Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Five Thorns Press

Genre: High Fantasy/Romantasy 

Tags: Vampires, Humans, Some Action, Love Story, Spiritual Themes, Political Themes, Not a Standalone Series 

Length: 616 Pages

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon

Blurb:

If they reunite, a magical war could tear the kingdom apart…

Lio is an immortal Hesperine, but he’s out of time. His Craving for Cassia’s blood is killing him, while an ancient spell and deadly politics keep them apart. His dangerous plan could save them both – or leave the Hesperines defenseless against their mortal enemies.

Cassia is the Hesperines’ secret protector in the human court, sabotaging the king’s every move. But her tyrant father will stop at nothing to make war on the immortals, no matter the cost to his subjects. It’s time for her to come out of the shadows, even if it means sacrificing herself.

Steamy romance meets classic fantasy worldbuilding in Blood Grace. Follow fated mates Lio and Cassia through their epic story of forbidden love for a guaranteed series HEA.

New edition featuring a fantasy world map, glossary of lore and characters, enhanced opening chapter, and all-new cover artwork.

Review: 

Lio? Can your mind magery reach across death? If you can hear me, wherever you are, I want you to know. All my final thoughts are for you. You are my Mercy and my Sanctuary.

It’s six months since the Equinox Summit implosion of book #1, Blood Mercy, where an initiate Hesperine ambassador of Orthros, Deukalion Komnena, met Cassia Basilis, the bastard daughter of King Lucis Basileus of Tenebra, and fell in Grace love with her during his diplomatic mission. Cassia stayed in Tenebra after the Summit, even though Lio asked her to come to Orthros with him. She’d  had a fire lit under her after learning things from Lio, talking about what happened to her beloved sister, Solia, and she helped thwart the Cordian mage attack on the Summit. Any relationship at all was completely new to Cassia. She’s always had to guard her heart and her body, before Lio. Cassia leaving with someone, no matter how amazing, was never going to be an easy or pragmatic option for her. 

Blood Solace is a book of three parts. The first part is Lio in Orthros, and it was nice to get to know some more about his family and friends. About his new little sister Zoe and her goats. He reads bedtime stories to Zoe about the Brave Gardener and her exploits. It’s Cassia. She worked in the Prisma’s temple garden in Tenebra before and while knowing Lio. The Brave Gardener has become a hero to Zoe. When Lio left Cassia he didn’t realise what she was to him. There was a lot going on and it was only a season they were together in Tenebra. But it’s six months apart now and he’s known for a while what’s happening to him. He can’t make do on any other blood but Cassia’s if he is to live healthily. Or live at all. No one else is meant for him. Cassia is his Grace. How long he can keep going without her is an unknown. Thankfully his friends know Lio well and they eventually work things out. That’s why he’s been so sick after coming home. He has the Craving associated with being without his Grace. I was SO glad when he confirmed it, also why, to Mak and Lyros, his Trial brothers – one his cousin the other his cousin’s partner. While they worry he’s kept this from them, because he could die, they’re very happy for him.

Mak gave Lio a wry look. “You were in Tenebra for less than a season. You don’t just say, ‘Nice to meet you. By the way, I’ll suffer for all of eternity without the blood in your veins. Spend the rest of time with me?'”

Again, it was good when he told his parents that he had found his Grace and who she was. They’re also relieved because Lio had been passing off his lethargy and ill-health as grief at what happened at his first diplomatic posting. When his father, Apollon, a prior Blood Errant, was ready to go warrior with his son to break his son’s Grace out of Tenebra, I loved him. His father knows what it means to have found Grace in Lio’s mother after fifteen-hundred-years without one. His parents are beautiful people.

Lio misses Cassia with every fibre of his being – spiritual, physical, emotional. However, he doesn’t want Cassia to know anything about the Craving associated with Grace because she is doing substantial and difficult work in Tenebra. It not only helps her people, but aids his. Especially the Hesperine errant who work covertly in human countries, like Tenebra, to help children no one else wants or those who are dying with no one to care for them. Then there are Hesperine who keep tabs on what’s happening within Tenebra and send word back to Orthros. Like Nike, who has been missing for ninety- years. He doesn’t want pressure brought to bear on Cassia if she doesn’t feel what he does. He doesn’t want to guilt her into coming somewhere she may not want to be. It’s life to my soul when women aren’t silly little side pieces to men’s ‘more important’ decisions.

“She spent her whole life being afraid of the king. Now she has finally found the courage to stand against him. I have no right to prevent her from that. That’s like telling her to go back to being silent and obedient.”

Orthros is a remarkable place. The Hesperine are loving with an ‘it takes a village’ mentality in regards to all they do. In a real world full of increasingly egregious, inhumane events, I see Orthros as a veritable utopia. This may change as the series continues, I sincerely hope not, but right now, it’s lovely to see people so connected and so sure diplomacy and empathy can save many. The Hesperine inherently understand that people are built for connection.    

In the second part, Cassia’s spying has brought the new Cordian war mages that have descended upon Solorum to her attention. It was bad enough that Dalos tried to derail the first Summit in four-hundred-years, attempting to kill the Hesperine diplomats at her father’s invitation. Now she has to contend with even more powerful mages visiting her father, including the Dexion of the Aithouran Circle and a Gift Collector. They could do incredible damage to Tenebra and the Hesperine. Cassia overhears that they are going to destroy the remnants of a temple of Hespera that holds fond memories of her and Lio’s time together. Grabbing the glyph stone is a hurried job and she leaves some blood behind as she salvages it. Now the mages believe a heretical Hesperine is at large in Tenebra. The King orders a witch hunt to find this heretic, which, of course, is Cassia, but they don’t know that. However, that places her ever closer to danger.  

