Briar Boleyn’s On Wings of Blood is an absolute triumph for fans of dark fantasy and slow-burn romance, especially for those already captivated by her Blood of a Fae series. After Medra defeats her grandfather, expecting her life to end, she instead finds herself waking in a world completely foreign to her own. Here, she’s immediately seized by Blake, a brooding Highblood prince, and whisked off to the Black Keep. Medra’s distinct appearance—fiery red hair and pointed ears—marks her as an outsider, and her resemblance to the long-lost dragonriders spares her life...but at a cost. Bound to Blake against her will as part of a political maneuver, Medra is thrust into a power struggle within an elite academy where vampires and other mythical beings roam.

The academy’s high society is ruthless, with a rigid hierarchy, Medra finds herself forced to navigate, all while struggling to master her own budding powers. Boleyn crafts a world brimming with magical intrigue, danger, and intense romantic tension. Medra’s bond with Blake simmers with a love-hate energy that’s electrifying. Their connection is a beautifully orchestrated slow-burn, full of palpable tension and undeniable chemistry. Medra and Blake are bound by a complex mix of obligation, distrust, and magnetic desire, creating a deliciously frustrating dynamic that makes their romance utterly addictive.

This novel is rich with fantastical elements, from the political machinations of powerful families to the thrilling presence of vampires, dragons, and an ancient legacy. Boleyn delivers a story that keeps you on edge, with its mix of high stakes, magical intrigue, and romance. For anyone who enjoys an immersive, darkly magical world with characters who clash and connect in the most compelling ways, On Wings of Blood is a must-read!

You will like this book if:
You wish Hogwarts was a more collegiate setting with a bit of spice
You wish Draco had more spotlight & got the girl
You like vampires, fae & dragons
You love when a fictional man says ”MINE!” Or “Touch her and die!”
You love found family, arranged marriage & fated mate tropes
You love a strong female lead that doesn’t take crap from anyone.

Now this is a spin off of Briar’s Blood of a Fae series, so I highly recommend reading that 4 book series first (starting with Queen of Roses) or you will miss Medra’s background and be confused about where she came from, who & what she is and there are small spoilers for the ending of Knight of the Goddess. Overall Briar has done it again and created another astounding world with new and old characters you will enjoy(or hate). I can’t wait to see where this series leads!

I was very excited for this book and I was not at all disappointed.

To keep it short and sweet and of course spoiler free I just want to say how much the author put time and thought into the well written story and how hooked I was from start to finish. The cover is absolutely beautiful and I would recommend anyone to give this book a go.

Spoiler free review * If you mix Dark academia with fourth wing and vampires and a sprinking of fae? On Wings of Blood felt like an epic story with a ton of worldbuilding. its dark but the FMC and MMC kept me hooked and invested in the Hate to love/Enemies to lovers. i loved the representation in this book and the character building. i spent my time reading this book and enjoyed every moment absorbing the world. the dragon rider element will have you hooked. Highly reccomend and i cannot wait to read the next book. Also gave me adult harry potter vibes

4⭐️
2🌶️
“It doesn't matter what you want, Pendragon. You'll never have to ask.”

Slow burn? This one takes it to a whole new level. I’m still waiting for more! But while we wait, On Wings of Blood delivers plenty of fluffins, witty banter, and the occasional blood sacrifice. So, not all bad!

Medra is everything I love in a FMC—strong, takes zero sh$t, but I wish she’d be a bit less nice sometimes, especially when it comes to Regan. She could definitely use a little more of Blake’s “toss them in the fire” energy! And speaking of Blake, can we get more of his POV in the next book? Because yes, please. Hate to love you with these two.

And more fluffins—definitely more fluffins. If you haven’t seen the art of them on Instagram, do it!

It’s a long read, but it kept me invested the whole way through. I just kept wanting to know what would happen next and, of course, was hoping for some more spice and that elusive bond completion. The supporting characters are intriguing too, and I’m looking forward to digging deeper into their stories.

And then, the cliffhanger hit… just when I thought I couldn’t be tortured any more. Thanks for that!

Tropes:

⭐️Dragons
⭐️Vampires
⭐️Enemies to lovers
⭐️Dark academia
⭐️Bully MMC
⭐️Arranged marriage
⭐️Touch her and ☠️
⭐️Forced bond


Thank you Briar Boleyn and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and the suffering I am now experiencing waiting for book #2 in exchange for an honest review⭐️

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this book! It’s a great enemies to… almost lovers (we’re getting there lol) & slowburn! The amount of times I was hoping they would just kiss already 🙈 the ending was surprising, I didn’t see it coming! I can’t wait for the other books to come out! So I can hole up in my office again and fall in love with another book!

Dragons, vampires and dark academia! What more can you ask for?

