Book Review: The Blood Keeper

Title:  The Blood Keeper
Author:  Tessa Gratton
Where I got it:  From NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Amazon Summary:
Paranormal romance fans who are looking to up the ante will be drawn to this tale of horror, fantasy, and romance. For Mab Prowd, the practice of blood magic is as natural as breathing. It's all she's ever known. Growing up on an isolated farm in Kansas with other practitioners may have kept her from making friends her own age, but it has also given her a sense of purpose—she's connected to the land and protective of the magic. And she is able to practice it proudly and happily out in the open with only the crows as her companions. Mab will do anything to keep the ancient practice alive and guard its secrets. But one morning while she is working out a particularly tricky spell she encounters Will, a local boy who is trying to exorcise some mundane personal demons. He experiences Mab's magic in a way his mind cannot comprehend and is all too happy to end their chance meeting. But secrets that were kept from Mab by the earlier generations of blood magicians have come home to roost. And she and Will are drawn back together, time again by this dangerous force looking to break free from the earth and reclaim its own dark power.

My Thoughts:
I was so stinkin’ confused when I started The Blood Keeper!  I don’t know why, but I was completely expecting the story to pick up with Nick and Silla from the first book, and it completely veered.  Despite my initial confusion, I totally enjoyed the book, for me it was honestly better than Blood Magic.

The Blood Keeper picks up a completely new thread between Mab and Will.  Mab has recently become the Deacon of the blood lands, responsible for the entire extended “blood family” and inadvertently transferred a curse from the land to Will.

Told in alternating perspectives between Will, Mab, and history, this story takes the concept of blood magic established in Blood Magic and gives it an amazing depth to keep readers guessing and intrigued.