Review: 4.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 11, 2014
**Originally written for Book Bliss Book blog. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.**Review: 4.5 starsGeneral: Blood and Shadows is a great book 2 from Tori Ridgewood filled with hot scenes, intense action and a wonderfully engaging plot.  Please note that this book picks up directly after book 1 and cannot be read alone.Blood and Shadows is an extremely different book than the first. The first was all about relationship building and plot setting. This book jumps right into the action with a bang and there’s no real need to spend time building relationships and characters as most are already present. I still loved Ravyin and Grant but I can’t discuss them without a spoiler so they’ll be passed over but have no fear they are in the book! The plot was just as amazing as in the first book but a little too spread out narrator wise for me. I would have loved to see it narrowed down to just a few as there were about seven. Didn’t stop me from loving the novel from cover to cover though. The world building is fantastic in this book and the details drop you right into the story. I felt everything the characters did and I love being that connected when I read. It uses the dreaded almost cliffhanger which has me anxiously awaiting book 3 but the story in book 2 is essentially completed so it doesn’t feel like anything is missing with the cliffhanger ending.I was also way more interested in De Sade in this book. He is still a villain but we get to see more sides of him that complicate the plot and almost make me question if I dislike him anymore. He was the biggest addition to this story for me in  a positive fashion. I loved it and can’t wait to see how he progresses.This book is more plot driven than character driven though. We meet a whole bunch of new characters and to an extent it threw me off. I had a lot of trouble connecting with Solomon until his secret comes out and while I loved the idea I honestly couldn’t find a useful purpose for Marcy. I also had a lot of trouble following along with the time jumps back with Grant and Solomon, I liked them but couldn’t grasp a lot of what was going on because there were dates but my eyes wouldn’t always see them. They were just some elements that I had trouble getting interested in.Characters: Ravyin: Ravyin isn’t as present in this one as in the last. She’s taken a slight back seat personality wise. What we do get to see is more of her kick butt and take no names attitude. It’s back with a force and she needs to do many of things she has to do.Grant: Grant is hard to talk about without spoilers. He’s gone through a  lot and I personally hated the way he handled it last book but enjoyed the transformation in him now.