Over the Summer, I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Instagram that included a copy of Briar Boleyn‘s On Wings of Blood.
I didn’t sign up for this.
A half-fae in a school of highblood vampires? That’s a recipe for torment.
I’m Medra Pendragon—last of the dragon riders, or so they tell me. Funny thing is, there are no dragons left. Not a single one. But somehow, that hasn’t stopped the vampires from deciding I’m worth capturing. Now I’m stuck at Bloodwing Academy, where the highbloods run everything and blightborn like me? We’re just blood in their veins, pawns in their games.
But that’s not even the worst part. Enter Blake Drakharrow. Cold, arrogant, and way too gorgeous for his own good. He’s been tormenting me since the moment we met, and now, thanks to some ancient ritual, we’re betrothed. He acts like he owns me, but I’m not going down without a fight.
Bloodwing isn’t just a school—it’s a battlefield. Highbloods fight for power, and if you’re weak? You’re dead.
Between deadly competitions, lies that could get me executed, and a dragon-shaped secret looming over my head, all I have to do is survive. Easy, right? Except I’m starting to think the real danger isn’t the academy—it’s what I’m becoming in this twisted game of power.
And Blake? He might just be the one who pushes me over the edge.
They think they can control me. They think they can use me.
But they have no idea what they’ve awakened.
As others have said, this is Violet Sorrengail meets Draco Malfoy. The problem is that I never understood the Draco shippers, and I thought Violet was a milqtoast heroine. Medra is worse, so so much worse though.
She literally (lit.er.a.lly) wakes up in a strange new world without her magic (i.e., defenseless) with no more reaction than one would exhibit if they went to the BP when they meant to go to the Quick Trip. There is basically no reaction or adjustment. And once there, she vacillates between obediently following the dictates set before her and behaving like a rabid chichuachua. She is all bark with nothing to back it up, never acknowledging that the only reason she doesn’t get killed is that the immensely more powerful people choose not to. But the reader is supposed to interpret it as some testament to her abilities. It patently is not. What it reads like instead is so mentally unstable as to be suicidal. More importantly, though, is that it is incredibly dull to watch a girl find herself in a new world and then be assigned to a school, only to dive into her academics with essentially no protest beyond a few complaints.
Then there is the ‘romance.’ I understand the concept of a slow-burn. But this is literally (lit.er.a.lly) a no-burn. He and she snipe at one another for a paragraph or two once every 10 chapters or so, and nothing more. This a romance (even an enemies-to-lovers romance) does not make. They spend almost no time together over 500+ pages. And thank goodness, because I hated the MMC. (I barely tolerated the FMC. But I 100% would be rabid if she were any stupider and actually accepted the man, which she no doubt will in future books, which is why I will not be reading them.)
Lastly, and in combination with the frustration of 500+ pages without a romantic payoff, is that the book literally (lit.er.a.lly) ends where it begins. Talk about feeling like a pointless waste of my time. If you want to go to a million magic classes with a gender bent Harry Potter, knock yourself out.
Maybe true fans of YA will appreciate it. And despite hints of having done something meaningful and seemingly adultish before finding herself in vampire-land, this is definitely a bland, dime-a-dozen YA book (which makes the single sex scene feel out of place). I’m glad to be washing my hands of it.
Other Reviews:
shadow. Always overlooked because he is a man, and thus she (as a woman) was relegated to tag-along, assistant, or girlfriend, despite being a complete equal (maybe even the driving force) of their work. This was a perfectly understandable complaint, one I feel was never appropriately addressed between them. But then O’Sullivan wrote a climax in which, despite Cella’s best efforts, Max saves the day. Putting Cella (the main character) smack dab IN HIS SHADOW. I’d detract a whole damned star for this.
