Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin

Edit 22/03/2017: So I really loved this book at the time but it has been pointed out today that the romance in it could be taken as a romance between a Jewish girl and a Nazi, whilst I personally didn’t feel like Luka was a Nazi as he seemed to mostly get by in life not taking an interest in anything and is completely unaware of all of the politics, this doesn’t mean he was completely innocent. Here is a thread on twitter: https://twitter.com/Bibliogato/status/844582171637624832. I’m sorry if you went onto read this series/book after reading my review and were hurt by it. I’m a white, non religious person so I wasn’t aware when reading this of possible triggers, which I’m sorry about, I fucked up in not relaying this in my original review.

Thank you to netgalley and Hachette Children’s Group for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gosh this book. I don’t honestly know where to start with my review for this. I was completely blown away. I liked Wolf by Wolf but it just felt like there was something missing stopping me from loving it completely. Then this book happened.

There were so many twists and turns in this book, I had no idea what was going to happen next. Between the discoveries about the Nazi Government now knowing that they’ve been using skin shifters and never knowing who to trust I felt like I couldn’t breathe when I was reading this. I read it so quickly, I could not put it down.

I love Luka so much, I already had a soft spot for him after the first book but then this book showed a whole new side of him, a soft, trusting side. When he learns that the Nazis experimented on kids he goes from being indifferent about the government to being disgusted with them and himself for not knowing this was going on. He shows so much development.

The characterisation was so on point. When characters did stupid things I found myself practically screaming at the page, but it wasn’t stupid stupid, it was believable stupid. They were human and had flaws but they worked in every situation.

I won’t spoil anything I try not to do spoiler reviews unless I really need to talk about something but my God did the end of this book rip up my heart, throw it on the floor and stomp on it. I still get sad thinking about it.

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