Bloodmarked

All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights — only to discover her own ancestral power. Now a medium, her ancestors’ voices sit in the back of her head along with the new arrival of Arthur’s presence, who is fighting to take over her body.  

Nick, the boy Bree loves, is missing. Both Bree and Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick, want to search for Nick. But the arrival of the Regents, the group in charge of the Legendborn, makes their departure difficult. The Regents aim to contain and control Bree and eliminate the potential threat posed by Selwyn. After a daring escape from the Regents, Bree, Selwyn, and their friends begin their mission to find Nick. However, to find Nick, they will have to face the Shadowborn, demons drawn to Bree’s power, and the Mageguard, Merlins employed by the Regents.   

Bree struggles to understand and use her power. She needs to be a leader, but to do that, she may have to let go of Nick and save herself. She battles the expectations of the white supremacist Legendborn society against the expectations of her ancestors, all while grappling with the knowledge that her power exists because her ancestor was raped. After the Regents kidnap her, she desperately wants to find independence, but she is unable to abandon her friends, even for her own safety. While her friends advise her to save herself, she occasionally takes advantage of her role and orders them to obey her and do as she wants, but readers still find themselves rooting for her and her clear vision of justice.  

Bree continues to rely on her friends, making Bree and Selwyn’s relationship deepen, as does Nick and Bree’s romance. Nick and Bree are drawn together in their longing for each other and in Bree’s bloodwalks, where they are able to visit each other in Bree’s mind. Alice is also much more developed as a character; her friendship with Bree again provides a touchstone of stability amid the chaos of Bree’s life. Readers will enjoy the return of familiar characters and the arrival of interesting new ones. Almost everyone who meets Bree is won over by her selflessness and kindness, even in the face of threats to her life, and they return her loyalty in kind.  

Bloodmarked takes a deeper look at what it means for Bree to inherit power as a Black girl. Stunned by how much each of her friends cares for her, she strives to be worthy of their sacrifice. Bree also deals with relatable conflicts such as questioning authority, building confidence, and figuring out her identity. While much of the conflict is interpersonal, there are still moments of action and violence that sustain the fast-paced narrative. The novel concludes with a twist that will lead readers directly to Oathbound, the next book in the series.   

Sexual Content  

• While Nick and Bree are separated for most of the novel, they are still in love, and the few times they do see each other, they hug and kiss. “Nick’s lips crash against mine, warm and fierce . . . What one of us wants, the other gives with lips, tongue, heat.” 
• Nick and Bree are making out, but then are interrupted, as Bree is pulled out of the vision that allows them to visit each other. “Power cycling from his body to mine in a slow loop between his skin and mine . . . He moans, tugging us to the ground.” 
• There is tension between Sel and Bree, as they both are attracted to each other, and they flirt with each other. Sel says, “I would say you look . . . devourable.” 
• Sel has been creating an illusion of himself to trick Bree. She thinks that he was doing it to make her attracted to him, but he was really trying to disguise how unhealthy he looked. “What I thought felt like falling into him, maybe even for him, had been me, falling into Sel’s illusion.” 
• Sel and Bree kiss. “Before he can respond, I pull his head down and press my mouth to his indignant scowl until it turns soft and warm . . . his palm wraps around the nape of my neck, turning the kiss fierce, his mouth open and hot. He pulls me in by the hip, closer, a pulse building between us, a shared demand.” 

