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Title: Blood Heir
Author: Amelie Wen Zhao
Sub-genre: Fantasy
If you’re on book Twitter at all, you might recall hearing about some controversy in regards to Blood Heir. That’s because before the book was actually published, several readers who received ARCs pointed out some issues with how dark-skinned characters were treated in the story. Amelie and her publishers pulled the book, she made revisions, and the new version was published. Now, I did not read the original version of this story so I can’t comment on the changes, only what I read.
Marketed as an Anastasia retelling, Blood Heir focuses on two main characters, Ana and Ransom. Ana is the former crowned princess, but was sentenced to death for killing her father. A loyal guard helped her escape, and now Ana is on a mission to capture her father’s real killer and clear her name. Ransom is a con man. He and Ana team up out of dire necessity, and quickly come to rely on one another. Ransom is out for revenge against his old boss, the biggest crime lord in the country. Add to all of this, Ana and many others are Affinites–people who can control various things. Ana is the most unique Affinite because she can control blood, meaning she can use a person’s blood to track them, control them, and even kill them. Affinites are basically all indentured servants and so Ana has always kept her powers hidden, but throughout her quest to clear her name, she finds herself having to use her powers, and learn how to control them.
I had some mixed feelings about this book. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I’m a big fan of retellings, but I didn’t get enough Anastasia vibes for this one to feel like an actual retelling. It mostly felt like a fantasy story with somewhat Russian-esque names. The Affinite angle was kind of interesting, but not unique enough to feel new or different. This is definitely not the first book to take the those with powers are weird and different angle, and I didn’t feel it really brought anything new to the table. The writing was solid, I liked most of the world-building, but I didn’t feel like this book was new or ground-breaking or really bringing anything to the table we haven’t seen before.
Overall Rating: 4 stars
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