On Wings of Blood is a dark fantasy academia book with Vampires, Fae, magic and dragons.

Our FMC Medra ends up in an unfamiliar world and is face to face with our Vampire/Bully MMC Blake.

She ends up betrothed to him thanks to Blake’s very powerful uncle believing her to be a dragon rider thanks to her wild red hair and is forced to attend Bloodwing Academy alongside Highbloods and some chosen Blightborns. She finds she finds herself making friends with some blightborns who help her understand the world she is now in.

She has to navigate through deadly competition, dealing with her co-consort, trying to stay alive while being hated by Highbloods, all the while concealing the truth; that she isn’t from their world!

The tension between the MCs begins off slow while we are on Medras POV. Once we switch to Blake’s POV, we begin to see his is intrigued by her and has an attraction towards her.

The dragons enter the story very late in the day and the ending leaves us with a huge cliffhanger.

The synopsis is correct, if you like Harry Potter and Fourth Wing (and potentially Zodiac Academy, I however haven’t read this) then you will see the very close similarities between the stories.

Overall I would give the book:
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Thanks to NetGallery, Briar Boleyn & Victory Editing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved fourth wing so when this was compared to it I had to give it a go. It did not disappoint. The world build is brilliant and storyline between the characters are amazing. I truly enjoyed reading every page

Thank you Starwater Press, Victory Editing, Net Galley and Briar Boleyn for an advanced reader copy of On Wings of Blood!

A god-like being falls into a land ruled by vampires, an unfamiliar world for the fae-goddess, yet familiar for readers. I'm saying familiar on the conditions of its extreme similarity to Harry Potter, Fourth Wing, a bit of Hunger Games styled enchantments, and other descriptive devices used in the synopsis of the book. I knew what I was getting myself into, didn't know to what extent really. I do understand plots and characters being inspired by other literary sources, but this book had a promise of delivering a world where inspiration doesn't hinge itself to a loose thread of reckless identity crisis on what the book stands for. A mirror for the could have beens of other fantasy literature or an attempt to fan-fictionalise narrative which consequently can be found on ao3 or such.

I did like how the story progressed, I was immensely excited in the beginning, and I liked how different structures of the society of 'Sangratha', has its own history. I liked the essence of new terminologies built around different conditions of the main characters, Medra Pendragon and Blake Drakharrow. (Also, simply naming the hero Blake... lmaooo). I also liked that the villain stayed true to his characteristics. [...] The book featured a richly diverse cast of characters, encompassing a wide range of sexual orientations and racial identities, but I still don’t understand what period of time is being used to create this world, because all of them have such normal, present-world names, but then the book mentions ancient systems, and I can’t figure out what world-building method of time is being used to describe these characters.

Anyways, heed onto the trigger warnings. A good edition to the romantasy genre. Not that good if you wanted a well-developed narrative, world-building, characters with their own shades of colours, that didn’t read like a dramoine fanfic. (But, if that’s your thing, then it’ll be nice.) This was my first attempt at Briar Boleyn, can’t wait to read more!

4.5⭐️
1.5/2🌶️

I ABSOLUTELY loved this book!!! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Briar Boleyn for the opportunity to ARC read this.

If you like FOURTH WING, Serpent and the Wings of Night or Zodiac Academy - YOU WILL LOVE THIS!

This dark academia/romantasy follows Medra Pendragon(FMC) as she awakes in a strange world, trying to get her bearings when Prince Blake Drakharrow(MMC) stumbles across her. The red hair, pointed ears and elongated hands immediately peak his curiosity, alongside his accompanying army who all seemed shocked to see someone who looks like a ‘dragon rider’. Medra soon realised that she is no longer in her own world and is surrounded by creatures of myth - Vampires🧛‍♂️ putting her at the bottom of the food chain.

‘If I accepted that this was real, then it meant I was alive. I was betrothed. I was a hostage of vampires. And I was a student.’

How quickly things have taken a turn!!

Bloodwing Academy certainly puts Medra through her paces as she tries navigate her new reality. New friendships are forged along with a perfect ENEMIES-LOVERS-?EMENIES? between her and Blake.

THE CLIFFHANGER IS KILLING ME!!!!!

“Whatever I’ve done, it was only to make you stronger. You’re MINE, Pendragon, and that won’t ever change.”

* touch her and d!€
* Enemies to lovers
* Forced proximity/betrothal
* Strong FMC
* Vampires 🧛‍♂️ / Dragons 🐉
* Possessive MMC

Absolutely loved this book!

