I think, more than anything else in this book, I felt connected to Daleina. Here is a girl who, as a child, did something extraordinary (saved her family from a brutal attack by the spirits in her hometown) and who has been told ‘this makes you special’, but who understands she is just not special. She understands that yes she has this power, and through hardwork and effort she is able to learn to control it and bend it to her will, but she is not the one who is the most special of them all. And she’s okay with that, as long as she still has the power to help people.

Power in and of itself doesn’t draw Daleina in, its the ability to use that power to help her people that draws Daleina in. And its hard. Especially after her closest friend leaves the Academy, when people start dying and Daleina is chosen as an Heir by the most difficult guy ever. When she sees the one person who SHOULD be saving them all repeatedly step back and give in. As her friends and mentors die.

The easiest time that Daleina has is when Ven is training her. When they’re traipsing through the trees and he’s pushing her to focus, concentrate, do better. Its coming back and learning hard truths that really make her work. Recognizing that her best is still not the best.

Ven annoyed me at times – he’s quite blind to many of the Queen’s flaws and illogic. Even if we didn’t know what the Queen was up to on the sidelines, she is just so…so compromised. Vain. Ambitious. Glory-hungry. She wants to always be the Miracle Queen and will not let anyone stop her. Ven, who spoke up ONCE and pissed her off ONCE, wants to believe his banishment was part of a larger plan of hers. And it was. Just not the one he thought it was.

Merecot, who leaves early on, but manages to be a thorn in the side of the Queen anyhow, I wanted to know more about. I wanted to know who she was, what she was about. All the power and so little imagination and willingness to understand. She’s a bit of a sociopath (she recognized what she was wrong, but at the same time so what?).

And there’s a romance, of a kind. Daleina manages it as pragmatically as she can. She doesn’t fall into sudden overwhelming lust. She doesn’t let it go to her head. She enjoys herself, enjoys the romance and doesn’t let it get in the way of her larger plans in life. Its not a do or die situation for her.

I’ll warn for one particular kind of death…it made me extremely claustrophobic and while I applaud Durst for making it so REAL feeling, I also want to send her my therapy bill for the nightmares it induced.

As an opening to a new series this worked really well. It gave us such a wonderful idea of the world (the spirits want to kill youuuuu), a heroine who isn’t perfect and doesn’t want to be perfect and a rather staggering body count considering. ( )

Daliena never thought she would be chosen but an attack by spirits brings out her power. The spirits are everywhere and only the power of the Queen keeps them from destroying the queendom. There is always conflict betwen spirits and humans. She is chosen to study to be an Heir, but only her Champion Ven believes in her. ( )

I love GR for its weird (almost supernatural, really) propensity to occasionally rec me these random books/series that turn out to be exactly what I need at the time.

It happened again, with The Queen of Blood. The dramatic title made me a bit skeptical in the beginning, especially since it’s also shelved as YA ( ( )

Tree fantasies make me really happy, thoughtful and intelligent and tough heroines are even better, and the originality of this world really puts this book into another level of fantasy. I have no idea how the massive problems in spirit-human relations can be overcome, but I am very interested to see where Durst takes this story. Fantastic!

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

Well developed world, especially the different spirits and how each students handle them as their training progresses. Not for the faint of heart, but a dandy fantasy read. ( )