Blood of Heirs by Alicia Wanstall-Burke

Blood of Heirs was an amazing read. It’s the kind of book you can easily get consumed with and forget to put down. I would know, I finished it within 10 hours and I could probably spend a fair bit of time raving about it. It has some amazing moments: I laughed, I cheered, I cried, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Blood of Heirs follows two main characters: Ran, the son of a Duke who goes from failed commander to hero to outcast in the space of a day because he accidentally acquired some magical powers. Whoops. The other main character, Lidan, is the daughter and heir to a clan chief. As her father has no sons, she’s in a position where she might be the first ever female clan chief and is constantly pushing to be taught how to be a ranger and how to fight.

Both Ran and Lidan face interesting challenges as they upset the mold for how the heirs of their respective societies should be. Ran’s story is mostly a survival quest and we follow him as he tries to escape the noose that his sorcery has brought upon him. Meanwhile, Lidan faces challenges in her clan. Her mother is determined for her to be the heir, she’s the eldest daughter, but that might all change if one of the chief’s other wives births a son. Lidan must prove that she has what it takes to be the first female leader the clan has ever seen. Both characters are really compelling, and you can’t help but cheer them on.

Another great thing in Blood of Heirs is the worldbuilding. Both MCs are in different parts of the world, with different social structures, and different levels of development. Ran’s duchy is quite advanced: it’s medieval era, with swords, siege weapons, and much more. Meanwhile, Lidan’s clan is the only one to have progressed beyond stone weapons, and even then they’ve only just been discovered and are fairly rare. What I really love about this is that the author shows that different areas of the world have different levels of technological advancement, something which I rarely see in my fantasy novels.

Overall, I really loved Blood of Heirs and am excited for its release so I can make all my friends read it too. The only thing I didn’t like is that having an ARC meant there weren’t many people I could discuss events with. Would highly recommend it to people who enjoy:

• Epic Fantasy
• Dark Fantasy
• Compelling Characters
• Worldbuilding
• Forbidden magic

Blood of Heirs releases on the 27th of October.

If you’ve read and enjoyed Blood of Heirs, I strongly recommend you try out We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson. If you enjoyed one of those two books, I’m fairly sure you’ll enjoy the other too.