Fun read. I really enjoyed this. Reminded me of a mix between Six of Crows/Grishaverse and Red Queen. There are lots of tropes but I think they were done nicely. The writing was a little too simple for my liking but I still enjoyed the book. I do wish there was more character and world development because the story felt a bit rushed. I would have liked more interaction between the characters and seen them do more things together instead of going off alone. I think it would have helped with the character building. 

As for the controversy going around, I don't see it. Sure there are similarities to other books but that was about it. Not racism or anti-black agendas. Honestly, I didn't even picture the character in the middle of all this controversy as black. More like a brown skin Asian with curly hair actually (ie. Indian, Laotian, Filipino). Or Middle Eastern. Oh well, I hope the author changes her mind and publishes this book. It was a pretty good read for a debut author. 

All the best to you Amelie Wen Zhao. Thanks for a great read.

Due to the title being removed from publication, I cannot review this at this time. If, however, this title returns I would absolutely love to read and review it! This sounded like such a great read, and I am truly disappointed in why this was pulled. Wish the best to the author!

I have not read this one, and since it has been pulled from publication, I will not be reviewing it at this time. I wish the best to Amelie Wen Zhao and I respect her decision. However, if the book does get published at a later date, I would still love to read and review the new version.

Title: Blood Heir
Author: Amélie Wen Zhao
Publication Date: Not to be published at this time
Rating: 4 stars

eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley

->Click for Synopsis<-

Blood Heir follows Anastacya Mikhailov who is on a quest to clear her name with the help from a conman. As the crown princess, she must do everything in her power to keep her identity hidden and also keep her deadly secret that she has the ability to control blood hidden as well. She is out for revenge and no one can stop her.

The book is supposed to be a retelling of Anastasia but with a fantasy twist. There are elements seen before in other books such as elemental magic and even a darker side of magic that includes blood. Although magic isn't welcomed and those who wield it have found themselves being sold into indentured servitude.

The two main characters each have their own PoVs and both come from different but troubled backgrounds. I enjoyed getting to know Ramson and Ana throughout the book and really felt for them when it came to the losses they faced. My one complaint about Ramson was that he is described as a morally grey character when introduced to him but that doesn't stand true and I wish it would have. I love morally grey characters. Another thing I didn't really care for was how it felt like Ramson was feeling more than friendship between himself and Ana. Nothing ever happened but again, it made him seem less of a conman if he was tricking her in the beginning but characters can evolve over time. It just wasn't for me.

The author's writing is beautiful and sweeps you into this magical but political world. There are lot great messages hidden in this wonderful book and I am saddened that it will not be published at this time. It was a book I could get lost in and enjoy it for what it is.

With this book being pulled from publication, I will not be reviewing it. If the publication status changes, however, I will be happy to provide a full review near the pub date. This was one of my most anticipated so I'm sad to hear about what happened.

I was unable to review and provide feedback for this title prior to it being removed from publication. I hope to do so in the future when it is revised, because I still believe the story sounds promising!

I don't get what all the fuss is about. 

I enjoyed reading Blood Heir. It was a nice, entertaining YA read including certain tropes, which nearly all YA books do. 
Was it the best book I ever read? No. Did I feel offended by it or did I think this work of fiction was copied by the author from another work? No.
You'll enjoy this if you like a bloodier version of Romanovs or Six of Crows.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

I have not read the book and do not want to rate it as the publisher pulled the book for further revisions. But it won't let me so I will leave with a neutral 3. So once they work on the book some more I will not read until the author has finished what she had to do to make her world come across they way she intended. Without hurting the community. 

I look forward to what she has done.

I have read that there is some controversy surrounding this book and all I can say is that this is FICTION people and damn good fiction at that!! l loved it! I truly did. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars not only to offset the low ratings that were trying to bully the author but because this book has everything you could want. It is a steady paced, action packed, tension filled, affinity laden, literary gem with a dash of court intrigue to top it all off. Are there depictions of indentured servitude? Yes. Is it condoned? Heck no! In fact, the MC is fighting every day, every single page, to correct and rectify such atrocities. She herself, though born a Royal and therefore originally treated much differently than the rest of the Affinite, was later found out and subjugated to the same hate filled bigotry. This is what she is fighting so hard to overturn. I don't know. How could a fan of the genre, in honest to goodness good faith, go into a read and expect the book to follow guidelines that they themselves dictate? If that's what you're looking for then go write your own book!! Leave this book alone, it was awesome!! 

On to the actual review.

