2.5 stars

I was immediately interested in reading Blood, Ink, & Fire when I read the summary because I found this idea of a dystopian world where reading is something forbidden, interesting. Also, I absolutely love the cover on this book - It is absolutely stunning! No spoilers below and I will be writing this one a bit differently to make sure I don’t give anything away.

Noelle has always seen words and regardless of what the government allows, she is always trying to figure out what they mean. As a member of the Vale (Valer) she is supposed to be immersed in the feed that Verity controls and as her birthday nears and her immersion right around the corner, Noelle is continually questioning her fit within Vale.

What I liked about this book:
• I thought Mansour did a great job of building up the world Noelle lived in and she even provided a lot of information on how things ended up the way they did.
• The idea behind this story – the idea that there is a world where reading isn’t allowed and books are destroyed makes my heart hurt but I loved the premise.
• Noelle’s friendship with John and her relationship with her grandfather.

What I struggled with:
• Ledger – perhaps I am super dense but I spent a good portion of the book not really understanding who/what he was and how he was linked to things
• Tied to Ledger – I thought the relationship would have been more believable had John been linked to the story somehow.
• The pacing of the story felt off. There were parts that felt really (unnecessarily) drawn out and others that moved so quickly I had to flip to make sure I didn’t miss something.
• The “bad” guy – I needed more information and that’s all I can say about this.

Overall this book has a great message and while there were pieces that I struggled with, I thought this was a solid story. If you love books and the dystopian genre, consider checking this one out when you can.