On Wings of Blood by Briar Boleyn Series: Bloodwing Academy #1
Published by Starwater Press on 11/30/24
Genres: Dark Academia, Romantasy
Format: eBook
Pages: 523
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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Medra Pendragon has traded one hellish ordeal for another. After vanquishing her evil grandfather and freeing her people, she awakens in a mass grave with no recollection of how she arrived there. She is pulled from the grave by the disgruntled vampire lord, Blake Draharrow, despite her vehement protests that she requires no such assistance.
Blake deposits her in the clutches of his uncle, the vampiric lord who rules this domain. His reward for discovering the first dragon rider in an age? A betrothal to Medra as his second consort – a fate that elicits equal disdain from both parties.
Medra’s plight worsens when she learns her co-consort, the spoiled Reagan, harbors a fierce possessiveness over Blake. Worse still, Blake’s gaze lingers on Medra with an intensity that belies his supposed hatred. If Medra hopes to survive the treacherous Consort Games Reagan has set in motion, she must swallow her pride and accept Blake’s aid, whether she wants it or not.
Table of Contents
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About ‘On Wings of Blood’
Medra Pendragon has traded one hellish ordeal for another. After vanquishing her evil grandfather and freeing her people, she awakens in a mass grave with no recollection of how she arrived there. She is pulled from the grave by the disgruntled vampire lord, Blake Draharrow, despite her vehement protests that she requires no such assistance.
Blake deposits her in the clutches of his uncle, the vampiric lord who rules this domain. His reward for discovering the first dragon rider in an age? A betrothal to Medra as his second consort – a fate that elicits equal disdain from both parties.
Medra’s plight worsens when she learns her co-consort, the spoiled Reagan, harbors a fierce possessiveness over Blake. Worse still, Blake’s gaze lingers on Medra with an intensity that belies his supposed hatred. If Medra hopes to survive the treacherous Consort Games Reagan has set in motion, she must swallow her pride and accept Blake’s aid, whether she wants it or not.
Tropes in ‘On Wings of Blood’
❤️ Arranged/Forced Marriage
❤️ Bully
❤️ Dark Academia
❤️ Dragons
❤️ Fae
❤️ Vampires
❤️ Authurian Legend
❤️ Morally Grey
❤️ Slowburn
My Review
I tend to struggle when reviewing books that just didn’t click with me. I know there’s an audience out there for every single book, but the whole romantic bullying, elitist bullying, and jealousy bullying thing in On Wings of Blood were not my jam. If it had just been one type of bullying, maybe I could have looked past it.
Still, that’s totally a personal preference thing – not a reflection on the author’s skills. I went in fully aware of the tropes involved, having seen the book blowing up all over Booksta and BookTok. The hype got the better of me and stirred up a serious case of FOMO, so I decided to give it a shot. I mean, it had dragons, fae, and vampires which I usually love. The combination of all those bullying dynamics just wore me down, and I couldn’t fully get into it. The fact that I did manage to finish it, despite being a serial DNF’er, definitely says something about the solid writing and storyline outside of the bullying.
There are plenty of readers out there who are gonna be all about that bully-gives-in-to-temptation vibe. My job here isn’t to talk anyone out of checking it out, but just to share my personal experience as transparently as I can. I hope you enjoy it!
Final Thoughts
While On Wings of Blood wasn’t personally to my taste as I tend to avoid bully romances, I can see its appeal. Briar Boleyn expertly crafts the tension inherent in a bully’s surrender to temptation, which would appeal to many readers. Whether or not I read the next book depends entirely on my overflowing TBR pile, not on any significant flaw in this one.
Free Printable
As a special thank you for reading, I am sharing a free printable of the bookmarks I created for this series. Please feel free to drop me a note if you have any questions or issues. Happy Reading!