Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Blood Borne
SERIES: The Republic #3
AUTHOR: Archer Kay Leah
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 402 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2017
BLURB:
For Ress, survival is a complicated nightmare. Caught between two masters on different sides of the law, his life is falling apart one bad decision at a time. All he wants is to be is a good person, a loyal family man, and a successful metalsmith–a dream he can never obtain while he works for the Shar-denn, the violent gang that plagues the republic of Kattal.
To make matters worse, he works as an informant for the High Council. He scrapes through both jobs waiting for his last breath. As the Shar-denn motto says: the only way out is dead.
No stranger to living complicated decisions, Adren is caught between worlds of cir own. As the child of a Shar-denn faction boss, cir life is conflicted tangle of expectation and duty. When cir family is arrested, Adren manages to escape, but nowhere is safe. Desperate and on the run, Adren is determined to punish Ress for turning in cir family. No one who betrays the gang can live. Ress must pay the price, even if Adren has to go against everything ce is.
REVIEW:
This was a first for me. I think. I can’t recall reading a book where the main character was non-binary. It was a change to see that. So for those looking for more characters like this one, this is the book for you.
Ress has a foot in both worlds and it is exhausting. Trying to do the right thing for the ‘good guys’, while pledging loyalty and trying to fool the ‘bad guys’, has cost Ress a lot. His life with the Shar-denn has cost him his friends, his family, and more or less forced him into a marriage to protect someone he doesn’t love more than a friend. He’s trying to dismantle the Shar-denn any way he can help, but looking over his shoulder every day is getting tiring. The lies he has to keep telling to his wife and what family he has left to keep them safe, is causing a strain. But he has to do it. He doesn’t feel like he can not do it. He has to make things better for people and stop this gang. But he ratted out the wrong people and people are coming for him. He just doesn’t know it yet. So when he sees Adren, he thinks nothing of it. Other than this beautiful person has captured his attention the way no other has before. All Adren wants is revenge on Ress for having cir family taken or killed. It’s all ce can think about. Playing the damsel in distress gets Ress’s attention for cir to get close. But the closer ce gets, the more he realizes cir way of thinking and feeling has to change. Adren really likes Ress. And both now have to make a decision. Fight to the death, or get help from Friends by running and living to fight another day.
Man, I don’t know which one these two I feel more for. Ress knows his life is just a waiting game. He waits for the day the Shar-denn finally come to finish him off. He pretends to be loyal whole undermining everything on the down low. He can’t even hide if he wanted to because the good guys won’t let him leave where he is. He’s stuck. He may not be in a cell, but he’s still in prison. His wife, who he married to save, has had enough. So she demanded divorce and left. Although he’s stunned, he can’t blame her. He’s been waiting for her to leave for a while. He’s tried to make her happy but he can’t. He’s asexual. He can’t give her what she needs that way either. It seems like any way he turns, he can’t catch a break. Then comes Adren. Adren has been picked on cir whole life. No one has accepted the ce is. They call ce a freak. And because of cir gift, he feels even more like one. But Ress comes along. The one person who accepts cir for who ce is. Doesn’t question the changes from day to day. Doesn’t gift just one but both. Compensates for everything ce can think of to make cir feel comfortable. And ce has to kill this man. For the family, Ress has to be killed. And Adren is torn. For once, Adren is getting the one thing he craves in Ress. But how does Adren get past what the family has taught? Drummed into cir head. For once, ce wants to do what’s right. Ce wants away from the family. But both know it comes with a cost. And usually death. And that’s the nice part. Both are praying to the goddesses for a break and maybe this time they will get one.
Definitely an interesting read. It was nice to more of a diversity in characters. I just hope I got them right in the review. If I didn’t, please correct me. This book was interesting too, because it brought more into it as far as magical things. Goddess-touched as they are called. It was interesting to see what all Adren could do. And they just started tapping cir powers. Good book.
RATING: 
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