Due to the fact this novel has been pulled from publication, it would not be fair to read and review at this time. Thank you for the opportunity and I wish the author and the book luck for the future.

Hello, I will not be reading and reviewing this book at this time since it's getting pulled. But I'm VERY MUCH looking forward to reading it when it's updated! :)

4.5 stars and I'm so excited for people to read this. I'm not saying it's as good as Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse series but if you're experiencing a Shadow and Bone withdrawal, Blood Heir might bring back some of the vibes with the tone and story.

THE GOOD
1) Hard to believe this is Amélie Wen Zhao's debut work. Her writing is strong, her world building is painstakingly detailed, and her characters are logically-minded for a change. I was coming straight from a several-month book slump but from the moment I started reading, I read and absorbed every single word and every single vibrant description.

2) The characters are practical and thank heavens for practical young adult characters, amen?

When Ana sees Ransom for the very first time after he's been locked in prison in his own filth, she doesn't make note of his chiseled jaw or straight teeth or manly height or whatever ridiculously unrealistic nonsense occurs to set the stage for the romance. Her narration makes note of the dried vomit on his chin, his greasy hair, and how foul his breath smelled when it hit her face.

Ransom, similarly, behaves like the self-centered conman that he is. When he and Ana wash up on the shores of a river after a near brush with death, he doesn't look at how her wet dress clings to the shape of her hips or how her nipples are puckering through. He turns, sees she's still alive, thinks about how she's going to die from hypothermia, and then literally escapes into the forest to take care of himself.

A cough behind him made him spin around, dagger in hand. He felt a faint twinge of surprise as he caught sight of the Affinite struggling up the bank like a dying animal. She was on her hands and knees, her head drooping, her dark locks plastered to her face and dripping water. She would not stand again. Not without his help. Ramson turned away.


And Ana does the exact same thing to Ransom. Love, love, love when a set of young adult characters are able to think rationally and not lose their minds to romance when the whole kingdom is at stake.

Her mind was a maelstrom of thoughts—but when she tried to reach for them, she couldn’t find anything to say. But Kerlan was laughing, the marble Affinite was lifting another pillar, the Palace guards were almost upon them...She had a choice to make, and that choice was not Ramson.


BOY, BYE.

3) I'm absolutely here for that slow-burn romance. So sweet. Such a tease into book two.

He cocked his head, a playful smirk curving his lips. “Noblewoman. You speak a noblewoman’s Cyrilian, with that singsong lilt and fully rounded vowels.” He narrowed his eyes, tapping a finger on his chin, thinking. “You’re incredibly educated; sometimes I feel like you’ve memorized an entire library. And you act like you own me, giving me orders and your little airs and empty threats—”

“They are not empty.”

“The way you raise your chin when you regard something with disdain. I am often on the receiving end of that look.” Ramson was smiling now, and something in his eyes made her feel breathless and light-headed at the same time. “When you’re scared, you lift your head and throw your shoulders back, like you’re telling yourself to be brave. When you’re thinking hard, your eyebrows crease, just a little, right there. And sometimes, when you think no one’s watching, you have a faraway, almost sad, look in your eyes.” His smile had vanished, and the warm spark in his eyes was suddenly ablaze—a roaring fire, threatening to consume her. To destroy her. “When you walk into a room, you have the grace and gravitas of an empress, and I swear, even the Deities must pause to look at you.”


4) Strong, compelling themes of diversity without shoving formulaic diversity & inclusion down our throats.

5) A very well drawn out parallel to the concept of human tracking. Who says fantasy can't get all up in your face.

6) Anastacya is actually what I want to name my daughter someday, albeit with that pronunciation but not with that spelling.

THE BAD
1) That pacing got a bit funky. This isn't to say that the plot ever dragged but there definitely a few parts with the "flasbacks" or cuts to Ransom's memories with his father and with Jonah that completely messed with the momentum of the story. Like, right when we're at a standoff with the Big Bads...we take a break and spend several pages explaining the history between Ransom and the Big Bad.

Part of the problem might have been too much happening. The prison exposition, the traipsing to various cities, the human trafficking storylines, palace infiltrations, more palace infiltrations...by the 80ish% I thought we were done until I realized we were climbing our way up another climactic ending.

2) We're setting up secondary characters in this book like Linn and Hometown Bro and Kapitan Whats-It to feature more prominently in book two...and while we attempt to be subtle at it, we're not quite completely smooth with that. Seemed a bit obvious what we're about there.

3) I can't speak to the fantasy Russian setting here...but I tend to be wary when an author tries to base a story off a culture that he or she was not brought up in. Amélie Wen Zhao was born in Paris, raised in Beijing at an American International School -- didn't see anything in that author's note about being well-versed in Russian culture/language and I've seen a few reviews already that point out the mishaps with that. So while I can't speak to the accuracy of the Russian influence, I can defintely speak to how #salty I still am over Renee Ahdieh's pitiful attempt to capture Japanese culture in Flame in the Mist. (Mmm...still hate that book...)

