Pick up this book, sit down, buckle up, and hold on. This book’s pitched as an action-packed story, and it delivers. N. E. Davenport shows us who Ikenna Amari is through her actions from the start, and manages to balance intense action scenes with detailed descriptions, ensuring you know what’s going on and have enough information to follow the story. The action builds throughout the book, and this is easily one of the most violent books I’ve ever read. The brutality of this world, the blatant racism, and bloodthirst from people willing to go to war to expand their borders provide constant reminders that it’s hard to know who to trust. Almost everyone had an agenda, and Kenna has to try to anticipate every target on her back while she fights to survive.

The rich world-building nsures Mareen leaves its mark on you. Davenport puts in the work to establish the political and geographic landscape. Davenport also takes some interesting risks that makes The Blood Trials stand out from other works. The nature of the trials requires constant venue changes, which means readers are introduced to new locations throughout, but the rich descriptions ensure readers are anchored in each setting and have some idea what to expect.

I actually appreciated the way that Davenport provided so much information while developing the settings and the characters, and yet managed to tuck in the tiny details that added up to reveal the truths in the end without making them obvious. I felt genuinely surprised by some revelations, and yet, they felt earned. I could look back and see the details I hadn’t added while trying to work out the truth myself.

It’s easy to talk about the violence, the constant danger, the rich characters, and the strong world-building, but that doesn’t do this book justice. This is easily one of the best books I’ve read in recent years. In Kenna, we have a female protagonist who’s anything but predictable or conventional. Kenna is strong and relentless. She never takes the easy way out of anything. She lives life on her terms, but she also grows. She had to overlook some offenses to gain the power she needs to take down the people who murdered her grandfather. She also has a lot of heart, and I want to avoid spoilers, so I’ll just say that some choices she’s faced with nearly break her while she wrestles with the high cost of learning the truth.

Davenport provides clear resolution to this story, and at the same time, sets things up beautifully for book 2. Kenna’s story doesn’t pull physical or emotional punches, and it held me in its grip from early on right through the last page. I hope more people discover this one, because it’s fantastic.

It should be noted there is room to ask whether this is YA or adult fiction. The story follows teenagers, but notes in other reviews state it’s adult fiction because of the level of violence. However, I doubt the violence would deter a lot of YA readers, and this book will appeal to teens and adults who like action-packed stories.

Thank you to Harper Voyager, NetGalley and N. E. Davenport for providing an eARC. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

*Not a YA* (more like NA or Adult) TW: Violence, blood/gore, racism, misogyny, gas-lighting and cannibalism.

If you're a fan of The Hunger Games or Divergent, this story is perfect for you. This revenge sci-fi novel includes advanced technology and a blood-rooted magic system. In this action-packed story, we follow Ikenna Amari, who enlists in the Praetorian Trials in order to uncover her grandfather's murderer.

Ikenna is a classic "badass MC" - she's determined, resourceful and vengeful. However, her path to her goals is far from easy. The trials and their leaders do not make her task an easy one (far from it). In addition to her plan-related struggles, Ikenna faces racism and misogyny on her journey to establishing the Amari legacy line.

I enjoyed following Ikenna's path in navigating the trial-related challenges, but also, the friendships that were formed made the journey worthwhile and served as a much needed reprieve. I will be eagerly waiting for the second book!

Thank you to B2 Weird Bookclub and Harper Voyager for an arc in exchange for an honest review and promotion. All opinions are my own.

4.5/5 Y’all this book took me on a ride.

This was so bloody, but I loved it all! The Blood Trials is an immersive, bloody military fantasy that follows Ikenna Amari. She has just graduated her training and is planning to take time off to grieve the loss of her beloved Grandfather. When she learns he was murdered, she decides to pledge to the Praetorians to find out who killed him. But she’ll only find out if she survives the fatal trial process.

There is so much action in this story, and a shit ton of graphic and violent content. I loved going on this journey with Ikenna. She was a character I enjoyed getting to know. She doesn’t have everything figured out, but she has a goal in mind and nothing will stop her from getting there.

The magic and world building was really well done. There are so many cool parts to the societies to explore and I cannot wait to learn more about them all in the sequel! I really hope we get to see more of the other countries besides Mareen, because I am so curious about them all. Especially Ikenna's friendship with the Crown Prince. I need more details Ikenna!

Overall, I highly recommend this book.

Rep: Biracial Black cishet female MC, white cishet female side character, biracial cishet male side character, various Black male side characters.

CWs: Racism, racial slurs, xenophobia, violence, gore, blood, injury/injury detail, cursing, death, cannibalism, misogyny, sexual content (on page and discussions), classism, sexism, grief, war, bullying/hazing, torture, murder, death of grandparent/parent, gun violence, medical content. Moderate: vomit, alcohol, alcoholism, confinement, gaslighting, colonisation, genocide, abandonment.