Just wow! It’s 3am and I’m left wide awake and furious! (in the best way) I want to flip tables at that ending!!

I completely missed the tag line about Harry Potter, ZA and fourth wing vibes but man that’s exactly what’s going down here!

We have strong FMC, sizzling tension, angst without it being proper school aged kids stuff… just beautifully dark and beautifully written! I absolutely can’t wait to see where this goes next!

Thanks to NetGalley, Victory Editing and the fabulous Briar Boleyn for this ARC in exchange for a honest review

Book reviews, but make it a ✨haiku✨ for On Wings of Blood by Briar Boleyn. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with this e-arc!
"He's hot." Mom, please stop.
Not better than me, f*ck you
Fine. Be that way...B*tch

What happens when you combine Fourth Wing, Zodiac Academy, and a pinch of Arthurian legend? You're served On Wings of Blood. This book was SO good I could not put it down! There was tension, spice, fight scenes, high-stakes trials, and mean girls. A mean girl who has a different spelling of my name, and made me want to smack her on more than one occasion.

4.5⭐️
This was so good! It was everything l'd want in a dark academia story and more. The world building, tension, twists, all had me hooked. It's duo POV which is my favourite.
I really liked Medra's character. She is a strong and stubborn FMC, stands up for what she believes in, doesn't take crap from others.
Blake is morally grey and possessive with bully vibes but you get to see glimpses of his softer side. I think there's more to him and he just hasn't shown us yet.
The cliffhanger has me begging for the next book asap. I can't wait to see what happens next and how their relationship will develop.

On Wings of Blood - 5 Stars

If you enjoy morally grey men, Briar Boleyn's characters will have you terrified for the female main character (FMC) while simultaneously praying they end up together, thanks to their off-the-charts chemistry.

This book is perfect for fans of dark academia, intense drama, and those who seek love and romance within the pages of a novel. The FMC is sassy, witty, confident, and always fighting against injustice. The male main character (MMC) is a hauntingly complicated, tortured soul who needs more from the FMC.

In "On Wings of Blood," you'll fall in love with all the brilliantly written characters, even if they smell of mint and apple. Briar Boleyn has once again crafted an excellent piece of work in the genres of Fantasy and Romantasy. If this review doesn't convince you to pick up the book, these quotes surely will:

"He wore a black, tailored suit that fit him impeccably, accentuating his tall, lean frame. The jacket hugged his broad shoulders and chest, tapering at the waist to hint at his muscular, subtly defined torso."

"I’d already been so...aroused that I knew if I’d..., I wouldn’t have been able to restrain myself."

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the concept and the plot. I found the FMC very stubborn and hardheaded, towards the frustrating point sometimes, because I mean we can forgive a morally grey MMC a lot can’t we? Even though I knew she was right! I love the Harry Potter feel of a book for each school year and the learnings of a new world. I can’t wait to read book 2!

Lords, She has done it AGAIN!! Somehow even better though!! I could not put this down and I am APPALLED that I have to wait for the next book. As a ZA/Dramione fan, this gave me EVERYTHINGGGG I needed and was promised. It was thick but not too thick, mysterious but not overkill. Briar, pleaseeeeee let there be love in book 2! I haven't shipped two people so hard before.... Ya'll pick this one up. RUN actually!

Oh boy, it was a looooooong book. Personally I feel like it could be cut shorter and there were multiple times where I was thinking to DNF this one. However the tension between the characters pushed me to read through. It is enemies to lovers however only from one side haha. The book itself is very slow-paced and is a slow-burn, but I liked general world building, with a hint of Fourth Wing and dark academia vides. Overall a book is a solid three stars but was missing something to make me rate higher.
Ends on a huge cliffhanger.

So I was under the impression this story is a standalone, which is why I requested it. I think, yes, it possibly could - but the way the beginning of this story is written, it very much feels like a continuation of something that happened in another book. I happened to have read the first two books in Briar Boleyn's Blood of a Fae series and so I recognize character names, however I did not finish the series and so I am was very lost reading this. I am going to have to read this one after I finished the BoaF series first. I really wish if there is that much of a backstory missing that the story would have been labeled as such. I truly thought this was a brand new series.

What can I say, i LOVE this book! It has a real Fourth Wing vibe to it and I can't get enough! The world building is awesome, it's really easily to picture in your mind and the characters are really easy to vibe with.
I really enjoy the anticipation of what comes next amongst the MC and the vampires within the Bloodwing academy.
Definitely recommend 👌

Harry Potter meets Zodiac Academy in this story, the MMC giving strong Draco Malfoy vibes.
This is the first book in the spin-off series of Blood Of A Fae and it’s starting strong!
It kept me on edge the entire time. The main characters are well constructed, the story well written and the plot is interesting.
Medra finds herself in a world of vampires after she survives the events happening in the last book of Blood of a fae series and she is perceived as the last of a great line of dragon riders. Forced to mate with the handsome yet infuriating Blake Drakharrow and obliged to attend a vampire academy, she must survive in a world where most people want to kill her or use her in some way.

