Book Review: Blood Will Tell by Samantha Young

Blood Will Tell (Warriors of Ankh, #1)

by Samantha Young

Genre: Paranormal/Mythology

Reading Grade: Young Adult

Publication Date: June 29, 2011

Source: Kindle Store

Age Rating: 17+ (for violence)

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Eden is a Soul Eater. While that hasn’t meant much to her in the past, she’s pretty sure any minute now she’s going to go all "Carrie" on her eleventh grade class. Noah is an Ankh. As an immortal Warrior, his purpose in life is to hunt down and kill Soul Eaters.

Eden is Noah’s next assignment. Problem is… this is an assignment with a difference. Eden’s not your average, run of the mill, Soul Eater. Noah’s job? To test Eden for possible redemption. It’s a risky business. Especially if Noah awakens Eden’s inner monster. It would be kind of hard for Eden to listen to the angel on her shoulder when the devil on the other is telling her, her new best friend is a lying, scheming, immortal enemy...

....betrayal is such a bitch. So is Eden when you get on her bad side. 

My Review

I had been trying to find time to read Blood Will Tell for a while, and finally did. This one was SO fast—it was the perfect antidote for having little time to read. It only disappointed a bit, but I found a potentially new great villain character to *cross-fingers* gobble up (pun intended)...

• Plot: Eden is a soul eater, a type of human-like being that has to eat human souls in order to live. But, she hates the idea of having to kill people just to feed herself and resists the urge to cave into her baser instincts, daily. Her best friend Noah doesn't help much since he's so yummy in more ways than one. But, he's on an assignment from the order of the Ankh—immortal warriors who hunt and kill soul eaters. Eden is a special soul eater, and Noah needs to see if she can be saved from the demonic side of herself before she takes her first soul, or it will be too late.
• Characters: Eden is a grumpy teenager with a very dysfunctional family, and not just because they're all soul eaters. Her father, Ryan, is even a deviant amongst his own kind, being a sadistic, perverted killer/rapist along with Eden's cousin, Teagan, who lives with her. The only bright spot at home is her older brother, Stellan, who never kills any of his victims. He's a really sweet character, always protecting her, especially from Teagan, whom she must marry at age eighteen. Oddly, enough I liked Teagan the best. He has a kind of sass I find really fun in villain characters. Ryan, although right on the same level of perversion as Teagan, just has no personality other than being a d-bag. Noah is a nice guy, tall, handsome and caring, but when Eden discovers who he really is, it causes major mistrust issues. I like that he and Eden had already known each other for six months when the story began. No insta-love, since Noah's hardly a real teenager, anyway. As if!
• Writing: It's good, definitely nothing to worry about. I love how it was written in such a way that you could literally read the entire novel in one sitting, although I didn't do that. But, it's a very fast and engaging read. We also get alternating POV's between Eden and Noah, all done in 3^rd person, and not confusing at all.
• Storytelling: I found myself sucked right into this story, even though Eden isn't that likable of a protagonist. She basically pushes everybody away, perhaps in an effort to protect them from herself, since she grows more and more dangerous to the humans around her. I can forgive her for being a teenager and sympathize with her horrible home life. Her dad and Teagan are a couple of sickos. Ryan has a basement in his mansion and brings all his victims there to rape and torture them before eating their souls. It's unnecessary to do any of these things just to eat souls, but he and Teagan relish in being sick freaks. Ryan likes Teagan so much, he promised he could marry Eden (they're first cousins—gag) when she turns eighteen, and Teagan constantly sexually harasses Eden. She completely loathes him. (Although, I like him because he's sassy!) I feel so bad for her life and the pressure she's under to go through with the soul eater ceremony to become one, officially. She doesn't want to, at all. Noah hopes to get her away from her family to join his because she actually does belong with the Ankh, too. It's very interesting how the whole story plays out, and Eden ranges from being an irritable teenager to an overwhelmed girl struggling with unbearable urges to kill innocent people.
• Overall Quality: Really good. I didn't notice any plot holes or world-building problems. Everything seems to make sense within the world created.
• Favorite Scene/Moment: This wasn't a favorite scene, but one that stuck out to me. Eden finally went down into her father's torture basement and found a girl her age chained to a bed. She had a chance to save her, but instead, ran back upstairs and vomited in her toilet. I just thought that was a sad, weak moment for her, although she redeems herself of this cowardice later on. Eden is made out to be a pretty realistic teenager who isn't perfect, but still manages to do the right thing, in time.
  I'll be reading the next book, if anything, because I want to see more of Teagan and how he plays out as a significant villain character....*hee-hee*
• My Score: 4 stars out of 5. (There is some graphic violence, just so you know!)

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