Review: The Witch's Blood

The Witch's Blood
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Life as a teenage witch just got harder for Merry when her brother, Leo is captured and taken into an alternative reality by evil witch Ronan. Determined to get him back, Merry needs to use blood magic to outwit her arch-rival and get Leo back. Merry is more powerful than ever now, but she is also more dangerous and within the coven, loyalties are split on her use of the magic. In trying to save Leo, Merry will have to confront evil from her past and present and risk the lives of everyone she’s ever loved. Given the chaos she’s created, just what will she sacrifice to make things right? 

Thank the lord for Leo's POV in the prologue getting me back up to speed with what went down last book because I was completely mind blanking! I was quite excited to see how this trilogy would wrap up, and while the little trip Merry and co takes does justify the historical flashbacks in the first book that where rendered irrelevant in the second...they also didn't quite make sense. 

We travel back to some kind of parallel universe but it was never fully explained mechanics-wise and it seemed like another little thing thrown in to drag the story out. I honestly think that the first book became kind of unnecessary when they changed certain things and certain characters and to be honest I don't think this trilogy actually needed to be a trilogy. I was hoping this final book might pick things back up but it just went even further downhill. 

Jack was back but...well...he's just another thing that has me thinking the first book was completely unnecessary. Finn had an interesting little problem, and I can't even say I'm surprised at what his father wanted him to do, at that point it just seemed like some little drama thrown in to keep things interesting throughout the slow middle section of the book. Ronan is just the worlds biggest creep, and he was practically twirling his moustache and cackling. 

Merry I have to say continued to be frustrating right until the end. Much like the last book she seems to still be riding high on her superiority complex. She never listens or does as she's told and she's quite selfish and arrogant, in that regard, I've found it so hard to like her, when you look at everything that's happened, and know it could have been prevented if she'd just listened it makes you want to shake her. Then she continues to refuse to listen to what anyone says and goes against everything...it would have been interesting if she actually seemed to learn and grew and changed as a character but she doesn't. She's just so frustrating and I was hoping this was the book she grew up a little in but it doesn't even give us that, Merry will forever be one of my least liked characters. 

Honestly, as we neared the end of the book I couldn't help put notice all the standard "series finale tropes" that had been thrown in, and it came across as a bit cheesy and cringey. I felt no real sense of tension or danger and as for what happens with Merry at the end? It just seemed like a hastily thrown together solution to finish the series.

Considering this series started out okay, aside from my issues with Merry, it just kept going downhill and unfortunately this book doesn't quite save it.