The tension and the chemistry was really strong and I cannot wait to read the next book!

Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC!

When Medra in On Wings of Bood by Briar Boleyn finds herself in a strange new world, she has no idea that things will get dangerous very fast.
From the very first I was totally engrossed into this book. There is so much going on right from the start, so much action, mystery and danger, that I had a really hard time to stop reading. The writing style is fast paced and the story just pulls you in. Medra is a fantastic character: she is fierce, can fight, but also does not belong in this world she finds herself in. Her captor/enemy/fellow student Blake is somehow she hates, but at the same time there is this attraction.

The world-building is amazing! I got Hunger Games/Harry Potter vibes, but it is much darker. The story is filled with danger, mystery, magic, and there is so much action. All the characters come across so very well.
On Wings of Blood is a must read for any fantasy fan!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

I was instantly sucked into this one and cannot wait for book two! I had trouble putting this one down. Definitely excited for more dragons!

I really enjoyed the tension between Blake and Medra. Also, really enjoyed how their relationship overall progressed. The enemies-to-lovers was well done as well. Both characters were well done, especially Blake's (my new fictional boyfriend?) character.

Loved all of the fantasy elements: the vampires, the dragons, the magic. It also gave Hunger Games vibes which was totally my scene. Also, a little bit of Fourth Wing (dragons obvi).

Definitely recommend to other fantasy readers and anyone looking for more books with dragons.

Thank you to Starwater Press and Briar Boleyn for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This is kind of a spoiler, but not really. There’s a point in the book where we learn that there’s a voice in the FMCs head that just so happens to be her mother’s spirit (that died during childbirth). I have so many questions. Where has the mums spirit been this whole time? Why is she only just now speaking up? When they finally start communicating why are they both so casual about it? I feel like if I’d been hanging out in my child’s head for like 20 years there would be a whole lot of stuff I’d want to get off my chest. And there was just nothing… we just accept that her mums spirit now lives inside her head?? What??

It had big HP vibes with a bit of mean girls thrown in. There were the four houses they get assigned (sorted) into, there’s the vampires who feel like they’re better than the muggles, I mean blightborn, special lessons from a professor on how to guard your mind from attack and there’s even a ditsy friend in the popular girl group called Gretchen. We also had secret tunnels that opened up in store rooms of shops in a nearby town and a game/trial that felt very tri-wizard tournament.

Ok, after reading all that back it kinda sounds like I didn’t enjoy it… which is not the case. It was still entertaining and I still need to know what happens in the next book. The friendship group was fun and hoping the next book has more Theo and Visha as part of that group. There was plenty of tension between the two MCs and I’m glad we got a bit of a look at Blake’s POV so we could see his side of the story.

Genre: Romance/fantasy (MF)
Format: Digital
POV: Dual
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, vampires, dragons, school setting, trials and games, fluffy little creatures, secret passages, some truely terrible people.
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ /5
Age suggestion: 18+

This book went from being fascinating, to intimidating with its content warnings, to mysterious, a little grotesque and then I was somehow hooked and finishing it. All the content warnings, especially about forced blood drinking, murder, death, etc. are fair and should be taken if you prefer not to read these topics. There are some REALLY intense descriptions which had me feeling very uncomfortable at times. However, I was able to skim those sections and in fact wanted to because the plot was so good! This is quick paced, action packed and has truly visceral enemies to lover romance! And yes... they're still not there by the end of this book. They're still very much on the forced allies/enemies side of the scale. The battle scenes were incredible well paced, very descriptive and honestly some of the most enjoyable battle scenes I've read in a long time.

It is accurate to say it's a combination of Fourth Wing with its brutally honest depiction of the gore of the world and reality of the students (plus it's at a war academy), and Harry Potter with its school setting and classes. I haven't read Zodiac Academy so I can't comment on that, and I'll be honest I'm struggling to see all but a vague connection to Arthurian legend (the last name le Fay is used as in Morgana le Fay). Perhaps that will be developed later?

I would have appreciated less time skips, especially as they happen closer to the end of the book, but that's why this is four stars and not five. I love the friendship with Florence, I'm also glad to see Briar isn't afraid to kill off characters, and I hope we see more of the other houses. Can we all say THANK YOU for the justice against Regan. She was such an annoying brat the entire time. One final point... do not expect many dragons going into this. As well as the skips, I think the other element that disappointed me was just how little we learned about dragons, despite Medra supposedly writing an essay on them. I desperately want more dragons next time!