{"id":6663,"date":"2026-06-25T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6663"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:05:00","slug":"bloodguard-by-cecy-robson-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6663","title":{"rendered":"Bloodguard by Cecy Robson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloodguard<\/strong> by Cecy Robson<\/a>
on October 22, 2024
Genres:<\/strong> Fiction \/ Fantasy \/ General<\/a>, Fiction \/ Fantasy \/ Romance<\/a>, Fiction \/ Romance \/ Fantasy<\/a>
Pages:<\/strong> 512
Format:<\/strong> Hardcover<\/a>
Buy on Amazon<\/a>
Goodreads<\/a> <\/p>\n

One hundred years. Tens of thousands of gladiators. And today, only one will rise\u2026
\nEverything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie.
\nLeith of Grey thought coming to this new land and volunteering to fight in the gladiator arena\u2014vicious, bloodthirsty tournaments where only the strongest survive\u2014would earn him enough gold to save his dying sister. He thought there was nothing left to lose.
\nHe was wrong\u2014and they took everything. His hope. His freedom. His very humanity.
\nAll Leith has left is his battle-scarred body, fueled by rage and hardened from years of fighting for the right to live another day.
\nThen Leith meets Maeve, an elven royal who is everything he despises. Everything he should hate. Until the alluring princess offers him the one thing he needs most: a chance to win the coveted title of Bloodguard\u2014and his freedom.
\nBut in a kingdom built on secrets and lies, hope doesn\u2019t come cheap.
\nNor will his ultimate revenge\u2026<\/p>\n

I really like gladiator stories, so I was really drawn in by the premise of Bloodguard. However, most of the book isn\u2019t actually gladiator fights, it\u2019s political drama. Normally, I get excited when a fantasy book veers into a more political storyline. It didn\u2019t work for me with this book though because the initial premise of the story was the only pillar holding the book up. The world building, themes and characters are all so shallow. This world was clearly created hastily, and the politics are a copy and paste of every other YA fantasy to have come out in the last decade. The characters are also walking, talking nobodies, with the same personalities and motivations of every other YA protagonist you\u2019ve read before.<\/p>\n

But by far the worst part of this book for me was the way that the author\u2019s writing style and humor clashed with the book\u2019s tense and serious moments. There are admittedly some really exciting battle scenes in this book, with high stakes and intense gore. The problem is that these scenes are all narrated by our insufferable main characters who speak like it\u2019s 2012 and they work at Buzzfeed. A character will be in the middle of being brutally mutilated and stop to say \u201cWow, you really put the dick in dictator\u201d or \u201cReceived 20 lashes and found out my whole family is dead. Yup, this is definitely winning shittiest day award.\u201d It\u2019s so incongruent to the tone and themes of the story. Maybe if the quips were funny I could ignore how out of place they are, but they didn\u2019t even make me laugh. Normally I just cringed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the author\u2019s first language isn\u2019t English. That being said, none of my issues were with grammar or diction, they were with creative choices.
\nThis book does have some highlights, I won\u2019t deny that. The end battle had me on the edge of my seat. But I just couldn\u2019t get past the narrative voice. Decent premise weighed down by crummy writing. I had to rate this one at 3.5 stars.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The post Bloodguard by Cecy Robson<\/a> appeared first on Book Nook Buzz<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodguard by Cecy Robson on October 22, 2024 Genres: Fiction \/ Fantasy \/ General, Fiction \/ Fantasy \/ Romance, Fiction \/ Romance \/ Fantasy Pages: 512 Format: Hardcover Buy on Amazon Goodreads One hundred years. Tens of thousands of gladiators. And today, only one will rise\u2026 Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}