Blue de la Cour is a simple farmgirl and alchemist who helps her father in his alchemy shop. She has plans to help the homeless of her native land of Balavata and to expose a number of injustices in her native homeland. Yet, she must be careful. Blue has magic in her veins and a wraith who brought ruin and despair to Balavata sixteen years ago has caused the kingdom to outlaw magic. And it might be hard to hide it because Blue’s best friend is the princess.
The set of four Ravenspire novels by C. J. Redwine follow a similar theme—retell a traditional fairy tale as a high fantasy / adventure novel. The author has pulled this off spectacularly with The Shadow Witch, The Wish Granter, and The Traitor Prince, the first three books in the series. With The Blood Spell, Redwine tackles the most oft-retold tale of them all—Cinderella.
Don’t expect to see any transformed pumpkins or invitations to the ball in the first hundred pages of this book. Instead, you’ll find a prince who’s having troubles adjusting to the logistics of government, a girl who knows which plants to harvest by sensing it through her blood, a missing girl who one of the characters is desperately worried about, and a wraith who wails from her prison, screaming to be free.
The reader will get the Cinderella beats later, and when they come, they don’t disappoint. Yet, this novel is more interested in telling a fascinating tale of legacy and forbidden love. Similar to Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, Blue is not only an abused girl who wishes to go to the ball to meet the prince. She is a self-determined teenager with a huge heart and a greater sense of purpose. The climax has little to do with balls and missing slippers—though both are present—and more to do with the fate of the royal family and a kingdom.
While The Blood Spell isn’t especially gritty and dark, it has a few gruesome passages and nasty villains—staples in Redwine’s work in Ravenspire. The evil stepmother in this tale takes the prize for being the most evil of at least three Cinderella retellings that come to mind. This isn’t the world of talking mice, but a more mature and politically motivated world.
The Blood Spell does its sibling novels in the series proud with the same level of tension and excitement. References to the other books are sprinkled in a few pages, but not in an overwhelming Marvel-Cinematic-Universe sort of way. In fact, this reader would enjoy a chapter on the author’s website of the characters from all the books meeting and interacting more. But this is Blue’s story, and she gets the main spotlight as is proper.
The climax is satisfying as most of the characters the reader is rooting for overcome their situation. Only one character seems shortchanged, but the ending and epilog are rewarding. It leaves one with a longing for a fifth book though that doesn’t seem forthcoming.
A worthy fantasy as well as a fairytale retelling, the Blood Spell should delight everyone who loves this genre. Clever, suspenseful, romantic, and fast-paced, this is a novel which would make Cinderella proud!