Ok, so this book! OMG. It's my favorite book of 2022. Ikenna is amazing and I love her. The plot is fast-paced, the worldbuilding and character development are balanced. I never felt like I wanted to put the book down.

I especially love how the worldbuilding was spread out across The Blood Trials. This book is intense, and drew me in the entire time. I can't wait for the sequel!

You'll love this book if you like the Hunger Games, and honestly, probably even more. Ikenna was such a strong and deeply human protagonist that was so easy to empathize with and root for. This world doesn't stray from tackling tough topics which made it that much more impactful. I know this book literally just came out, but I am already counting down the days until the sequel comes out.

Brilliant Debut!

The Blood Trials is every I want in a story, it was bloody, it was gory. It had characters that you could root for and ooh the betrayals. I think Davenport does such an excellent job of crafting this world and characters. Very excited to see what she has in store for book 2.

4 Stars

My review for The Blood Trials will be posted within the next two weeks as I just finished reading it a few days ago and have to bring my thought together.

This was one of my anticipated 2022 reads and it definitely lived up to the hype. From page one we follow Ikenna on her journey of grief and vengeance. Ikenna's grandfather has died and we later on discover that it's believed that he actually was murdered. After she is told this and the possibility of who is thought to be his assassination, Ikenna decides to join the Praetorian Trials to discover who played a hand in his assassination and avenge him.

As we follow Ikenna's journey we also learn that she is also dealing with a secret of her own. She has a forbidden gift of blood magic. I really enjoyed the fast paced storyline, fighting and how the story deals with consequences. I think this is the perfect "crossover" book for YA readers who want to start reading Adult SFF.
So many of my favorite parts of this book are spoilers and I enjoyed the unpredictable twists.
This book does also deals with a heavy amount of graphic violence, racism, prejudice, class (privilege) and misogyny.

The story ended on the perfect note and left me wanting more. I am ready for the sequel!


Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book here, y’all! I loved Ikenna within the first ten pages, point blank period. She’s bullheaded, driven, rash, and can definitely back up anything that comes out her mouth, no questions asked. I definitely feel like her and Rue from Wings of Ebony would get along or be the most dynamic sister duo 🤣 Kenna’s evolution is realistic and understandable, and I’m super excited to see her journey continue in Book 2. This (New) Adult SFF novel jumps right in and gives us the mission right in Chapter One; there’s no unnecessary exposition and it’s packed full with fleshed out and memorable characters. I’m excited for whatever N.E. Davenport puts out next.

The Blood Trials

Alternate Title: Hello, my name is Ikenna Amari, you killed my grandfather, prepare to die.

Wow. N.E. Davenport really chose violence. This book snuck up on me! I happened to see it on NetGalley and was drawn in by the cover and description and it lived up to my assumptions!

If you’re a fan of science fiction, magic, camaraderie, revenge plots with tons of twists and secrets, and underlying themes of social justice, this mixed bag will be something you look forward to.

Ikenna Amari is the granddaughter of the recently deceased Verne Amari, Legatus Commander of Mareen. His death was sudden and reeks of foul-play, though when we find Ikenna, she is far from coherent enough to even consider this a possibility. Drowning in grief, she spends her free time succumbing to the oblivion that drinking offers.

When she learns of the suspicious circumstances under which her grandfather’s death took place, her renewed sense of purpose propels her down the path to become a Praetorian, a highly-skilled military combatant for The Republic. Even though she deeply resents The Republic for its racism and bigotry, her mission to find her grandfather’s killer outranks her weariness to join the ranks.

After a series of grueling tests known as The Blood Trials, she will become a Praetorian and finally have the power to avenge her grandfather.

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Things I thoroughly enjoyed while reading The Blood Trials:

1.) The worldbuilding is fantastic. It’s clean and confident, full of complex politics, peoples, and customs. The amount of information to take in about this world is abundant, as the author spares few details.

2.) I appreciated the amount of sincerity that is put into the struggle of this character due to racism. It really cuts and grinds on you throughout the book, as its easily relatable to real-world issues. Ikenna faces countless taunts concerning her heritage and the color of her skin. Because she is part Khanaian, she has many enemies amongst the Mareenians who are full of racist hatred. Still, she has an amazing amount of restraint in the face of all this adversity as her main goal drives her forward.

3.) Action with a side of romance instead of the other way around. I was a bit nervous whenever a “love interest” was introduced, but it was little more than a brief tryst at first, with a layered and complicated after-math that made it more intriguing. Sometimes attraction just leads to sex, not a fully-developed relationship. And I love that the author chose the path less traveled in YA and NA these days.

