This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce
As an Earth Mage, Rosamund von Schwarzwald was forced to move from her German city to a small village as the city was poisoning the young girl. In the village, Rosa was taken under the wing of a powerful Earth Master, who became her mentor and adoptive grandmother. But when Rosa’s mentor was brutally murdered by a werewolf, it was decided that the village and surrounding forest was not safe for Rosa and she was taken to live with the Hunt Master, where she would be better protected and could hone her skills. Now a skilled huntress, Rosa is tasked with ridding the forests of Transylvania from deadly shapeshifters.
I have to admit that fantasy isn’t my favourite genre but I was intrigued by the fairytale twist of Blood Red, with Rosa taking on the role of Red Riding Hood. The prologue tells the story of Rosa’s childhood, as she comes face to face with the werewolf who killed her beloved grandmother before she is rescued by the Hunt Master. I quite enjoyed this part of the book but afterwards, as Rosa finds herself in Transylvania on the trail of a deadly beast who is murdering the people who live nearby, my interest began to wane. I didn’t particularly warm to Rosa and found that she could be quite arrogant at times. While there are action-packed (and quite gory) scenes within the book, I found a lot of the scenes in between could be quite sluggish and repetitive. I did like the fact that the leader of the group hunting the shapeshifters was a strong female character but I would have liked to have seen a bit more of some of the other characters, particularly Markos.
Blood Red is part of the Elemental Masters series and while I haven’t read the others in the series, Blood Red works fine as a standalone.6/10