The writing happened to be expertly detailed yet not overly flowery. I know some of you loathe overtly beatific and loquacious writing BUT I personally have been known to be won over by some lyrically verbose dialogue... though I digress for this is not such a book. I enjoyed the richness of the characters. They are both complex and morally gray (although some resided a bit more on the darker side of crispy). The world building is elaborate and lush. There is a hint, nay a whisper of a romance sloooooowly percolating... leading to only God knows where but damnit it hurt so good! I am 100% rooting for Ramson and Ana and I love even more how she keeps his ego in check! She is one bad ass heroine and a really interesting MC.


Overall: I read this in 2 sittings which might not sound impressive but with how hectic things have been in my neck of the woods, it turned out to be quite an accolade. Read this if you're into Magical Fantasy, especially if you like yours with a splash of Courtly Intrigue and a very healthy dose of female kickassery (it's a thing...).

~ Enjoy

*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

The publisher and the author recently chose to pull the book from publication so I am unable to give feedback. I look forward to reviewing this if it becomes available again

OBSESSED. That's all that needs to be said about this book. It has everything you could want from a YA fantasy, from the enemies to lovers, slow burn romance, the epic plot twists you won't see coming, the amazing friendships that buoy you up when you have nothing left. Everything from the plot to the characters to the world are so well developed and described and defined and you will love all of it.

Ana and Ramson were both such complex, interesting characters, and I loved watching both of them struggle between finding the goodness and the darkness within them. They've both lost more than they deserved, but they've both remained so inherently good and kind and I loved watching their journey play out across the pages of this book.

The ending DESTROYED me and I am not okay and just realized how desperately I need the sequel the this book, but it doesn't even release for MONTHS. So just watch me drown in sadness over here, don't mind me.

I did not finish this book because of the controversy over allegations, and the pulling of the book from publication by the author. Which I think was a mistake. This is a good book. Bloody, but she is a blood affinite. It was well written, I liked the characters, the worldbuilding , tension, and action was spot on. in the final analysis, this is a BOOK. Not real life, just a fantasy. If you don't like horror, mystery, mean girls, lgbt, m/m, erotica, christian, fantasy, science fiction, racism/bigotry, etc. Then don't read it to bash it. I hate horror, would always give it a bad review, because, again, I HATE it, so I never read it. Plagiarism?? Give me a break. I have over 1000 reviews. I read the same tropes because I love them. They all have the same vein. I have never read the exact words in any of my books that were in this one, just the same bad boy, powerful girl in all of them. Get a life haters. Gah.

The book was pulled out so I will abstain from reviewing until a revised version comes out. 
This is the author's debut, so I want to believe the revised book will be better and deal with delicate matters in a proper way. Everyone deserves a second chance and I will be waiting for the revised edition;)

EDIT: At first I gave it a rating of 3.5 stars (had to put 4 because there's no middle). Honestly, I didn't even notice the "racism" until people pointed it out. While I agree there might have been a subliminal thing...the thing has been done before in other books so why no one pointed it out in other books too? it's wrong. The author apologized and that is what matters, but the thing is I never believed once that she wanted to harm anyone. It's a debut. While the characters weren't amazing, the story was INTERESTING. Interesting enough to keep me reading even though I was disappointed with the romance and supporting charas, I did like Ana and Ramson. There were bad parts, so-so parts and good parts like any other book. I by no means condone racism but not everyone must interpret the story like that. It's a fictional world, it has been done before. The author wanted to pass a good message instead of what people interpreted. It was a good message to show that and all this is a matter of personal interpretations. I did not interpret as racism...I only looked at it after some people pointed it out. We all have our different ways to see the world. Some saw racism (yes it could be interpreted like that), while I saw a trope, something that has been done before in YA and fiction. Which one is the "real one"? the one you interpret? Anyway, it can be re-written.
Bullying the author into pulling out the book is WRONG. Shaming her in social networks is WRONG. That is bullying and it's no better than racism. I hope I get to read the revised edition and by no means, she should give up of her dream.

Declining to fully review this title since it's being pushed back. No one called for the cancellation of the book, but I do support the author's decision to revise, since I felt the oppression metaphors were clumsy at best and it read like a white savior-type story.

I have not had the chance to read this one, and due to circumstances surrounding the publication of this book, I will not be reviewing it at this time. However, if the book does get published at a later date, I would still love to read it.