4.) Non-apologetic violence. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the violence can be overdone, but in this story it served a purpose. Everything about this book seeps violence and anger from its pores. From Ikenna’s rage over her grandfather’s murder, to the silent fuming over racist comments, to the brutality of the trials. There’s a ton of dying in this book and much of it is cloaked in strong emotion.

5.) The scenes in Onei’s Expanse. It was horrific and at one point very much disturbing, but it was so full of fast-paced action and plot development that I couldn’t put the book down during that stretch.

Things I struggled to get past:

1.) Ikenna is strong and unapologetic, that I admire. However, at times she borders on completely irrational and flies off the handle at minor confrontations, yet keeps her cool under other more serious forms of duress. She was difficult to root for and even more difficult to like. Her allegiance flip-flops FAR too easily. If I could describe her in one sentence I would be, “Jumps to conclusions like she’s auditioning for Frogger.”.

2.) Her frequent, long-winded introspective monologues were redundant at times, enough so that I found myself skimming bits.

3.) Special Girl Syndrome. Too much power given under not enough detailed development, with little to no checks.

4.) Pacing. Whew, it was all over the place. Slow to start, action packed, then slow again, rinse and repeat. In the last 1/3 of the book suddenly, and without much preamble, we get a change of setting as Ikenna and her crew head to another location. The transition is so jarring that I had to go back several times just to be sure I didn’t accidentally skip a chapter. For some reason it felt like the book should have ended with Ikenna making it out of the trials alive. It seemed the natural conclusion and I was very confused when the story progressed even further from there. Because of this, we get another round of heavy info-dumping that would have been better served (in my opinion) at the start of the next book.

Still, I got a lot of enjoyment from this story and it didn’t feel like a repeat of anything else I’ve read in the past. I believe Nia Davenport is a wonderfully skilled writer and I will be reading book two. Look out for this author, I don’t think you’ll wanna miss her!

Extra Notes:

Take care of yourself if you are a POC, especially black, while reading this.There is so much racism in this book that it’s almost constant. Many of the slurs are world-specific, but obviously you can derive what they are meant to insinuate.

Read this if you’re a fan of: The Hunger Games, Divergent, Dystopia and Sci-Fi + Magic

Trigger and Content Warnings: A LOT of racism, misogyny, blood, gore, violence, use of guns and various other weapons, torture, death, grief, explicit sexual content (one scene, about halfway in)

With Ikenna's powerful grandfather dead a few months before her graduation from the military academy, Ikenna is spiraling. When she learns that her grandfather's death may not gave been natural, she is quickly thrown into a series of brutal tests to achieve a level of influence and power need to uncover secrets that could lead to the truth about her grandfather.

I enjoyed this one. Ikenna is not one for making the smart choices, but much of the motivation driving her decisions is grief and revenge. The author has built an incredibly complex world with futuristic elements mixed with fantasy. It will be super interesting to read more about Ikenna's gift in the next book. There are a lot of twists in this book and some of them definitely got me. There is definitely some found family elements and the book is nicely set up for the sequel. Definitely recommend.

Thank you to HarperVoyager and Avon Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Real talk: I love books about deadly games, trials, competitions etc, so when I read the synopsis for this title, I knew it was the book for me. There were a lot of good things about this one: a powerful female with secret magic, strong bonds, and bloody trials. I believe it's important for women and girls to see themselves in leading roles in fantasies like this one.

The beginning started a bit slow, but once we got started, it was 0 to 100. Ikenna establishes herself as a worthy heroine that knows exactly what she wants. She wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it. I love how the author writes in consequences for every choice Ikenna makes throughout the book and how she rises from the racist rhetoric she faces. I loved her relationship with her friends and her distrust of everyone else, to a point.

The only gripe I had was the world-building. There are some tidbits of tech sprinkled in but I had a hard time finding my footing in Ikenna's world. I also wished Ikenna had more of a relationship with the other competitors; most of them seemed to have faded into the background with little no notice despite there being hundreds of them. These are tiny qualms and may not seem like big deals to other readers.

The cover may fool you, but this is not YA. There is a very steamy sex scene and some violence. It's action-packed and gritty and will definitely soothe your fantasy/scifi yearnings.

I knew I was going to love this from the first chapter. I thought this was so well done!
It was a fast paced, wild ride of a science fiction and magic blend. Ikenna was snarky, strong and generally kick-butt. I thought the story was well paced, never did I feel anything other than I need to know what happens next. Ikenna’s grandfather is murdered and she enters The Blood Trials, elite soldiers training, to find the killer. She has to fight through the deadly trials, deal with racism and sexism, investigate, and keep her own secrets from coming out.

Adult content note: heaving swearing and violence and mild sexual content

The world needs more books like this one. The representation is important, and I loved reading about a young black woman making strong, powerful choices for good, fighting against anyone who stood in her way or viewed her as less than others. I truly hope the second book in this duology has just as much empowerment. I will happily preorder it when it becomes available. This book has magic and mayhem, but it also has SO much heart!

