~ 3.5 stars ~

💜~ Thank you to the publisher at Simon & Schuster Canada via NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review ~💜

This book was an amazing whirlwind of a ride. Voya's story hooked me and I couldn't put the story down once I got into it. The beginning was a little bit slow, but things really picked up around the 40-50% mark. The diversity of ethnicities and the lgbtq+ representation was very well done. At the very beginning, I found Voya to be a bit annoying and indecisive, but as the story goes on, you get to see how she becomes more sure of herself, so I forgive the beginning of her arc because of how well it was fleshed out. It was also really nice to see a book set in Toronto, Canada, as so many books are set in the US. Finally, the ending was spectacular, and while it didn't exactly end on a cliff hanger, it wrapped it up just enough to be considered open ended and set up for the next book. I can't wait for the next one to be released!

**Disclaimer** This is all personal opinion and is in no way intended to harass or offend anyone. If I do, I sincerely apologize (also let me know so I can fix the offensive content, thank you).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy to review

Honestly, wasn't my style. What pulled me into read was very much the cover and description. I was very excited to start reading it.

If I wasn't reading an advanced copy for the purpose of an honest review of the book and not just the first chapter, this book would be on my dnf list (did not finish). Alas, I continued reading.

It was truly a well written book and good world building but it just wasn't for me. I would still recommend for others to read it.

With the main character being a witch, I expected a much more fantasy/magic based book but little of that happens. The book is much more of a sci-fi dystopian novel than its fantasy category. Many parts of the book seemed quite predictable and on multiple occasions I felt that the scene I was reading really dragged on and wasn't important to the plot, character development, or world-building.

The scene right at the beginning with main character Voya sitting in a bathtub of her own blood disturbed me a bit. Also the explanation of the men's bleeding too, not just women. I understand this was part of the world building to understand the witches culture but it really just wasn't for me.

Aside from it just not being my cup of tea, I would still recommend this book to others. Its writing and characters are done well. The book has very diverse characters with different race backgrounds and lgbtq+ representation.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury is a strong debut into the writing world of fantasy and sci-fi. Although I may not have loved this book specifically, I look forward to her future books.

3.5 stars

Honestly I was a bit squicked out in the beginning with the bathtub full of menstrual blood and the clotting and the description of the men bleeding out of their eyes and their penises.

The story is set in the future. There are automated vehicles, identity chips, genetic modifications, etc. It's a bit of a sci-fi/urban fantasy mashup, but the magic isn't really an integral part of the story so much as its existence is an integral part of the story; not a lot of magic actually ends up happening.

A good portion of this book was highly predictable. Just the way that the task is worded led me to believe that Voya wasn't going to have to do things in the way she had catastrophized. This book is very much the first in a series and serves to set the groundwork for books to come. Unfortunately, there isn't really a satisfying ending. That said, once I got past the halfway mark I started enjoying it more, and I would definitely consider reading the next one, though I won't be chomping at the bit.

I absolutely love this book! The mix of modern day witches with future technology in Toronto is such a unique concept that had me excited just from reading the synopsis. Voya’s character is someone that I actually related to a lot while reading this book with her trouble to make decisions. Following her journey to find herself and what she really wants is so inspiring and the futuristic witches with a bit of enemies to lovers thrown in there makes this an awesome read. This is not your typical enemies to lovers though and I have to admit that I never saw the ending coming and I could not put this book down during the last 100 pages! Although I didn’t expect it, I found the ending very fitting and that it wrapped things up well for Voya’s story. I highly recommend this book to fans of witches or people who enjoy urban fantasies!

Maybe its just me but I was not the biggest fan of this story. it was good but I didn't get super wrapped up into the world like a lot of other readers have. however if fantasy is your go to then I'm sure you'd love this book

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for providing me an E-ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I even begin? Blood Like Magic is a masterpiece. From the concept to the characters, everything about this debut is incredibly unique. I'm impressed with the level of detail Sambury gave to every aspect. Let's talk about our main character, Voya. Voya is imperfect, like so many of us are, but that doesn't stop her from trying her best. I love her for that. Blood Like Magic takes place in 2049 Toronto and the jump in technology from current day was fun to read.

My one critique is about one of the main plot points, Voya's ability to make decisions. I wish we saw more of her actually thinking about said decisions, instead of the same inner dialogue about her indecisiveness. That way, her actions would have made a bit more sense.

But overall, this was a great read, it even pulled me out of my fantasy slump!

A DNF for me. The writing felt very middle grade for a YA novel. I love love love the idea here though.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury follows sixteen-year-old Voya. She has received her Calling, which is a trial all witches must pass to gain their powers. She is given the impossible task of sacrificing her first love. If she doesn’t succeed, her family loses the use of magic. The problem is that Voya has never been in love, so she joins a new genetic matchmaking program. Voya begins to struggle with the morality of her task and her wish to preserve her family’s magical legacy. She’s desperate to find another way to pass the Calling.

