Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 The Queen of Blood is a fantasy book that is written so beautifully and so naturally that it feels completely matter-of-fact. There's nothing pretentious or mannered about this book, which makes its depictions of magical spirits all the more powerful. 
 The Queen of Blood involves a world in which nature is full of spirits that long to kill and destroy. The relationship between people and spirits is summed up in a child's jump rope chant: 
 Don't trust the fire, for it will burn you. 
 Don't trust the ice, for it will freeze you. 
 Don't trust the water, for it will drown you. 
 Don't trust the air, for it will choke you. 
 Don't trust the earth, for it will bury you. 
 Don't trust the trees, for they will rip you, 
 Rend you, tear you, kill you dead. 
 So basically it's not so much that people live in harmony with the earth as that they live in a terrifyingly fragile -- and often violently broken -- truce, one which they maintain with charms and with the aid of people who can fight the spirits either in combat or by mentally controlling them. 
 Readers who love magical schools will love the academy where Daleina spends most of her childhood. The girls at the academy bond together, and the emphasis on friendship as opposed to rivalry is refreshing. Daleina's roommate is a prickly, ambitious young woman who only Daleina appreciates, and Daleina finds herself with a pet wolf because the book is just that nifty. 
 This book has a romance, but the romance is very understated. The students are eventually placed with Champions, seasoned adult warriors who teach them survival skills. Daleina trains with Ven, the Queen's ex-lover, who is in disgrace for challenging the Queen's decisions. Ven and Daleina are accompanied by a healer, Hamon, who falls in love with Daleina. While Hamon seems deeply devoted to Daleina, her feelings seem a bit more complicated - she clearly does have romantic feelings towards him, but she's also got a shit ton of other things going on in her life. Their romance is not a driving force in the story although it has an enormous amount of potential. Incidentally, Hamon is described as having very dark skin, which is a nice change in a genre that is often populated entirely by white characters. 
 The Queen of Blood, which is the first book in a trilogy, does not end on a cliffhanger, but it will leave the reader eager for the sequel. Book Two is slated for a February 2017 release. Although much of the book involves the main character's life as a teen and a young woman, it seems to be marketed more for adults than as YA. While it doesn't have much romance (nor is it marketed as a romance) I highly recommend it to fans of fantasy. It's a beautiful and at times harrowing book that is overwhelmingly about the lives of women and their relationships to each other. Best of all, it preserves the beauty and terror of fantasy while avoiding many of fantasy's cliches. 
 - Carrie S.