Gone were the days of hearty meals and opportunities to heal and rest. And gone were the cheers for besting a competitor without a death blow. Decrepit and filthy conditions claim most of us now. The arena claims the rest.

Bloodguard by Cecy Robson

My Review

To hear the stories, they waited decades for the mythical bird to rise again after claiming victory over Arrow’s enemies and dying in the final battle. But it never did.

(Sooo… This review was meant to come out two days ago, on Thursday, but there was a family emergency. And I already had stuff going on yesterday that ended up taking much longer than planned. So yeah, this is a bit late. Sorry.)

(Anyway…)

Bloodguard had been on my radar for a long time. Since, like, a year and a half, I think? I originally saw the premise and the gorgeous sprayed edges sometime last year, and both really caught my eye. So I preordered it. Then the release got delayed.

And then the release got delayed again.

And then the release got delayed a third time.

So yeah, I kind of forgot about this book until Amazon reminded me earlier this month: “By the way, you have a preorder being delivered later this month.” And I was like: “Whoa, oh yeah.” – and – “They didn’t delay it again? Cool.” Which is why it wasn’t on my anticipated new books list for October, November and December 2024.

But because of all this, the hype for this book had kinda died down for me anyway, so I wasn’t as super excited to read it as I usually am for books I decide to read. Especially since it took so long to come out and didn’t have the benefit of being a sequel or whatever. So my expectations were already a bit lower than normal, but I still had decently high hopes for Bloodguard. Did it deliver?

Not really.

“Then tell me what you want,” I say with deadly calm.

She bites her bottom lip. Does she want me to tear this place apart? “Just tell me.”

“I want the throne, Leith. Do this, and I’ll become queen.” Her bright eyes challenge me. “You want revenge? You want to bring the arena down…be my king.”

Even though my anticipation for this new release was a bit lacking, I still wanted to like this book. But that didn’t really end up happening – I found the book mid at best.

I also wasn’t into Leith or Maeve – the main characters – and I also didn’t care about their romance. (And that’s never a good sign, lol.) Like, I found their instant attraction to each other to be extremely annoying. And a lot of their POVs consisted of them ruminating about how into one another they were, even when they didn’t know each other that well yet. It was irritating. Also, some of their inner monologues, as well as some dialogue with other characters, was cringe. Or worse. Like this:

Thank the phoenix that Maeve’s breasts are there to catch me when I fall forward.

Ugh. Just. Something about this sentence (and others) makes me hate it for whatever reason. It’s just. Bleh.

The book also got way darker than I had expected at a certain point and something happens that I wasn’t into at all. Click/Tap the tab at the very, very bottom of the review labeled ❗Spoiler-y Thoughts Section❗ if you don’t care about spoilers and want to see my rant about this novel. (I had trouble with the accordion show/hide thing – it kept hiding the rest of the text in this review, which is why it’s at the very bottom.)

However, I did enjoy some of the connections and interactions between characters. I loved the familial and found familial bonds that appeared throughout the book (which is why I felt so strongly about the stuff in my rant). Platonic relationships have always been just as interesting as romantic relationships to me, if not more so.

I catch Caelen’s smirk. “Something funny, elf?” I ask over the pounding melody of hooves.

He grins, an expression I’ve rarely seen on this soldier. “No. But it would have been if your horse hadn’t kept your ass in that saddle, gladiator,”

“It’s too late in the game to develop a personality,” I retort, forcing my features to still when Star skids along a sharp curve and all but kills us both.

Bloodguard was, admittedly, also generally well written, particularly compared to a few books I’ve read recently. (I’m looking at you The Girl With No Reflection. Grrr!) I did find the first quarter or so of the book to be slow, however. Which I did not enjoy.

I also didn’t completely despise the ending – and at the very least found it far more tolerable than the abominable section of the novel that consisted of the 50% mark to around the 80% mark. Good God did I hate that part of the book. I legitimately was this close to DNF-ing it. But yeah, back to my original point, the ending was fine – it was even a little bit satisfying, honestly.

But it wasn’t satisfying enough for me to overlook the parts of this book that I didn’t enjoy, so it gets a two and a half star rating. (Because I have read worse books.) I’m not gonna continue with this series, though. I’m done with Old Erth.

“I love you, Father.”

Sadness clouds his tired eyes, ringing the orbits with deep shadows. “And I will always love you, my dear, dear daughter.”

Since I didn’t really enjoy Bloodguard I’m finding it a bit difficult to recommend. But I guess people that enjoy insta-love and its assorted tropes, as well as generic fantasy romance and brutality and gladiator stuff (and those assorted tropes), then you’ll probably enjoy this book more than I did. My biggest problems with this novel likely stem from the fact that it wasn’t for me.

Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

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