Violence  

• While practicing summoning her magic, Bree’s powers manifest in flames that burn her skin.  “The fine hair on my forearms singes; there’s a charred smell in my nose . . . The magic bites into my skin, the burns going deeper.” 
• Bree is fighting intruders. She attacks with, “A right hook to their ribs. They pivot away before it lands—too fast—grasp my forearm, use my momentum, pull me off balance. I stumble into them, nearly slipping off the branch. They hold my wrist tight.” The fight is interrupted before anyone is seriously injured. 
• Bree is pulled into Arthur’s memories, which are often scenes of war. “A battlefield soaked in red. My tunic and leathers, shining with it . . . We are always arguing, even here with our comrades screaming on the ground around us, bleeding—” 
• When a boy tries to restrain Bree, she accidentally breaks his hand. “This time I do use Arthur’s strength to break his grip . . . I hear a pop. A bone broken.”  
• Demons attack the car Bree is in. The car crashes, and “a deep thwunk as the car hits something. . . I end up pressed against the seat looking at the sky through the front window . . . The car tilts again. I go tumbling . . . I hit the floor shoulder-first. Pain shoots across my chest.” 
• Someone in Arthur’s bloodline raped Bree’s ancestor. Bree and other characters make references to the rape throughout the book. Bree says, “I am Arthur’s heir not by choice or honor, but by violence . . . I am the Scion of Arthur by rape.” 
• William, one of Bree’s friends, tortures a demon after she attacks it. “When bones crack beneath the skin, they make a deep, wet popping sound. That sickening crunch echoes around us in the yard until there are no more bones to break. . . William’s forefinger and thumb have just . . . twisted her elbow joint completely apart. Her limb is still held together by flesh. But now it’s in two pieces.” They release her after she answers their questions, but Selwyn kills her as she’s running away. 
• Max kills Nick’s father, Lord Davis, because he betrayed the Legendborn Order. “And the spear pierces Lord Davis’s chest straight through with a wet, loud thunk.”  
• In retaliation, Nick beheads the attacker. “Nick’s crossed blades meet his opponent’s throat, then part — cleaving Max’s head from his body.” 
• A demon attacks Bree. “My right ribs and side are opened in stripes. Muscle, glistening wet. A steady stream of red flowing down into the dirt.” She is seriously injured.  
• Bree attacks the Mageguard after they threaten her and her friends. Bree shoves the Mageguard and hears “a deep snapping sound, mixed with wet. A bone breaking as he lands.” The Mageguard is unconscious for the rest of the fight.  
• In an attack, Bree accidentally hurts Alice. Bree “pull[s] the attacker [Alice] up and over by their arm, throwing them into the broadside of the van with a heavy thunk.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• The Regents kidnap Bree and keep her drugged to contain her powers. “I blink slowly and register the odd feeling in my chest . . . I feel hollowed out . . . It doesn’t occur to me until the end of the second day of confinement without the return of my abilities that the serum is probably in the food.” 
• Bree, Sel, William, and Alice go to a bar where they are served drinks, but they don’t drink them. “[The waitress] looks down at Sel mischievously, then over her shoulder, before lifting a final, double shot glass.” 

Language    

• Profanity is used regularly. Profanity includes damn, shit, hell, fuck, and asshole. 
• Racist language is used toward Bree. One emissary of the Regents tells Bree that she should change her hair, “perhaps smooth things down for a cleaner look.” No racial slurs are used.  

Supernatural  

• As a result of her Rootcraft and Bloodcraft, Bree has magic that is borrowed from her ancestors. She is the Scion of Arthur. Because she is a medium, she can communicate with Arthur, and she has his strength. Her root manifests in flames. She struggles to control both elements of her power.  
• Bree explains her power. “Mediums can’t control the dead. Even if I could contact Arthur at will, I can’t—and won’t—rely on possession to wield his power.”  
• Sel and the Mageguard are Merlins—humans with demon ancestry—who have heightened senses, strength, and speed. They can manipulate aether, and mesmer people, erasing their memories or creating illusions.  
• Merlins are always fighting against succumbing to demonia, a loss of their human side. “If our latent demonic natures overcome us, we lose empathy, sympathy, kindness…Eventually, all that remains are the core hungers of demonia: the inescapable desires to create and consume human misery.” 
• There are other Scions, descendants of the knights of the Round Table, who possess the powers they inherited from their ancestors.  
• Bree performs bloodwalks, during which she communed with Arthur and her other ancestors. In these instances, when she touches Lancelot, she can summon Nick, as his descendant, and communicate with him. “I reach toward Lancelot—something Arthur did not do—and Lancelot does not react . . . My fingertips touch Lancelot’s shoulder. . . Lancelot flashes bright—and becomes Nick once more.” 
• Bree and her friends go to a bar owned by a crossroads demon, who makes deals with humans to give them temporary magic powers.  
• Bree and her friends visit a community of Rootcrafters, where Bree performs a ceremony to communicate with her ancestors. “Think of this place and ceremony like an amplifier for the ancestral stream. Volition and the communion circle will boost your call so you can talk to all of them at once”.   

Spiritual Content  

• None