BLOOD FLOWS DEEP IN THE EMPIRE by N. Isabelle Blanco

Blood Flows Deep in the Empire by N. Isabelle Blanco
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

NetGalley free read

More like 3.5 stars. Could be 4. I've been wavering.

Dyletri is the God of Fertility, who has promised Fate he would sacrifice a human woman in the future to bring back the woman he loves named Dimithinia. The problem is, once he meets the human, Ismini, he realizes he didn't know what love was. Ismini has been having dreams about Dyletri her entire life. Nylicia, Watcher of Destinies, has been entering her dreams all Ismini's life and has prepared her for the coming sacrifice.

But when Ismini starts exhibiting signs of Mating, she's rushed to the God of Medicine to help her. She tries to hide her symptoms from Dyletri, because she doesn't want him to feel guilty for not returning her feelings, loving Dimithina and having to sacrifice her to save millions of other lives. The only problem is, they can't seem to keep their hands off each other when they are in the same room.

After Dyletri Mates with Ismini, he knows that if she is sacrificed, he will die too and that he doesn't want to let her go. The only problem with that is he passed out after they mated, and with guilt over it Ismini leaves only to be captured by Enteax and Lisrn, who want to make sure the sacrifice happens. They grab Evesse for good measure and throw her into the vortex for sacrifice as well.

Is and Eve are saved by Dyletri and Zen after Dimithinia berates Dyletri for being so stupid to let her go.

One of the best Characters is Cyake, God of Divination and Prophecy. He's hysterical. He's always trying to make the other guys jealous to the point of realizing they are pushing away the women they are meant to be with. The author eludes to the idea that Cyake is the unrequited love of Nylicia, who has been feeling the pain of not mating with him for millennia.

I don't normally like books with Gods and names of characters that are so hard to pronounce and keep in your heard each time you read them, but I liked this one. I think that the human names could have been a bit easier. I also don't like it when the author switches back and forth between the given name and the nickname. Pick one and stick with it, and especially when they are difficult names. But I digress.

I felt Ismini's pain of not being the one for Dyletri, at least that's what she thought. I loved that fact that she was so selfless and giving. She knew what her lack of sacrifice would mean to the world. She didn't want to die, but she knew it was necessary. I loved how each God who met their women, would fight it, but only because it went against their nature. Like Soleria and Ianthen, God of the Hunt, who was known to be a womanizer. To have him destined for one woman alone, you know he's going to fight that. Especially when said woman can sense a womanizer from miles away and calls him on it.

I would say the only reason I didn't give this book a full 4 stars is because the author didn't really tell me how or why Fate let Ismini come back, as well as the mention of many other Gods and Goddesses who seemed to be too much for me to keep in my head in this story. Especially since we never meet them. They are just mentioned. I know Nylicia said she was going to have to plead for Ismini and Evesse to be restored, but there was no real explanation of why it was okay for Ismini to come back and what that meant to the prophecy and how that would effect the world. Yes Nylicia said that Is and Eve were needed in the upcoming war, but for me it was a little too vague.

I have to say I lived the description of the fight with the CeFtut. That visual in my head was cool. It was like a cross between Wanted and Bleach. That's my Anime Geek coming out.

There was a sneak peak at the next book and I have to say, I'm definitely looking forward to reading it. I can't believe it won't be out until 2014.



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