Review: Half Blood: The Tale of Samara

Hi, welcome back. Thanks for joining me on my little corner of the internet. Today I am drinking a lovely cup of Early Gray, with a dash of honey. While we talk about Half Blood: The Tale of Samara by Alyssa Green.

eARC kindly provided by NetGalley and the Publisher. Half Blood: The Tale of Samara follows the life of Samara, who is of half Neathery and half Arynites. The Arynites end up being almost completely annihilated by the Neathery and the rogue Iron Shroud Knights. Samara ends up escaping the destruction of the last village of Arynites and lives most of her life thinking she is one of the last few of her kind and constantly living in fear that the Guild Commander Charles Dunnberg will find her and kill her too. While all of this is happening she is plotting revenge of her families deaths and working to become strong enough to kill Dunnberg.

I enjoyed this story, it was quick paced but had a whole host of loveable characters. I hope this is a continuing series because I did not get near enough time with Denali, the giant wolf companion of Samara. There were several time jumps where you just have to assume what happens or you get a brief overview of what Samara is doing for those 7-15 years. Like training with another rogue knight/bounty hunter. It feels like most of the middle of the book was setting up for her return to the village where she grew up under William’s care.

For a debut novel the writing was great and the story was well put together. My only compliant was it wasn’t long enough, I would’ve like to have more detail of Samara’s time way from Norwich. I also thought the descent into a relationship between Henry and Samara was rushed, and those both all come down to the length of the book. At only 188 pages, the story was well done. I just wanted more because I want to see where this world is going and what Alyssa can make of it. As of right now I am not sure if this is a series or just a stand alone novel. But I am hoping for more!

This marks the completion of my second book for NetGalley November! Till next time my dudes.

Kaitlyn