What would you sacrifice for power? For love? Would you give of yourself – your blood, your energy, your soul – for someone else if you loved them enough?
To harness the power of the land, a sacrifice is required. A drop of blood onto the earth brings abundance and growth. A drop of blood into wine or food brings vitality and wellness. A drop of blood is the trade-off to release the magic, tying the giver to the gift, making the circle whole and the magic powerful. To harness the trust and love of another, a sacrifice is required. Sharing hopes and dreams brings familiarity and hope. Sharing fears, nightmares and regrets brings understanding and empathy. Sharing danger brings forth a connection unlike any other. When two people discover their lives are intertwined in more ways than they ever thought possible, unreservedly giving to each other makes their connection whole and their love powerful enough to save them.
So it is with Mab and Will. Mab, who harnesses the magic on the Blood Lands through the sacrifice of her blood; and Will, who is searching for something he knows he needs but cannot name. Mab lives for the magic that flows from the land, through her blood, and back out to those in her care. She is the new Deacon, leader of the Blood Witches, who’ve guarded and used the sacred magic of the Earth for generations. But secrets from the past have been released with the passing of her beloved father-figure, and in order to set the world to right, Mab will have to become more than she ever imagined. Will lives in a fog, his life darkened by the death of a brother and the distance he’s created from the rest of his family. He doesn’t want to stay in the family tradition of honor and service in the Marine Corps, but he also can’t name this new feeling that’s growing within him. When the dark magic that Mab unwittingly released takes over Will, they are drawn together both by necessity but more importantly by a deeper connection, and they discover that they each must make a sacrifice in order to save themselves, each other, and set things back to right.
The Blood Keeper is the second book in Tessa Gratton‘s The Blood Journals series. I have not read the first book, but that did not seem to have hindered my ability to lose myself in the magic-infused world Gratton has created. Mab is a bewitching (pun intended) character whose connection to and appreciation of the source of her personal power is refreshing in an age where so many heroines’ strength and self worth comes from the young man they fall in love with. Like other empowered young women, Mab doesn’t have all the answers and she is full of shortcomings, but she has an inherent belief in herself and her own ability to figure out a way to get through the obstacles, problems, and upheavals in front of her. She trusts herself, her magic, her world, and the gifts those who raised her gave her to help her survive. When she needs to, Mab is willing to give the greatest sacrifice she can for those she loves, staying in control of and true to herself while facing her fears head on. That’s the kind of magic that will keep me turning pages.
- Posted by Cori