Spells of Blood and Kin by Claire Humphrey

I have to say I wasn't a fan.
The book relied heavily on Russian folklore which I found interesting as I have no background knowledge in it, but I felt that there was very little in terms of plot, character, or relationship development. It seemed very... Clear cut, obvious? Drudgery is the word that comes to mind more than anything. It's a lot of the drudgery tasks that come along with being a witch and a lot of waiting. You could pick any character aside from Maks and Lissa and lift them out of the book without actually having any impact on the book itself.
Rafe seems like a romantic foil that was thrown in to allow Lissa to grow as a person but he just seems too easy and kind of boring. There's a lot of unnecessary plot with him and the church ladies as well.
You could take any plot line out and again, have no impact on the story as a whole. I guess I just expect more from fantasy novels and there isn't really any explanation of what "kin" is. It reads like a Berserker with a Dracula complex.
I was way less than enthused.

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