No Books, No Life

Blood of Toma by Lauren Lee Merewether

Toma has known her whole life that when she is older she will be sacrificed so that her village can live in peace for 50 years and the Gods will be satisfied. But after her father, the ruler, is assassinated, she escapes to the jungle. There she finds explorers from Europe. Unbeknownst to Toma, they want all the gold in her city- and more. Will she be able to save her people and overthrow her father's assassin? Or will she fall in love with one of the explorers and let them have all her villages gold?

I loved the Aztec aspects of this story. Before I read this, I honestly didn't know anything about that part of history, or of Mexico's history at all. I feel that this is what made me keep reading, and not want to put the book down constantly.

Now for the parts I didn't like. I hated how it had insti-love. It felt like the second that she met Arrio they were in love. It wasn't just attraction or a crush, it was LOVE. It annoys me to no end when this happens in YA books. I feel that this is a reason that more people don't read YA- they want a realistic relationship that is also healthy. Its very rare to find that and I just wish that more/all YA books would have it.

The plot was well-paced but it was a bit confusing with the changing of perspectives. I had trouble remembering all the names of the characters so I kept on forgetting who the bad guys were and what they said about some things. That being said, I didn't really connect with many of the characters and they seemed one-dimensional. I also didn't like how selfish some of them were and how they didn't think about how the things they were doing might affect other people.

I might recommend this if you want a read with some romance and history. You might enjoy it more than I did if you are okay with insti-love, so go give it a try!

***I received this book from the author via bookblogging.net in exchange for my honest review.***

Thanks for reading!
~Bri