Review Detail

Let's start with this book could have been 100 pages shorter. This story is told between three different point of views. While I thought this was going to be something different, this is pretty much the adventure or Ward and Cade with a little bit of Ayla thrown in. However, I'd say about 1/3 of the book is just repetition. And this is why the book wasn't a five star for me. The first part of the book is just Ward and Cade continuously hating each other. Then a situation makes them tolerate each other. Once they cross the border, it's no longer them hating each other but Cade (or was it Ward) hating their fae guide while Ward (or was it Cade) trying to smoothe things over. Then we have Ayla, who wants to prove herself and every time she is determined to do so, she just retreats into herself because of Eoghan.

There are some revelations, none of which are surprising in my opinion, that interject this repetition of events but overall, that is the basics of the story. In general, I really did enjoy this story. I thought the plot was interesting and the patience of the villain is something to commend for. I think if some editing went into it without the same scenes over and over again but just in a different place were omitted, it would have been stronger.

While I enjoyed the characters overall, sometimes it was so hard to tell who was who. To have two characters with four letter names and not too distinctive seriously made it so hard for me to remember who was Ward and who was Cade. Honestly, I struggled with this to the very end. I think if the names were a little different, it would have been easier to tell. Plus each chapter was written from first person so it didn't help. Ayla was okay. I liked her but her voice was so sparse that it was hard to really connect. Most of this book was told from Cade and Ward's point of view.

Overall, A Quest of Blood and Stone by S. Usher Evans was a good book but it did have some aspects that didn't work for me. An overuse of the same scenarios and dialogue just tweaked a little bit made it hard to finish this book faster. Along with that, it took me almost the whole book to differentiate between Cade and Ward which shouldn't have been that difficult. I do applaud Evans on an interesting story and plot though. While some revelations were obvious to me, I did enjoy reading it all play out. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy fae books with political issues - just take you're time with it and don't try to rush.