“It’s been three days,” said the king. “Have you found the witch?”
“No,” Chrysanthos replied, but he did not sound concerned. In fact, he sounded interested. “I look forward to meeting her, when our search yields results at last. How long has it been since you burned a heretic on the greensward of Solorum, Basileus?”

To throw a spanner in the works, Cassia has been ordered by King Baslieus that she must dance the Autumn Greeting with Free Lord Titus’s son, Flavian of Segetia. The dance is seen as a pre-engagement. The last time a female of King Basileus family was made to dance the Autumn Greeting it was her beloved sister, Lady Solia, the heir to Lucis’s throne. It did not end well for her. Cassia’s heart also lies in Orthros. Not with Flavian. But Tenebra is a patriarchal, misogynist place and it seems King Basileus wants another daughter off his hands. Marriage is the least of her worries based on how he threw Solia to the wolves after the Dance. He cares even less for his bastard daughter. Once news reaches Lio back in Orthros that the Dance has happened, he knows it’s a sign to be proactive. If the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, he’ll be the architect of making sure a Tenebran envoy comes to Orthros. For a new Summit. He’ll also make sure they’ll have to include a member of the royal family. Basileus won’t risk his son, so Cassia will have to come to Orthros. Basileus will accept the beacon and the request so he can attack the Hesperines from within. It costs him nothing. If the mages fail, so be it. If he sends his bastard daughter and some men he cares naught for, well, it’s an inhospitable land full of Hesperine, and when they die, all the easier for him. He can use it as further propaganda in Tenebra.    

The last part of the book is spent with both Cassia and Lio together in Orthros, which sounds like an amazing but freezing cold place. I’m a sun lover all the way. But there is such beauty in Lio’s homeland and Roth is only too happy to show you different parts of it. I’m sure there will be a lot more to come in the next seven-ish books. It was here that we get Cassia and Lio cementing their love. Lio still doesn’t say a thing to Cassia about the Craving. She knows they love one another but she doesn’t know anything about the Craving that goes hand-in-hand with it when you’re Hesperine.

The sex scenes do not dominate the story, I like that, but they are quite lovely so long as you don’t mind quite a bit of blood – Lio’s race is vampiric after all – and different anatomical names for a cock and vagina. They speak a different primary language, even though Vulgus is the universal language, so why wouldn’t they have different names? Sex also includes some levitation. You’re welcome.    

There are plenty of secondary characters in this series. I especially love Knight, Cassia’s loyal leigehound. Her only true family. Dear lord, I held my breath as they were traversing Martyrs’ Pass to Orthros. I liked the outcome though. Fuck you, Basileus, Chrysanthos, and Skleros. I’m also extremely happy with the diversity, the ruling queens of Orthros are a Grace pairing. Lio’s (male) cousin and his trial brother are a Grace couple. Love is love lives among the Hesperine. Women are held in high esteem or revered within Orthros, its long history and culture. In stark contrast, women are chattels in the human lands. Ones who aren’t allowed to hold an opinion on anything. They have no say in regards to their future, who they wed and ‘breed’ with. Her father does not care a whit about the women. And even if there are a few half-decent men, they do nothing to bring forth change. It’s the women who do the right thing, like in Perita’s case.      

Perita stared at the coin pouch. “I don’t understand.”
“This is the money that, by law, Verruc should have paid for his crimes against you. Since he is dead, his lord should have settled it. Tyran’s betrothed took it upon herself to right that wrong.” 

This book has an eighty-seven Kindle page glossary of who’s who and what’s what – Hesperine, Tenebran, Orthros, Tenebra, Cordium, and surrounds. Mages, the spiritual, the historic, the political. The depth and breadth of this series is immense. I’ve only scratched the surface of this book in a lengthy review. As I mentioned in my review of book #1, this is deliberate storytelling, and by that I mean it is slow and methodical with a seemingly long end-game. Could it be quicker? Yes. I wish it was because I’m two books into a series that appears to have around nine books that contain close to 600 (or more) pages per book. I am, however, well and truly hooked on Cassia and Lio. I am enamoured with this incredible world, including the political and the spiritual. I think Vela Roth writes eloquently. It is sumptuous high fantasy. It stands out as unique in a sea or samey romantasy books. It’s also smart writing that softly makes you think. The primary characters are kind, gentle, compassionate. Then there are those, like Cassia’s father, like the Cordian mages – the Gift Collector, the Aithourian Circle – who are obnoxious antagonists. And, of course, there are those who sit somewhere in the middle.

This book just… ends. Having said that, it ends nicely. No cliffhanger but there is more to come. The Aithourian Circle are in Orthros, wolves in sheep’s clothing. That is going to cause some issues at some stage. Also, it’s only a matter of time before someone who has come along as part of the Tenebran embassy to Orthros works out that Cassia and Lio are an item. *Shivers. Doesn’t bare thinking about. At this moment, in my mind, they’re happy and content. You could technically end here if you wanted to. Me? I’ve already bought book #3, Blood Sanctuary: Part One.  I’ll take a week or so break, I have to work and study and read a couple of other books already on my Kindle, and then I’ll dive back into this fabulous world once again. 5 Stars!