The Blood Trials opens with a bar fight (that our MC wins of course!) and it just continues on from that. We learn that Ikeena is thinking of taking a gap year due to her distress over her grandfather's death - the only family she has left. But when someone tells her that it's likely he was killed due to racism - she knows she must join the trials to become a Praetorian to find the killer and avenge her grandfather.

The trials though are GRUELLING and well known for death. And with a target on her back for being both Black and a Woman - she's going to be tested like nothing before. She does have a secret weapon - a blood gift that she's kept hidden all these years since it marks her as an enemy of the entire country. She, along with her two friends Zayne and Selene, have no guarantee of making it out alive.

This book was EVERYTHING! I haven't read such a good blend of fantasy and scifi in a LONG time. My blood pressure has definitely risen during all the suspense in this book because it is just one big moment to the next. There's almost no pause, just sheer determination and thrill as we watch Ikenna try to survive and find justice for her grandfather's murder. She's constantly on edge the entire book and the author does a great job of making the reader feel so as well.

Everything about this book is violent, from the racism and sexism that she faces, to the rigidness of the challenges and the effects of colonialism. You can't help but root for Ikenna. Probably one of the best written "strong female" protagonists I've read. I've been reading a lot more NA fantasy and that's definitely what I'd classify this as. I can't wait for book 2.

This book was everything! I can't wait to read more from the author. The writing was stellar and the character development is all that one hopes for when reading. As one reads this book they will fall more in love with the premise and what the world building does to the readers mind.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

The Blood Trials was such a fun ride of a book. It combines elements I’ve read about in other novels, like The Hunger Games and Divergent, and adds to them. It feels like a beautiful blend of fantasy and sci-fi, which is quickly becoming my favorite blend of genres.

I love to see representation in books, and I loved the POC main character (Ikenna Amari). The characters in this world have to deal with racism and misogyny while fighting for their lives in a competition to become an elite warrior. What sets this book apart from others is the unique blood gift aspect as well as the murder mystery we have to solve along with Ikenna. I knew I was hooked on this book after I read the bar fight scene at the beginning. I can picture that scene so clearly in my head and would make for such a cool scene in a show or movie.

The Blood Trials is the first book in The Blood Gift duology and I very much look forward to reading the next book. Pick it up if you like dystopian type books with a fantasy twist.

5 bloody stars for a powerful and engaging debut adult scifi fantasy!!!

Cw: idk how to phrase this....body parts exploding, someone getting skinned alive, ptsd, explicit sex scene

Ikenna is as strong as hell, petty, strategic, and could probably out insult you while curb stomping you.

The world building and mythology of this world was so interesting and I feel like its very easy to follow especially for someone who hasn't read a lot of Sci fi like myself.

The trials themselves reminded of the intensity of squid games and hunger games but harsher and more gruesome.

I loved how well even the side characters were written to the point where I HATED most of the trail instructors and the graduate students who were extremely racist towards Ikenna.

The pacing was really well done and each trial became more and more intense and even when the trials were oven the plot was pushed forward into high intensity overload in a way that has me extremely excited for the next and final book in the series.


Overall, I'm super excited for what book 2 has in store and I can't wait to see how Ikenna handles this course she has decided to take.

Before I get into this review, this book is NOT YA. It is graphic and there are some gruesome scenes, so you’ve been warned.

Davenport delivers a harrowing, action packed revenge novel that masterfully combines futuristic technology and a magic system rooted in blood. This story follows Ikenna Amari, who signs up for the grueling Praetorian Trials in order to uncover who murdered her grandfather: the former Legatus, Verne Amari.

Ikenna is a forced to be reckoned with. She’s hell bent on revenge and will get it by whatever means necessary. Ikenna is fierce, determined, impulsive, and full of rage. Davenport does not shy away from the consequences that Ikenna faces for each of the decisions she makes. Ikenna also suffers from constant degradation due to both her skin color and gender, which makes it even more difficult to fulfill her grandfather’s wishes of creating the Amari legacy line for future generations.

While the trials themselves (and those in charge of them) were absolutely ruthless, I really enjoyed watching Ikenna not only navigate the challenges but also the relationships she has with her best friends as well as others in her competing class. I felt that the side characters were flushed out really well, and I definitely was invested in several of them.

This is a fantastic start to this duology, and now I must patiently wait for book two.

This book was simply amazing. It gave me hunger games/divergent vibes except to a whole new level with even more at stake. The fight scenes were so vivid I was actively cringing away from the pages yet unable to put the book down. I found myself so incredibly invested in the main character. I need so many more books from Davenport. Their imagery is top notch and I cannot wait for more.