It’s said it is fourth wing meets true blood and I definitely see it!

The plot and world build was easy to follow and this is a must read for any fantasy lovers

I so wanted to love this book because I have loved other books this author has written, but this one was not for me. It read like a bad Harry Potter V Fourth Wing fanfiction and the only reason I did not DNF was because it was like watching a slow motion car accident and I wanted to have all the details to tell the police. The characters had none of the complexity that I have seen from this author in other books and the plot was too similar to HP and FW. I mean, a sorting rock. Give me a break!

I will still be reading more from Briar Boleyn and I'm hoping that this is a 'second album' syndrome. I will not be recommending this. Sorry!

Big thanks to NetGalley and Briar Boleyn for a copy of this book. This is my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

So when this book started off, I had a hard time with it only because of all the bullying. But that is honestly just a personal preference and it’s something that I could push through. It only affects my opinion a small amount.

I cannot get enough of Briar Boleyn’s work. I think I will read every single book she comes out with. When Knight of the Goddess ended, I did not want it to end and I was not ready to be done with those characters. So I am so excited that we get to pick up where they left off somewhat.

This did take me a little while to get into because of the bullying and I kept kind of dragging my feet a little bit. But once I got to about 30%-ish, I could not put it down.

The book blurb says Harry Potter mixed with Zodiac Academy mixed with vampires, and it could not be more accurate!

At the end of Knight of the Goddess, when Medra disappears, we think she’s gone for good or dead. However, in this book she isn’t. She has just reappeared in another world. This time she is in a world full of vampires and they think she is the key to their prophecy…the last dragon rider. The only problem is there aren’t any dragons left…or are there?

Now she must attend Bloodwing Academy to learn the way of the vampires and their “royalty” if she has any chance of survival in this world.

This was 4.5 out of 5 starts for me and I would highly recommend everything she’s written so far!!!!

Wow! I absolutely devoured this book! It was a little bit slow to begin with, but once the pace picked up, I found myself getting lost in this world that has been beautifully written.
I have read the authors other series where there is a crossover for this book, but you do not need to read that series first.
Medra finds herself in a world she doesn't know, inhabited by humans and the powerful race of vampires, and is thrust into a forced bond with Blake, a moody powerful vampire. Medra must also attend academy where she learns to fight, find out her powers and see if she can unlock who she is - a dragon rider.
If you like academy style vibes, touch her and die, slow burn tropes, then this is the book for you! I am so excited for book 2

This book was like the perfect book to get me out of my Fourth Wing hangover. I love an academy setting. I also loved having the addition of vampires. The world building was super easy to follow, but it was also interesting. I am the type of person that hates when people instantly fall in love because it doesn’t make sense. This book had the perfect amount of slow-burn to truly make it an enemies to lovers. There was some spice, romance, dragons, vampires. What more could you ask for?

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read your book! I enjoyed it the whole time and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

I like Briar Boleyn books before but this one just wasn't the same as the others I've read by her. It just didn't stand out to me.

This Book had Everything... Even healed apart of me. A piece of me will forever live on in-between the pages of this book & a piece of my heart will forever call BloodWing Academy Home!!! This was such an emotional book for me. This showed me why I love to read & where it all started. This was like a big hug. So cozy. This book is beautifully written & detailed. You can picture everything in your head all the down to the tinest details & textures. You feel like your there right along side the characters. The banter laughter, sorrows you feel them all. You get to see & experience the characters self discoveries & acceptances. Trials & Tribulations , Suspenseful,Romantasy Mixed With Amazing Mysterious Vibes. Whimsical & Magical...Dragons, Vampires Oh My!!!

I was very excited for this book and I was thrilled by the story.

To keep it short and spoiler free I just want to say how much the author put into the story and how hooked I was from start to finish. The cover is absolutely beautiful and I would suggest this book to everyone!

This book is so underrated!!

4.5 ⭐ rounded up for the VERY unexpected and incredible cliffhanger ending 🙌
🌶️🌶️ (Lots of angst, 1 intense 3rd base rendezvous + voyeurism 😬)

I was worried about this after seeing some DNF reviews but things are not what they seem in the first 10-20% of this book so DO NOT STOP READING! The story follows Medra, a fiery ginger, who finds herself in a strange world where dragons once lived and is now ruled by ruthless, classist vampires. She is betrothed to a prominent vampire early on and is enrolled in the same high-stakes academy he attends. I'll let the tropes speak for themselves but man this book has it all and not in a way that feels forced. Only qualm was the length of the book 🫠 (+700 pages).

