Thank you to Raye Wagner and Kelly St. Clare for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.

I'm a huge fan of Raye Wagner's writing so it's no surprise that I jumped at the chance to read a new book by her. But this time, she's teamed up with Kelly St. Clare, the author of the Tainted Accords series. Having never read anything by Kelly, I wasn't sure what to expect with these two authors working together on a book. But by the end, I was in love with this dynamic duo and am so excited to see what they come up with next!

Plot:
After finishing one of my favorite series ever (the Sphinx quartet by Raye Wagner) I was left wondering just what book she would release next. Whatever it was, I knew it would be nothing short of amazing and I was right! Blood Oath starts off a little slow in maybe the first chapter or two, but picks up not too long after that and doesn't let you go until the very end. There's magic, dragons, rebellions, romance, potatoes, a sassy and hilarious main character- what more could you ask for from a fantasy book?! The plot was interesting, with the land being destroyed by the power of the Drae, a tyrannical king that the people were creating a rebellion to overthrow, and a girl that makes soap thrown into the middle of it all with no idea how she fits in. I loved the twists and turns that happened throughout the story, and there were definitely several of those that I was not expecting. The story as a whole flows so well and keeps you engaged from start to finish. Once you start reading, you won't want to stop until the last page! Blood Oath is a unique and exciting fantasy story that you'll want to experience over and over again.

Characters:
Ryn is the soap/potato queen and I absolutely adore her! She was so sassy and had me absolutely laughing out loud with some of the things that she said throughout this book. I will admit that I was unsure about her character when I first started reading, but it didn't take me long to connect with her and want to know everything about her. She goes through quite a bit throughout this book, to the point where I had no idea how she was able to survive some of the things that happened to her, but her strength was so inspiring to read about and watch develop. Ryn goes from a soap maker who works behind a bar to a very important part of the story (I won't say much else because spoilers!) and watching her transformation was incredible. The authors have created a character that you'll definitely fall in love with and who has a sense of humor that will have you rolling on the floor laughing. Despite this being a fantasy book, Ryn is a very real character, and her struggle with finding out who she really is will probably resonate with many readers. She goes through an incredible amount of torture that does take up quite a bit of the book, but one of the most empowering parts about it is that she gets to confront her abusers and it made me really happy that she was able to do that. It showed such strength on her part and wonderful writing from both Raye and Kelly that they gave Ryn the opportunity to do that. Huge snaps for the two of them.

I also enjoyed the side characters much more than I thought I would! There were so many of them but I never had a hard time keeping up with who was who. The two characters that really stood out to me were King Irdelron and Lord Irrik, the Drae. Irdelron was terrible and abusive, and Irrik was confusing and also a jerk but also sweet and I just really had conflicting feelings about him but I also really liked him at the same time. All of the characters were very well-written and I loved how they all kind of helped move the story forward and helped Ryn's character development. I'm so excited to see what new characters come into play in the sequel because they did such a good job at creating unique and independent characters that I genuinely enjoyed reading bits and pieces about while following Ryn's journey!

Writing:
I'm no stranger to the amazing writing of Raye Wagner, but I'm new to experiencing anything written by Kelly St. Clare. I've had an experience with a co-authored book that made me relatively skeptical of books by two authors, so I was slightly hesitant to read this if I'm being honest. But wow! I was pleasantly proven wrong by these two and found myself devouring every word they put on the page. I couldn't tell where one author ended and the other began! These two authors work so well together and were able to effortlessly create a fantastic world and characters that I couldn't help but fall in love with. This is such an interesting fantasy world that has dragons and magic and how can you not want to read about that?! I loved that the magic was different from any magic system that I've ever read about and I really can't wait to see how it develops more in the sequel. There was just so much awesome world building and beautiful descriptions that added so much to my reading experience and made it go from good to fantastic. There was a pretty large chunk of this book that involved some brutal torture scenes that I was not expecting, and boy were they descriptive. I'm not opposed to blood/gore/torture, but like I said, it was not something I was expecting. But it didn't make me love the story less or anything like that. Rather it added an element that showed me different sides of these authors and I loved that they could write this beautiful fantasy world but also show a darker side to it. I am such a fan of these two authors writing together now and I'm so eager to see where the story goes from here!

If you're looking for an exciting young adult fantasy filled with dragons, a sassy and strong main character, and an amazing writing duo that will have you hooked from page one, then don't miss out on Blood Oath!