First of all, I was ready to read this novel when it vanished.  I was bewildered at first.  Then twitter news hit.  Really?  Do you know how many books there are out there on slavery, racism, etc.?  I could name many of them, and they're huge!  What else are you going to try to censor? This is only an attack on this author.  This is a work of fiction and for those who lashed out need to get over yourself and grow up!  Who are you to decide to ban books?  We should have a choice to decide for ourselves.  This is America, freedom of speech, and I'm getting so damn tired of what's politically correct and politically incorrect.  I'm tired of people of afraid of stepping on other toes.  It's a fiction; it's a novel.  There are other books which were way worse than this one for sure.  Oh, by the way, I'm sure half of you guys didn't read the book but decided to lash out based on reviews.
Amelia Wen Zhao, I understand you want to withdraw your book.  But please don't let the ignorant, stupidity, and blind sway your decision.  Don't let them scare you off.  If we allow them to do that, then are we going to tread on what we write or read so we won't hurt their feelings?  I genuinely hope to read your book soon.  If not, then I support your decision.  However, ill be looking forward to your other books in the future and will be helping you also.  I wish you well.
Btw, for those who disagree, don't bother telling me hateful stuff because I won't be reading them and I will not be responding to them.

Net Galley, Random House Children, and Delacorte Press thank you for the approval, but unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to read it because it won't open up for me.  I hope you continue to support this young author who was harshly and unjustified judged.  I do know for a fact that many did not read her novel but based their views on a few of the harsh reviews.

Update 02/01/19: I don’t think anyone has any idea how disappointed I am. When I was reading Blood Heir, I didn’t pick up on any of the issues regarding anti-blackness, and that is totally on me. I still really enjoyed the characters of Ana and Ransom, but I wanted to acknowledge my mistakes. 

What I do not agree with is the claim of plagiarism. Just because Amelie decided to use common tropes in books and a guy who’s clever and angsty (Kaz Brekker is not the only male character like that who can exist!)..does not mean it’s plagiarism. I don’t agree that it plagiarized from the Grishaverse because literally 90% of bestsellers in fantasy revolves around magic-users being oppressed — every Cassandra Clare book (Downworlders are oppressed), Grisha, Throne of Glass, The Lunar Chronicles, This Savage Song — so why is this author of color being shamed for doing a similar story? Why did the person who called her out do it publicly and end up publicly shaming another author of color instead of messaging personally? Twitter’s call-out culture is getting out of hand.

----

I think out of all the 2019 releases that have been on my list for quite some time, Blood Heir has continuously stayed on the top spot. I mean when it’s pitched as a dark retelling of Anastasia where she’s a bloodbender, it’s pretty hard for it not to be.

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy and let me tell you: IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT. This book completely blew all the expectations I had out of the water, and I devoured the entirety of it in less than a day. In Blood Heir, Ana, the Crown Princess of the Cyrillian Empire, is accused of murdering her father and goes on the run to prove her innocence and get her revenge on his true killer. She’s an Affined — human beings with special abilities (think The Last Airbender) — who have been feared and abused for their abilities to control different elements. She enlists the help of Ransom Quicktongue, a conman who also has his own mission to clear his name and is most definitely as sharp-witted as his last name suggests.

Initially, I was irked by how insecure and self-doubting Ana was, but it was so worth seeing her grow as a person throughout the book. Blood Heir is a story of self-acceptance, and readers can clearly see how Ana grows from someone who doubts herself and sees herself as a monster to realizing that people can’t change what they’re born with, but they sure as hell can choose to do with what they’re given.  Similarly, Ransom and his selfishness took a bit of time for me to warm up to, but again it was adorable seeing him soften once he realized what his true feelings for Ana were. I did think some parts were very repetitive — particularly how often she regards herself as a monster and what happens after she tries to chase after / save the ones she loves (like was that second one necessary??), but considering it was an Anastasia retelling, it made sense. The two characters involved had a lot of potentials, and I was especially looking forward to her reuniting with her family.

Despite these small details, I absolutely loved and adored this book. I am a sucker for morally grey characters, and from the first page, I was drawn in. The world-building was so good, and the writing was just absolutely magical. Amélie Wen Zhao is an amazing writer, and it was so hard for me to even think that Blood Heir is a debut novel. I especially loved relating this novel to Yona of the Dawn since it had similar elements wherein a princess was falsely accused of murdering her father and has to go on the run. I also appreciated how even though it claims to be a dark version of Anastasia, these characters feel like their own.

I definitely recommend picking this book up if you love political intrigue, historical fantasy, badass and morally grey characters, and slow-burn romance. This is a wonderful debut!