What to expect:

🐉Dragons
👥 Dual POV
⚔️ Badass FMC
❤️ Found family
✨📚 Magical academy
🥺 Emotional damage
🌶️🌶️ Spice
💕 Enemies to lovers
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ representation

<b> The first taste of her blood hit me like a drug. Sweet and rich and powerful. She was everything I’d been craving. More.</b>

3.5 ⭐️
From the prologue I was instantly hooked. The world building and character introductions in Book 1 had my full attention. But by the end of Book 1 I was questioning if we’d ever get a Blake POV chapter?

The middle of the book (basically Book 2-4) was a bit lackluster for me. There was both a lot going on and nothing going on at the same time. And while I was always excited to start reading again, it was easy to put down in this section.

The end perfectly sets us up for the second installment and I’m genuinely excited to read it! I hope we get more interactions between the main characters in that one!

<b>Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review! </b>

Before anything else: this cover looks very AI. The wings, the paws, the neck, the scales, the way the title blends with the background.

Medra is isekai'd after violently dying and finds herself in a new world where vampires are the top bosses. She's found by the dark and blonde prince of the vampires who tells her she has the mark of a rider, and thus, he takes her to the king of the vampires (aka his uncle). Scary uncle Viktor binds them using magic, and then the prince and the prisoner go to... college?

I really didn't like this book. Medra is strong. She speaks her mind, and she is aware the world is unfair. The MMC, Blake Drakharrow, is a brooding and hateful vampire, but we get his POV, where the author tries to show us that he has soft sides. The two supposedly have a lot of tension, but that's very tell (they repeat it. All. The. Time.) and not a lot of show. A lot of the dialogue was so unnatural that I completely lost any crumb of immersion. MINOR SPOILER WARNING: One of the worst examples I can think of this is when Medra's bff says something like "you might wonder why we haven't told you about this before, it is because we didn't think about it", then proceed to tell how she's been asking around about said thing because of Medra.

More positive (depending on your tastes): it's very formulatic and predictable. The tropes are troping, and it's entertaining enough. It's like a more trashy Fourth Wing, kinda like CoHo fantasy. The language and flow are easy enough to make it a quicker read.

1.5 ⭐️

On Wings of Blood (Bloodwing Academy 1) by Briar Boleyn
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

-dark academia
-vampires and fae
-dramione vibes
-dual POVs
-Hogwarts/Fourth Wing vibes
-dragon rider with no dragon
-deadly competition
-enemies to lovers
-forced betrothal
-he falls first

The beginning of this book threw me for a loop and I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on or who anyone was but I couldn’t stop reading. About 20% in, after some reservations, I was pretty invested. It definitely gives a darker (and bloodier) Hogwarts vibe.

Medra Pendragon is our feisty fae FMC who finds herself in this new world, captured because of her rare qualities and blood making her the last dragon rider, forced into a life and betrothal she didn’t ask for.

Blake Drakharrow is perfect for our Draco Malfoy lovers, he’s a bully, head of the house, the enemy, a vampire, and also her betrothed. Things get tense when his other consort makes Medra’s life difficult, and the drama and politics of the school turns deadly.

“𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚, 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙣𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣, 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨...𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚. 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙚. 𝙄𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙤𝙩.“

Meanwhile, Medra is struggling to find a way to freedom, to stay alive in a school of vampires, and to understand why she is so important if the dragons no longer exist.

I think book 2 is gonna be a wild ride judging by that ending and I’ll definitely be picking it up when it comes out.

Thank you @netgalley and @briarboleynauthor for the ARC.

On Wings of Blood is available now on KU.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“You could never hate me as much as you want me.”

Um, did this book just become my new personality?!

Welcome to Bloodwing Academy, the best school in Sangratha, where highbloods and blightborns alike gain their education - if they can survive. Hogwarts meets Zodiac Academy in this brutal and sizzling opener for the Bloodwing Academy series, I for one am absolutely dying for book two!

The story follows Medra, a half-fae princess from another world, who has landed into an unknown land ruled by ruthless vampires who believe her to be the first dragon rider to exist in centuries. She is bound into a forced triad betrothal to Prince Blake Drakharrow - think bloodthirsty extra-sexy Draco Malfoy! - and his existing consort (and ultimate jealous bitch) Regan. Packed off to Bloodwing with her new betrothed, Medra has to fight to survive in the harsh corridors of the academy, literally facing life and death in between her textbooks and classes.

