Eva Beauford tried to cheat a blood covenant older than this country. Using her own potent blood, she believed she could protect the man chosen for her before she drew her first breath and shattered the pact that had bound Beauford daughters for two centuries. Veidrel knew. And the ancient entity answered the only way it knows. With a blight.
Now black ash falls on Beauford Grove like snow. The soil turns to ash. The people are falling sick with blackened veins beneath their skin, just as they did in Haiti two centuries ago, when a plantation dared to defy the covenant. Rafe, Eva’s scientist, her partner, her heart, is Veidrel’s now, possessed and slipping further away with every passing hour.
Eva is pregnant with a child that shouldn’t exist. Born of the ritual, carrying both Beauford and Durand blood, and an inheritance her ancestors predicted, Veidrel never anticipated. A child who could end this war, if Eva can survive long enough to bring him into the world. The Grove kept its end of a dark bargain for two hundred years. Now the debt comes due, and Eva Beauford refuses to pay.
Generally, this was a highly enjoyable follow-up that has a lot to like. The main storyline, taking off from the events of the previous book, where her desire to protect her child from the confines of the curse affecting her family and setting out to stop everything in the preordained plan for her, brings about a series of impressive plot points from the original and expands on that universe quite nicely. Looking at the different means through which the entity tries to manipulate her into trying to get back into the more agreed-upon terms of the deal involving the family gives this a fun throughline for this one that allows for it to continue the storyline as well as build on it for its own sake in the way in which the new aspects of the curse are explored. That gives everything some stakes in the fight with how it raises the emotional connection to the material presented here.
What makes it all the more impressive is the fun way of writing this, as the way it plays out makes for a great read. The combination of using the same great characters from the previous entry, who are given fantastic motivations to keep the baby safe from the spectral forces following her, sets the main girl up as a great protagonist we follow. It keeps the story moving along just as much as the supernatural ramifications of the curse affecting her, as a series of flashbacks helps explain this further and brings in additional elements that enhance the curse's dynamics, giving everything a more controlled dynamic than expected. Flowing nicely with some easy-going writing that keeps the intense action accessible and immersive along the way, this comes across with a lot to like.
4.5/5
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