This book is so magical and futuristic. Voya’s loyalty to her family is strong and relatable. I liked how contemporary this story felt, while also being futuristic.

both the cover and description of the book had me intrigued and i had been hearin/seeing it around so i was curious about it! im glad i requested/read it. i enjoyed the world/magic/characters! i like that it takes place in canada and they mentioned where i live. i also like that its in the future and seeing all the techonology that this world has but also the fact that magic exists in it! i liked knowing each characters gifts and what their callings were (both very interesting things to know) some characters u dont know their gifts tho. i liked voya as the narrator most of the time (sometimes when she was indecisive or she kept thinking about her task and if shes able to do it or not and being negative was kinda of annoying/frustating to read bc could get repetitive and also bc i believed in her but i can also relate to her indecisiveness) i also liked voyas family specially keis and i liked her relationship with her family they are all so close and spend so much time together and there was funny moments between boya and her family! and its funny to think that her grandma wouldve been probably a teenager in our current time. SOME SPOILERS AFTER THIS: there were some not so fun scenes like when voya gets her task and see mama jova and her past :C when shes given her task and the days go by i didnt see how she could get out of it and not kill luc or destroy him by destroyin his career but eventually she realises that luc isnt her first love but that her family/ keis is which i loved but at same time hated bc that meant destroyin her best friend/cousin. and i liked both luc and keis. luc and voyas interations were always soo funny/cute/sarcastic. i also kept my fingers crossed that lauren was gonna show up eventually and be ok.. also eden is soo adorable! when voya decides to be at the ritual with johan and he told her not to mess up/enter the circle and then she has a messed up vision and enters the circle im like "u know u have messed up vision that arent real so why would u go into the circle.." it was a bit frustating that sometimes she didnt know what was real or not,acted upon those visions and then something bad would happen. or moments of miscomunication like when in the end her mom tells her not to leave for caribanna without them and voya doesnt tell her family that she knows what shes gonna choose and that she has a plan that involves not killing luc etc,and her mom not telling her what they were gonna go do (i feel like if voya had told them her plan etc or her mom would tell voya their plan certain things wouldve been different or wouldnt have needed to happen: like liking their magic to the house etc and or voya need to link keis to the house etc) i feel bad that keis got that ending and i hope they can reverse it some how. also didnt want a certain character to die but i understand that she needed to die so that voya could ger her wish (which was a good idea what she wished for ,it was clever of her and also the plan she did for keis was clever but it still sucked) i also like voyas gift in the end and her plan involving justin, and the scenes when she sees aunt elaine. i also liked that voya was into cooking and alex was a designer and into clothes etc. theres also 2 trans characters in this book which i really liked reading about and keishas love life too. im curious to see what will happen in the sequel so ill definitly read it, we already know bad things will happen,more suffering and challenges bc mama jova tells voya in the end and i wanna see how voya uses her past and future gift..also to see what happened to lauren and what will happen to keis.

Literal Black girl magic! Blood Like Magic is the first book in the Blood Like Magic series and debut YA fantasy novel by Liselle Sambury. It follows Voya Thomas, a teen in a family of witches who is approaching her Calling, the trial she must pass in order to become receive her powers as a witch. She is given the task to destroy her first love and for the first time in their family history, the stakes are higher than ever. If Voya doesn’t pass, she will not only lose her one chance to get her powers, her entire family will lose their magic too. Voya has one month to fall in love with someone, complete her task and save her family’s magic. Things become complicated when she might have really fallen in love with the boy she’s supposed to destroy...what decisions will Voya make for herself and for her family?

The book is set in the year 2049 in a future Toronto. While it was nice to see familiar names like the TTC, Pacific Mall and Union Station, I felt like it took me out of the story a little bit. As someone who grew up in the Toronto area, seeing the names and descriptors of these places distracted me and blurred the lines between what is real and what is fiction, preventing me temporarily from being immersed in the story. This may not apply to other readers such as those who may not be as familiar with the city. After reading the acknowledgements at the end, I learned the descriptions of the city were a kind of love letter to Toronto from the author who also grew up here. While the story behind this is lovely, as a reader I felt a little disconnected at times due to it.

What I did love about this future Toronto though was the acceptance of diversity and that fact that people tried to use each other's pronouns correctly which gives me some hope for a more inclusive future. But while it's better in some ways, racism against Black and brown bodies still exists and discrimination against trans folks which the novel addresses as well. For a book set in about 25 years into the future, I think she painted a realistic future in terms of progress that wasn't too optimistic but also seemingly better than now.