I absolutely loved this book, it was everything I wanted it to be and more. I devoured Zodiac Academy back in the summer and have had a lil silly/sexy hole in my heart ever since that I’ve not been able to fill - until now. This book has everything - enemies to lovers, a badass FMC, bully romance, blood magic, secret passageways and best of all LOST DRAGONS THAT ARE NEVER COMING BACK *wink wink*

I loved the characters and really liked the realism of Blake, despite being a highblood vampire prince, still being a dumb man about pretty much everything he does or says to Medra. I also really appreciate an author who isn’t afraid to hurt our feelings! Without giving anything away, I think it adds much more to a story to kill off characters and to take off the plot armour that is rife in a lot of fantasy/romantasy books. Plus, this book actually has some decent gruesome-ness, these are vampires and they’re sexy yeah, but Boleyn hasn’t held back from keeping them scary and cruel.

This book is a lot of fun, would highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Briar Boleyn for giving me the privilege of reading this book!

🩸Bully Romance
🩸Vampires
🩸Magic Academy
🩸Draco Malfoy MMC Energy
🩸Steamy Enemies to Lovers
🩸Sassy FMC
🩸Found Family
🩸Dragons

🌶️🌶️/5

Bloodwing Academy is basically Hogwarts x Basgiath War College with vampires 🦇🩸

And I’m here for it.

It was obvious what the points of inspiration are but I think Boleyn’s complete openness regarding the inspiration only made it better, also peak marketing, I’m a huge fan of both series. I’m not really a Bully Romance girlie but I’m absolutely a Draco Malfoy girlie (contradicting I know), this alone got me interested in the book, add vampires AND dragons? The fuck was I supposed to do? Read it, obviously.

Did I mention that these gorgeous vampire men came tattooed? (full back and neck tattoos - yummy). Honestly it’s like Boleyn knows my fantasies.

We all know that I’m basically a vampire’s thrall at this point. So it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that I had a great time with this book. The atmosphere of this book was perfection, it definitely had the ‘dark academia’ feel and Boleyn’s writing was rich enough to carry the weight of vampiric characters. I found the characterisation of the younger highbloods (vampires) extremely fitting. They were pretentious, snobby, entitled brats which I thought was accurate to say the least, hell they were downright childish most of the time.

The book started a little slow for me but once I hit the 30% (namely Blake’s first Chapter) but speeds up after that, it took me no time at all once I got to that point.

Medra is a fierce, warrior woman, is confident and has a moral compass. Blake is a mean, possessive (she’s mine), broody type and he has some good character development.

Everyone is horny. Well nearly everyone.

I don’t know I had a great time and will be looking forward to reading the sequel!

thank you netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review !

i was excited to start this book and my god, i was not disappointed!

on wings of blood by briar boleyn starts with medra pendragon, a half fae, who finds herself being forced into an academic institution called bloodwing academy after realising she’s in an entirely new realm called sangratha. she’s captured when she arrives where she discovers she’s in the world of highblood vampires whose politics and need for power has unwillingly betrothed her to blake drakharrow. she must navigate the world she’s in through the academy, discover their secrets and history to survive while fighting the pull she has to blake.

this book was insanely good with its romance and fast-paced action. it’s got vampires, it’s got enemies to lovers with a slow burn, dark academic vibes, deadly games and such an interesting world and lore behind it.

medra is a badass heroine in this book who is fierce, independent and refused to let herself break in this new world she’s stumbled across. she’s tested by the highbloods at every turn. however she finds friendship with florence and naveen who come together to support each other and i think their found-family bond is so beautiful.

blake is handsome, yet cold, arrogant and brutal but he gradually shows his protectiveness and rebellious side against the institution and rules he grew up with. his family name almost haunts him as he is controlled by his uncle to remain the strongest family and to keep in line to avoid consequence. he is more than what meets the eye and makes a complicated and layered character.

the romance is developed so well. their push and pull throughout the series is delicious, filled of tension and angst and hatred. they challenge and annoy another, break rules where they shouldn’t and yet they cannot escape the tether that is connecting them. it’s excellently written.

honestly i just enjoyed it so much - it was easy to understand the world, the politics and magical systems introduced. it’s fast-paced and everything flows so well especially with the romance. i cannot wait for the follow up to see where medra and blake’s relationship will go after THAT ending. i don’t think i can wait to be honest, i am already yearning for the next one !