Welcome to one of the January 17th stops on the blog tour for The Bloodstone Quadrilogy by Calinda B., specifically part two of the tour for book two, Heart’s Blood. This tour was organized by Audiobookworm Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, audio excerpts, character interviews, guest posts, author and narrator interviews, and reviews! And come back here on January 24th for my review of the third book! (Book One, Book Three, Book Four)
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About the Book
Heart’s Blood
The Bloodstone Quadrilogy Book Two
by Calinda B.
Print/eBook
Published 14 August 2018
Page Count: 205
Audiobook
Published 5 October 2020
Narrated by Alex Black
Length: 7 hours 22 minutes
Genre: Dark Fantasy Romance
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
From New York Times bestselling author Calinda B, author of the #1 Most Wished for Horror Anthology, comes a modern day tale of an ancient Irish myth.
Ballynagaul—an idyllic Irish village, complete with apple-cheeked villagers, sheep, and shadows creeping ever closer…
It has been two years since Lassi Finn came to Ballynagaul to bury her great-aunt and instead dug up a deadly three-hundred-year-old mystery, got adopted by a cat with an attitude problem, and realized that the love of her life was a priest with a little tentacle issue.
Life since then has been good, though the tragic killings that swept through the village left others to carry an almost unbearable burden of grief.
Siobhan Riordan was supposed to be living happily ever after in her dream home with her handsome husband and rambunctious baby boy. Since that awful morning when she found her husband’s mangled body, her fairytale has become a never-ending nightmare.
When people start falling mysteriously ill and an unwelcome visitor arrives in Ballynagaul, no one wants to believe that the fatal cycle could be starting all over again.
While the deepening shadows around Siobhan threaten to steal her sanity and Lassi discovers something that could tear her world apart, time is running out for the people of Ballynagaul, and death awaits them all.
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My Review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Consider “liking” my review on Goodreads.
I was granted complimentary access to the audiobook Bloodstone Quadrilogy box set on Audible by the author, Calinda B, and Audiobookworm Promotions in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity! This has not swayed my opinion. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Story: 4 out of 5 Stars
Narration: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4-4.5 stars
We’re back in Ballynagaul, and while the murder mystery of book one was solved, the town’s people have once again started dying in unusually high numbers. This time they get sick first, are particularly sensitive to certain sounds, and then pass away. What’s causing it? Lassi and Cillian are on the case.
The relationship between Lassi and Cillian is on the rocks for much of this book, which means there’s a lot less sex, and I’m not complaining. This time Lassi had room to actually show some character and try to figure out what’s going on in this town. My vocabulary complaints from book one remain, not a single person in this town says something other than “cuppa” and this 21st licensed OB nurse is now saying “tummy” when referring to her own pregnant uterus, while it was used for her own stomach in the last book. Can the nurse please use correct/adult anatomy terms? With that said, I’m starting to like Lassi a lot more. She’s starting (and I do mean just starting) to be a little less clueless about the paranormal goings-on around her, and she seems a lot more compassionate toward the other people around her this time.
The plot of this one is primarily focused on all the crap poor Siobhan has to deal with. It was her cheating husband who was murdered in book one, it’s her young son who’s the youngest to fall ill this round, and her late husband’s mistress’ sister is new in town. That’s a lot to deal with! I’ve seen other reviews here complaining about how whiny Siobhan is, but wouldn’t you be? While Lassi was whiny in book one, she just wanted to be out of Bally-nowhere and back to Dublin as soon as possible. Siobhan has real problems! I think the way she’s slowly falling apart with grief in this book is beautifully and accurately done.
Once again I mostly realized what was going on long before any of our lead characters did, but was slightly wrong about the paranormal species. I love that about these books! I think I’ve got the mystery solved from early on but so far I’m batting 0 on being completely right.
Alex Black’s narration continues to be perfect and reason alone to listen to the whole set!
About the Author
A New York Times, USA Today and #1 Amazon bestselling, award-winning author, Calinda B writes kick-ass heroines who don’t know their own strength. When she’s not writing, she’s been known to fall off ice cliffs; fire walk with Eastern Europe fire officials; or wake up from a six weeks coma, wondering how she got there in the first place. She’s been stuck in currents at Deception Pass in her kayak, and loves to swim with sharks. She greets every day with gratitude and an openness to what might be around the next corner.
She’s also an EMT serving her local community as a volunteer. Her tagline is, “Let’s go save some lives!”
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About the Narrator
Alex Black is an articulate, engaging, and versatile narrator based in Cambridge, Vermont. He’s worked in theatre, film, audio production, and appeared on radio. As an accomplished audiobook producer with over 90 titles, he’s worked closely with independent authors and publishers.
He’s received more than 500 5 star reviews and specializes in Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic, Mystery & Thriller, LGBTQ+, and Memoirs.
More Great Content
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