It started off pretty predictable and even though the end is still somewhat predictable, the events that lead to it were unexpected. There were twists that kept the story engaging and the ending makes you curious about what will happen in this new era of the Thomas family. A great debut novel and beginning to what is sure to be a thrilling series! Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A solid three star debut. Slow to start, a lot of the same themes/inner dialogue are repeated and things don't start moving until the halfway point but once it does start going it moves fast. The prose flows well, the characters are all well imagined and I loved the attention to diversity, culture and representation. I wasn't really buying the romance, the love interest is frankly unappealing but that is completely subjective. My biggest reservations are the length; this could have been cut by 20% and still be the exact same book only tighter. The author repeats the same thoughts and ideas, something an editor should have cut. Regardless the book is imaginative and I will be recommending to my teen library patrons. Looking forward to seeing more from this author.

This book is pure magic! As someone who lives in the suburbs around Toronto, I absolutely loved reading about my city with sci-fi/fantasy undertones and as a place where magic lives right under our noses. Also, these characters are so well developed and so diverse! The amount of casual queer representation in this book made my heart swell. Blood Like Magic tackles so many highly relevant issues and kept me fully engaged the entire time. Even places were it might have seemed a bit slow, I was hooked on the conversations between characters, setting up their relationships and the world-building. It's specifically because of the set up that I found the ending so well done. While I'd guessed the twist with the "first love", I didn't see the payoff coming and it was devastating on several levels. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough, and I can't wait for the sequel!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the e-ARC for review!

“From the start of this, Mama Jova has wanted me to take control of my future and my choices. And this whole time I believed that I would make the wrong choice. Thats how it’s been with everything in my life. Ever decision was another chance to mess up.
I don’t know if this is the right one either. But it doesn’t matter.
It’s my choice, and I have to make it.
So I do."

When Voya Thomas, a young witch, fails her Calling, she begs her talker for another chance. And to her entire family’s surprise, she gets it. But the task seems impossible: to get her gift, Voya must destroy her first love, or else her entire family will lose their magic.

A strong 3.5 stars.

Fantasy and sci-fi are wonderfully blended in Liselle Sambury’s “Blood Like Magic”. Reading the blurb, I was initially worried this would be too similar to the Bone Grace series, but the novel was one of the most original and impressive fantasies I’ve read in a long time. I wasn’t expecting such an immersive, black mirror-esque component to the world building; Sambury’s sci-fi ideas were mildly uncanny, and I don’t doubt they’ll be part of our reality soon.

There was a diverse familial cast of characters, wherein everyone felt distinct and purposeful. Voya was an imperfect protagonist, riddled with self doubt, and tasked with an impossible calling that kept me guessing. And most excitedly, the book showcased a vast variety of cultures and backgrounds, and Toronto was the perfect setting for it all. I loved learning about Voya’s Trinidadian background, especially through her cooking, as well as the other witch families and their own histories. I also appreciated that, despite being set in the future, Sambury still addressed issues of race and bigotry that, like Voya mentioned, likely will take centuries more to dismantle. Similarly, I loved that social issues we are currently working through were near old news.

There were a few story-telling issues that brought me out of the book. Comprehensive world-building is so important, especially for such a unique story, but the novel was a bit slow to start. I’m also a bit torn on how I feel about Voya’s task, about Justin’s ideology, about the pure vs. impure magic concept. I won’t post any spoilers, but some reasoning felt a bit weak, and I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to let it slide.

That said, this is a strong debut and great for young adult fantasy and sci-fi lovers everywhere.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

As a Canadian and a lover of YA fantasy this book seemed right up my alley. This story is truly unlike anything I've ever read. I thought the magic system and the sci-fi elements were very interesting and well done. Voya is enjoyable as the main character and I felt like she was pretty relatable. All of the other characters in the book felt well developed and were really interesting and entertaining to read about. I really enjoyed the family aspect of the story and all of the intricacies of each relationship. The plot itself is interesting, the conflicts are high stakes and I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. The book also had a lot of representation and touched on many issues. I thought that the author handled these topics well. I am definitely interested in reading, and would recommend looking for, some OwnVoices reviews to see what they thought of the representation in the book. I loved how the author incorporated Trinidadian culture into the story through things like food and traditions. Overall, this was story I hadn't seen before and was an enjoyable read!

The story line was be of this book had promise. I just found it hard to follow and I found it hard to relate to the characters

I received an e-arc of Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury in exchange for an honest review. My first impressions from the synopsis of the book were 'this feels kinda like Bone Crier's Moon' with the witchy elements and the main character needing to kill her true love. But this book is doing a lot more than that, first, it's set in Toronto (love the Canadian setting and I've visited there!), the year is 2049 (so there are some science fiction elements), and there is a DNA software called NuGene that has a big part of the story.
Though I've really liked what I've read so far in Blood Like Magic, I don't think I'll be able to finish reading the e-arc before release, so I'm putting this title down for now and I intend to pick up the audiobook when it's available/ request it for purchase at my local library. I will update my review to reflect my final thoughts.

*ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Voya Thomas is a sixteen year-old Black witch from a long line of witches, on the cusp of getting her powers through her Calling, a coming-of-age challenge that every magic user is given from one of their valued ancestors, and must pass in order to be gifted their powers and become a witch. There is a lot of pressure put on this challenge and families and/or the children who fail their callings are often shunned, and it hasn't happened in Voya's family in generations. When Voya is given her task from Mama Jova, she is told she has one month to destroy her first love, or her family will lose their magic forever.

Voya is a person who has always had trouble making decisions, and she is also someone who has never been in love, so this task proves difficult from the beginning. The Thomas's have been a family of "pure" magic users for quite some time, meaning they don't kill, even with pure intent, like some other witch families. But a lot hangs in the balance for Voya. Her only lead is a genetic matching program she is a part of at a futuristic tech company called NuGene, where an intern named Luc is her highest match. She sets out to fall in love with Luc, all while grappling with the idea that she will eventually have to kill him.

This book was absolutely incredible. I do not give five stars lightly. It was an incredible blend of fantasy and sci-fi, with absolutely amazing worldbuilding that made me long for the sequel immediately upon finishing this book. Voya's world in future Toronto is very casually queer, with two main characters who are trans (including Voya's love interest, Luc), a gender-neutral term for their ancestors, and many queer characters in the main and surrounding cast of characters, in all different positions of power.

Sambury even goes into the benefits that gene-modding (gene modification) has for trans folks in this futuristic world, an expensive gene-mod replacing what today would require surgery, but people needing money and status to get up the list, meaning not everyone has access. I loved these little bits of information about Sambury's ideal future almost as much as the sheer CANADIAN-NESS of the whole story (everyone constantly saying 'sorry', even to automated machines, the not-so-subtle Tim's mention).

I loved the little bits of internal monologue where Voya discusses how racism has become in the future, the part it plays in sponsorships like Luc's and how microaggressions still exist in a world many would consider progressive. I enjoyed the added information about required low-income housing, and how richer people get around it by hiding money in secret bank accounts and taking housing from the poor.

This book paints an incredibly detailed picture of Voya's world and community through her life experience and it's a story with high stakes, a unique magic system, and lots of Black Girl Magic that will have you looking up the release date of the sequel the moment you put it down.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Blood Like Magic in exchange for an honest review.

What the hack! I have no idea how Sambury managed to seamlessly throw so many awesome things in one book, but she did a fantastic job. Blood Like Magic has everything you could possibly want in a YA fantasy. Witches! Quests! Enemies to lovers! 'I love you, but I also have to kill you! Strong family relationships! Past and present racism commentary told through both directly and throw magic and metaphor! Casual queer rep! Canada (okay, I'm biased on that one but I live for seeing place names I recognize in YA).

I absolutely lived for every second of this and can't wait to see it blow up.

The author has recreated many of the sites and sounds of Toronto during Catrina. This deliciously written tale of a young girl coming into her own while focusing on her family and at what lengths she will go to to preserve it are enveloping. I want more.

Publication Date: June 15, 2021
TW: Slavery, Whipping, Gun Violence, gore, death, substance abuse, child neglect

Every witch has a calling, a trial arranged by one of their long dead ancestors when they hit puberty that tests their worthiness. If successful, the ancestor will award the witch with a magical gift, if they fail, they lose their witch status forever.

Voya has waited a long time for her calling. She’s blown away when one of her more notorious ancestors sets out her trial. She has 30 days to kill her first love, except Voya hasn’t experienced her first love yet. What follows is a story of family, love, loyalty and hardship.

Firstly, thank you for including content warnings at the beginning of the story. I also want to shout out the author for writing such wonderful, loyal, messy and diverse characters. Voya has entered my list of favourite female characters in literature.

I’ve never read a book that takes place in Toronto nor did I ever realize how much I craved a fantasy story to take place where I’m from. While this story takes place well into the future, Liselle’s inclusion of future Toronto as almost a character itself in the story was really neat. From the inclusion of the TTC arrival jingle, to famous landmarks and our unabashed multiculturalism, it was so interesting to see how years into the future the best of Toronto still shines.

As for the plot, it was a bit of a slow start in terms of the story. There was a lot of worldbuilding thrown at the reader all at once. I do appreciate when authors flesh out the world before they introduce the stakes in the plot. However, the story didn’t really pick up until about 20% in. It was bogged down by repetitive details about the same concept.

The premise of the story was definitely what intrigued me about this novel and it continued to keep me interested throughout the book. I’m normally the type of reader that guesses how the story is going to turn out long before the ending but this was not the case in this book.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for the next book in the series. I’m excited to see where the story goes and what happens to a number of characters.

Thank you to #NetGalley and @SimonandSchusterCanada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Feel free to send any future books my way…. but actually.