Blood Sworn (Ashlords, #2)

Three cultures clash in all out war--against each other and against the gods--in the second book of this fantasy duology that's sure to capture fans of The Hunger Games and An Ember in the Ashes.

The Races are over. War has begun.

Ashlord and Longhand armies battle for control of the Empire as Dividian rebels do their best to survive the crossfire. This is no longer a game. It's life or death.
Adrian, Pippa, and Imelda each came out of the Races with questions about their role in the ongoing feud. The deeper they dig, the clearer it is that the hatred between their peoples has an origin point: the gods.

Their secrets are long-buried, but one disgruntled deity is ready to unveil the truth. Every whisper leads back to the underworld. What are the gods hiding there? As the sands of the Empire shift, these heroes will do everything they can to aim their people at the true enemy. But is it already too late?

Rating:

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Budding, complicated enemies-to-lovers romance.
• All-out war featuring strategies and trickery.
• Gods that giveth and gods that taketh away.
• All the plot twists and turns that you’ll never see coming!
• On-the-edge-of-your-seat action that’ll keep you turning pages.
• One-upmanship and plotting and backstabbing.

Many thanks to Crown Books for Young Readers and TBR and Beyond Tours for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

I whipped through the first book and absolutely could not wait to pick this one up. I knew that’d happen, so I’m kind of glad I waited until I had both to read them together.

Blood Sworn is an absolute roller coaster of emotions, with action and plot twists that’ll have you on the edge of your seat. It’s an all-out war of strategy and one-upmanship with squad vibes, found family, and brutal gods.

The way the first book ended meant this could pick up with a bang, and it carried through with that rush and excitement all the way until the very end. I don’t even have words to tell you how much I absolutely loved this duology! I’m already looking forward to a re-read.

Gone are the young, naive characters from the first book who thought all they had to do was win a race. Ha, as if things would be that easy!

I loved the character growth in the first book, but Imelda, Adrian, and Pippa find themselves in a whole other world in this one. Literally, but also figuratively. During Ashlords, Pippa viewed The Races as almost her birthright, Imelda as a way out of poverty and servitude to the upper classes, and Adrian as a chance to reclaim the honor for his people. In so many ways, these are actually the same perspectives they take about the war, too.

Remember that storm metaphor from the first book? Well, don’t worry, it’s still here, and the storm becomes both literal and figurative at the same time, and our three protagonists are swept up and sometimes overwhelmed by it.

The plot of this book speeds forward at break-neck speed, so it’d be easy to get overwhelmed, but I thought this really highlighted the stress and chaos of war. There was so much urgency in this book, from three different perspectives, each with three different goals, but when the three points of view eventually meet up? Perfection.

The world-building in this book is absolutely *chef’s kiss* and I just can’t get enough of it.

In some ways, it puts the dark in dark fantasy, because this time around, readers get to experience the Underworld and the gods. There are brief mentions of the gods in Ashlords, and I did say I wanted more focus on the world outside the races, and boy does Blood Sworn provide that! This world is dark and unyielding, forged on so many layers of secrets that hardly anyone remembers the truth anymore.

If you were curious about the taste of the gods we get from the first book, you’ll be happy to know that we get to learn about the gods in depth in this book. Or maybe not, because these gods are … not exactly someone I’d want to meet in a dark alley. Or a light alley. Or at all, if I’m honest.

The gods live in the Underworld, and in previous wars, they turned the tide of wars in favor of the Ashlords. So of course it’s expected they’ll do the same in this war. But even gods have secrets and ulterior motives, and war is raging in the Underworld, too.

There are so many moral dilemmas in this book, and I appreciated each and every one of them.

You might know by now that some of my favorite books are ones that make you really think. The theme of this book is really learning to question what you assume to be truths. After all, history is written by the victors, right? I think that’s a sentiment we can relate to because it happens in the real world, sometimes to similarly devastating results.

Our three young protagonists are really forced to question what they assume to be true and right and come into themselves as far as what they want their world to become.

I’m going to admit, I’m not always one for the teens saving the world trope because it feels overblown a lot to me, but in this particular world and setting? It makes perfect sense. These are teens who have been groomed for war, taught how to fight, told not to question anything and do their duty. As you can imagine, the realities of war aren’t as neat and easy as studying strategies on paper, and Imelda, Adrian, and Pippa are forced to come to grips with the realities of their world and what that means for each of them.

There are plot twists galore in this book. So. Many. I squeed more than once because of how perfect some of the reveals were!

The way the world is fleshed out in this is just wonderful. Ashlords provides the readers a limited glimpse of the world, but it sets the stage perfectly for Blood Sworn to come in and sweep you away. Every time I thought I understood An Important Fact™ about this world, it was challenged. I was kept on my toes the entire time, trying to unravel what was real and what was fabricated.

As you might imagine, the gods and even the underworld itself are not as they seem.

There were some pretty heavy hints about this in the first book, and they really come to fruition here. Untangling the truth is anything but easy, though, and gods are hard to topple … right?

Combine all the secrets with the fact that this is war and our point-of-view characters are not only leaders but strategists and it’s easy to see why some of these plot twists might catch a reader by surprise! Even the ones I semi-expected, I didn’t completely predict, and I for one absolutely love not knowing exactly how something will end.

About Scott Reintgen

Scott Reintgen is an author of science fiction and fantasy books. He wrote the Nyxia trilogy, as well as Saving Fable, Escaping Ordinary (Fall 2020), Ashlords and Bloodsworn (2021). He began his career as an English and Creative Writing teacher in North Carolina. He strongly believes that every student who steps into the classroom deserves to see themselves, vibrant and victorious and on the page. It’s his hope to encourage a future full of diverse writers. He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife Katie and his two boys, Henry and Thomas.

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