I greatly enjoyed reading this one. Not only was the fantasy world written well and different, but the characters had excellent chemistry and the plot flowed to make the reading enjoyable and quick.

The world building is excellent and different. The story alternates in between with Jack and Jasminda’s point of view, but also there are some chapters that tell the background story of how their world was created. I enjoyed these alternating chapters. It provides better structure of the setting, it provides the mythology and a better understanding of the “True Father” and “The Queen who Sleeps”. It’s well written and everything comes together seamlessly.

The plot itself is also excellent. I love the concept of “Silents” and “Songbearers” and both are living side by side but marred by war and prejudice. And did you ever see the hate towards Jasminda throughout the book. You get angry at her treatment but Jasminda bears it and she does it well. The plot is pretty fast paced and it’s feels like a fast read - not to mention the fact that it’s very interesting. There’s a good mix of fantasy, action, and romance. What wasn’t really necessary was the Lizvette part. It made that aspect predictable and it didn’t really mesh well with what was going on with all the other things. It felt like it was placed there for filler reasons (I mean, we all know who Jack was going to go for a this point…)

Now for Jack and Jasminda.

I LOVED both of them together. They had this chemistry going on and you could feel it throughout the novel. It was heart wrenching in various parts of the book and you wanted to reach out to them and MAKE them go together (Jack you deserve some slaps of stupidity for some of the stuff you said). They’re both great characters and Jasminda’s development throughout the novel was excellent. Despite the changes she went through she didn’t lose her sass and her ferocious independence (love how this exasperates Jack by the way lol)

Definitely looking forward to the second book of this series! The ending was great (and I’m sure there’s way more battles to come)

Isle of Blood and Stone is the first book in a new duology by Makiia Lucifer, and the first Historical Fiction book that I've read this year. As a genre that I don't normally dip into, it should be noted that I'm still getting my bearings in books like this. It makes my reading of them take a little more effort than most other things, but I'm enjoying the ride. Which is why the fact that Isle of Blood and Stone is heavier on the history than on the fiction/fantasy side of things made this a bit of a rough read for me. I'm on the fence on this one, and I'll explain why below.

The story drops the reader directly into a day in the life of one Lord Antoni, with little to no explanation of why. It took me a minute to figure out that he was an important mapmaker, and that he was somehow linked to the royal family. Once I'd finally settled in a bit, and the big reveal of the chapter happened, the book suddenly fast forwarded eighteen years. So, to say that I started this book with no footing is pretty accurate. It took me another four or five chapters after that to really settle in, and feel like I had my bearings enough to enjoy the story.

What's great about this book though is that the characters are actually really intriguing, once you get to know them. Reyna, who was studying to be a mapmaker herself and unknowingly sets things in motion, made me pay attention. Once the discovery of the maps that may have been made by Lord Antoni, after his supposed death, came to light I was fully on board. By the time that Elias came fully into the picture, and the quest began in earnest, I was more than ready to follow along to the end.

Unfortunately, this is a really slow building story. I mentioned above that it's heavy on the historical portion of things, and that's definitely an accurate assessment. Action is scarce, and descriptions abound. The reader is taken back to the times of court politics and intrigue, but not in the way that I'm used to in the fantasy books I generally read. It's very heavily described, rather than shown. While the mystery aspect of this was good, it took so long for things to establish, and then longer still for things to pick up, that I found myself wanting to skim forward. I was invested enough to want to know how things turned out though, so that's a good sign.

Did I mention that I was on the fence? On the one hand, the ending ties back into the beginning and brings the characters and the plot full circle. All of my questions were finally answered, and I felt pretty satisfied. On the other hand, it took so long for me to actually settle myself into my surroundings at the beginning that it made things feel really slow. I see the potential here, and I liked the book enough to want to see what happens next. I only hope that the next portion of this story has a bit more action.

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.

Ehh I was just bored while reading this. There is a reason why I went screaming off to read books by Rosamunde Pilcher. I kept hoping that the story would improve, but it did not. I read elsewhere this was originally a self-published book (back in 2015) that was re-published again this year. I don't know why that was, maybe the publishers were hoping to hop on some of the Young Adult fantasy with characters who are POC. But unlike with two books this year that I really enjoyed (The Belles and Children of Blood and Bone) this needed edited. I was initially intrigued by the main character (Jasminda) but I didn't get her or her powers after a while. We have her love interest Jack who just felt underdeveloped. There are two other books in this universe that I have no interest in trying to read.

"Song of Blood and Stone" starts off with Jasminda going to town and finding out that her maternal grandfather is going to offer her a lot of money to not claim her mother or use her name. I remember going huh when reading that whole thing. We start off with a quick exposition dump about this world we are in with Jasminda wondering what she's going to do (she doesn't want to give up her mother, but needs the money to save her family farm) when she comes across a young man who is being hunted by soldiers. Jasminda ignores him at first and heals him with her gift (Earthsong) then runs and hides when the soldiers find him again. Jasminda realizes that the soldiers are going to have to stop at her farm and she does what she can to intervene to help Jack. This eventually leads Jack to realizing that he needs Jasminda's help to use her Earthsong to fight off someone called the True Father (yeah I rolled my eyes too).

I can honestly say that though this book is tagged as Young Adult, it is really New Adult. I thought the age for this novel should definitely be in the late teens and older range. You have sex scenes in this one. There's also a scene where you have to worry that Jack is about to raped by soldiers. Also Jasminda is also almost raped. Reading about her potential rapist's penis made me gag. Jasminda goes through standard romance land trope of being a virgin, but the sex is so powerful and there is no pain. I maybe laughed at that whole thing. 

The writing was okay, I just thought the chapters were really short. I didn't get Jasminda's song at all. I just went with it. Also no fault of the author, but every time I read "Earthsong" I started to think of Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series. 

I thought the flow could be improved since it felt like each chapter ended on something important happening. 

The world-building could be improved. I really didn't understand what was happening or why Jasminda's powers were called Earthsong. I seriously thought there be singing (sorry) or something happening. I mentioned this in one of my updates, I started to compare this book to the "Witch Song" books by Amber Argyle. I mean at least in those books the main character was actually singing. 

I also think that Penelope did not go far enough in her book with showing the differences between the Lagrimari and Elsirans. We know that Jasminda is a young WOC. Jack is a young white male. Jasminda even mentions that Elsirans have reddish hair and pale skin so I was all oh okay, we have a predominately white race and one that is not. I hoped that we would get some discussions about race or something in this book, but everything is glossed over. I assume that the author wanted us to think about race though with the Lagrimari having abilities and the Elsirans not, but honestly, I started to think about "magical negroes" and what that means and cringed inside. 

Having a biracial romance in this world seems like a very big deal (and it definitely is in our world) so I wish there had been some discussions about it. 

The ending just sets things up for the second book in the series called "Whispers of Shadow & Flame."I really didn't even understand what had happened or why and was pretty dumbfounded on how things end up for Jasminda and Jack. 

I think I am going to start another book. This one is not drawing me in. Probably due to the world building aspect. I am getting too much information thrown my way to start off with. I don't really get the whole Earthsong thing (sorry this book is making me think of the Witchsong books I read).

Jasminda and Jack do interest me, but not enough to read this book in one sitting. Apparently this is a re-release, this series was published years ago.