4) Not entirely sure I'm a fan of where I feel the trilogy is going. Getting Divergent and Glass Sword and Legend vibes...and I'm not into the whole young adult rebellion/dystopian thing.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This book was unexpectedly good and semi-maturely written for a young adult audience. It touches on a few standard, cliche scenes here and there ("Ooh, I'm trying to sneak into a grand royal ball and whoopsies, I don't have an invitation!") but I'm impressed with how well the author manages to avoid duplicating whole tropes at a time, particularly because storylines like this have been done again and again.

A strong female character, a fantasy Anastasia retelling, [attempts at] fantasy Russian settings, special powers, a convincing slow-burn romance = good times.

High-five to Netgalley for the ARC.

Since the book was pulled from publication I decided not to review it. I want to respect the authors decision and sincerely hope I get to review a revised version in the future.

I wasn't able to read this book since the author pulled it out of publishing. I was super excited to read this book and now I'm angry that I wont be able to because the amount of hate the author was given. I do hope you don't lower any ones ratio feedback due to this because us reviewers arent able to read it when it's unexpectedly pulled from publishing and achieved. It makes me very angry.

Due to Blood Heir being pulled out of publication for rewriting and editing because of problematic issues that have arisen in the past few days, I will not be reviewing the book at the moment. Like many others, I don't feel it's fair for me as a reviewer to be critiquing a book based on issues that have been brought to light already. I look forward to reading and reviewing the updated version for the book in the future and would be honored to do so. Wishing everyone involved the best as they work on the new version!

I don't feel that Amelie deserves one star on this because I did not read the book. That isn't fair, especially when she is addressing the issues as she has been asked. Like others, I am declining to review until the revision is made so that I may provide honest and accurate feedback.

Star rating is not accurate as I was unable to read the book. Due to the recent controversy and subsequent pulling of this book by the author, I will not be reading/reviewing this book. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book and I am sorry I will be unable to read it. I do hope the author will be able to edit and publish this book at a later date.

Like many others, I will not be reviewing this title until it actually gets published, if that happens. I should hope it undergoes major revisions with a new team before then.

As this book has been pulled from release, I am unable to download or submit a review for this title. If the book becomes available again, I hope to have the opportunity to review it!

Given that this book has been pulled from publication, I'm declining to review it. I defer to others who have critiqued it more eloquently than me.

I hope that if the author chooses to revise, she will also focus on addressing instances of similar lines taken from other books.

I am sadden to hear about all the things going on about this title and the publicashing not going forward anymore so therefor I will not be reading/reviewing it. I am sorry for the inconvince and I do hope the author will rewrite the parts that may have hurt people and think again about publishing the book on a later date.

I just got the news that this book was was pulled from publication for now. Because of that, I don't feel comfortable reading this ARC. I don't want to be "looking for issues" when I read it and get a misguided judgment on what this book will be in the future. I'm still very interested in reading it, I just don't want to do it while the author is clearly uncomfortable with how it is portrayed at the moment. I wish all the best to Amélie and the publishers, and I'll anxiously wait for news on a new publishing date.

You all obviously know about everything surrounding this book on twitter. I think it was really brave of Amelie and the pub house for pulling it to revise it! I am not going to give my thoughts on what I've read, because it is going to be changed. But I would be honored to support this title once it is revised and I am really impressed with everyone involved and how you actually listened to all the Black voices that were speaking out. Again, I would be honored to read and review this upon revision and I wish everyone involved the absolute best.

I was given an ARC of Blood Heir in exchange for an honest review.

I began reading this book just as problematic content regarding a slave auction was surfaced on Twitter and wanted to make that known (other folks can speak more to the specifics of the issues with representation). Since then, the author has chosen to pull the book back and remove the content in question.

That said, what I made it through so far definitely has potential. I don't want this book to fizzle, because Amélie took action to do the right thing, and, otherwise, the story and writing was quite immersive. The setting was breathtakingly detailed, and the characters were complex and interesting.

I did not finish reading, as the book will now change - and I am hopeful and excited to see what Amélie does to make her story even stronger.

Since this book is no longer getting published, I will not read and review it. I do hope this releases in a new version some day, as it sounds like a very interesting concept overall. I am definitely more than willing to give this book and the author another chance, once some work has been done on it. Thanks for the opportunity to review.

Due to the recent decision not to publish for the time being, I won't read or review this book. The premise sounds amazing and I really hope the author comes back to it after any potentially problematic elements have been addressed. I look forward to seeing an edited version of this book in the future. Thank you for the opportunity to review it, anyway.

Thank you for the early copy.

DNF

I made it about 30% into the novel. I've decided not to continue with the ARC because of all of the controversy surrounding it that came out recently. I'd rather wait and see the rewritten novel.

Maybe more of a 2.5 if I'm feeling generous, I was interested in the book because I'm always hooked by a retelling, and I was excited for morally grey characters and lots of magical explortion. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the characters and I found myself skimming parts of the strory. I just wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be. None of the characters stood out - they didn't feel real, just kinda there. Like I said, I wanted to love this, but I ended up feeling underwhelmed.

I was interested in this book because of the Anastasia retelling and the magical elements. As this book has been recalled by the author and the publisher, hopefully for reworking considering the numerous elements that are problematic throughout, it wouldn't be prudent to review it in its current state.