself betrothed to someone unsuitable. Or ... when she goes on heat. Literally. I expect more on both topics will be revealed in the next two books of the Crystal Bloom series. The illustrations are a nice touch and add to the eerie atmosphere. I did find that the novel was spoiled in places by a little too much purple prose in some places, while it was a bit too crass in others. Many of the questions raised within the novel are not answered by the end, but presumably this is because the novel is the first in a series. 

 The novel also reminded me a lot of Sarah J Maas' best selling novel and series A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Overall, an eerie and addictive romantic fantasy.

Recommended. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feature and Follow Friday Feature blogger!

Image
Good grief! It's 8am, I've just jumped on the bus, checked my emails and discovered that I'm one of this week's Feature and Follow Friday feature bloggers! So, welcome everyone, and thanks heaps to Parajunkee and Alison Can Read ! This week's question is:  Confess your blogger sins! Is there anything as a newbie blogger that you've done, that as you've gained more experience you were like -- oops? For me, probably being a bit too hard and critical in my reviews than what the author deserved. I used to think that I was failing as a reviewer if I didn't point out at least one thing that was wrong with the book. As I've grown more experienced, I've realised that sometimes that said more about my skills as a reviewer/critic than it did about the authors work. 
Read more

Review: Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

Image
I picked up a copy of the first novel in the Boys of Tommen series assuming that it was set in a university. Turns out that I was wrong. The characters are all in high school, though as per the note in the front, the novel is pitched at readers over the age of eighteen. The setting is quite dark and topics addressed include alcoholism, physical abuse and bullying. The romance, pairing a fifteen year old girl who is small for her age and described as having a childlike appearance with a boy who is physically mature, sexually active, who invades her privacy and is not far from his eighteenth birthday seems questionable.  After suffering through years of bullying at school, some of which put her in hospital, Shannon has transferred to a private school, one so expensive that her mother has to take out a loan to pay all the fees. Things are going well, she has friends at her new school, there are strong anti-bullying rules in place and everything at Tommen College seems well, nicer ... ...
Read more

Review: Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

Image
A sequel of sorts to The Code of the Woosters, Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves finds Bertram Wilberforce Wooster an unwilling (and unwanted) guest at Totleigh Towers with his ever-impressive valet Jeeve's in tow. Bertie's job is simple--to steal an ornament that Sir Watkyn Bassett bought at an unfair price, and return it to the previous owner at the insistence of Sir Watkyn's niece Stiffy, who wants revenge on the family matriarch for the fact that he won't give her fiancé, Rev Harold 'Stinker' Pinker a vicarage. Meanwhile, there are other problems afoot--chiefly in the form of Sir Watkyn's daughter Madeline, who believes that Bertie is still in love with her. She is also busy forcing her own fiancé, Gussie Fink-Nottle, to become a vegetarian against his will, which leads to Gussie falling in love with the new cook--who is none other than Pauline Stoker's younger sister Emerald, who has fallen on hard times. In the hands of many writers, such a shallow, farcical...
Read more