Trigger warnings for a lot of bloody scenes. Nothing too horrible, but I really do think it’s worth mentioning!

I did not finish this book,  but I did get through 60% before I finally put it down. I've heard of the controversy surrounding this book, and I believe it was unfair of the YA community to call her out like that. However, I still disliked Blood Heir, not because of any problematic things going on per say, but because of just the writing in general. Here is why I did not finish it. 
I found both Ramson and Ana to be cliched characters and had difficulty relating to either of them. Ana seemed to only do things when Ramson told her to, and even then, it seemed like the only decisions she made were bad ones. Especially when she entered her fits of fury and started reaching for her Affinity, as if her character was only there to mess things up because she can't handle her emotions.  I felt like there was nothing to her personality except her Affinity. She also seemed so self-absorbed, since she'd lament about her own fate even as other Affinites were being rounded up and enslaved before her eyes. Ramson was a little better, but not by much. I think Zhao was trying to use the tortured-bad-boy trope a la Kaz Brekker of Six of Crows, but it just came off as forced and unnatural. 
Next, the magic system was also highly unoriginal, in my opinion, and the scenes demonstrating various Affinites powers just bored me. Magic systems where the mechanics of the magic is described vaguely and dramatically, like "she grasped at her power" (not saying this is a quote from the book, this is just what comes to mind) or whatever, without any real substance is getting tedious, and that's what this book has. 
Finally, the world building did not appeal to me. It's this trend where, while the main characters and side characters aren't morally black and white, the rest of the characters are. Like, the entire population is either good or evil in here; they either enslave Affinities and treat them cruelly or they're heroic revolutionaries. 
And that's basically it. There was nothing special about this book and it just seemed like a blend of the worst and most boring parts of YA fantasy.

I will not be reviewing Blood Heir because of the author's recent decision to push back the publication date. I respect the author's decision and may read it in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley for a chance to review this title. 

It took me a few days to ponder how I was going to review this title-IF I was going to review it at all seeing as the publication has been ceased. But after reading the acknowledgments after I finished the book, I feel as though the author deserves at least my thoughts on it. Authors put in a crap ton of work into writing a book. This is not to say I will be discounting the voices of others who see parts of this book as problematic. I will be giving light to that as well in as fairly a way as I can. 

First, I am putting aside everything and telling you about this story.

This is loosely (LOOSELY) based on the story of Anastasia. This is fantasy world Russia, where certain people have what we call Affinities or special magical powers. Ana is one of those. After being falsely accused of killing her father, the emperor, she runs away and devotes her life to finding the real killer. She stumbles upon a con man named Ramson and convinces him to help her. But Ramson has his secrets, and they may stop Ana from getting to the truth.

Okay, so the writing has minor issues. At some points, it felt like it was trying a bit too hard to make us care for characters. Even without reading the specific issues until after I finished, I did notice some quotes almost directly sounded like they came from somewhere else. It irked me a little, but not enough to let it affect my rating. I think Zao is a talented writer in this aspect and I cannot wait to see what she does in the future.

SPOILER WARNING.

Let's talk about the death of May, the PoC character. As a writer myself and taking out EVERYTHING that everyone else has said, I felt as though her death did not need to happen to advance Ana's arc at all, because it didn't. Ana cried, and it was over. Nothing about May drove Ana to anything other than killing the broker which still didn't have much of an effect on her arc. Sure May saved the other slaves, but they did not even come to play in this book so what was the point? It was pointless. Focusing now on the scene resembling the Rue scene in The Hunger Games, yes, it was a bit too similar for my taste. Mostly for the fact that I cared about Rue and I didn't see enough of May to really care about her. Personally, I was thinking of all the ways that May could have benefited Ana if she were still alive in the series. She could do so much more alive than dead. 

I will touch upon this for a minute now: as a writer, you need to be aware of what YOU ARE DOING. You are not just killing a character for dramatic sake. You are killing the only PoC which has been a horrible trend, especially in Hollywood. The token black person, as one would say which was a running joke in horror movies especially. We need to do better. We need to recognize that kids are reading this and they see you. They see this trend that needs to stop. I realize my voice is small and shouldn't even be taken into account. Listen to the PoC's who are telling you (a general "you" since Amelie has already listened) there is a problem.  They are loud, whether you choose to listen or not. 

I also believe that everybody who had a hand in editing and reading this book needs to also take a step back. There have too many instances of this sort of thing and it needs to stop. 

I think I will keep my rating and see if the book gets edited and rereleased. I will reread it then and edit this review.