The Children and the Blood

by Megan Joel Peterson

The Children & the Blood Series, Book One

Book Description

A forgotten life.

A secret war.

Eight years ago, an exploding gas main killed Ashley’s family and left her with a childhood she can’t remember. Eight years later, the forgotten past is behind her and life on her isolated farm is all she knows.

Until that past comes looking for her.

Until men with superhuman powers hunt her down in the night, determined to take everything she loves away from her again.

MY THOUGHTS: 3.5 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

The Children and the Blood by Megan Joel Peterson

3.5 STARS

Ashley lives with her little sister Lily on a huge farmstead in Montana, which her dad only returns to a few times a year. The girls’ mother, along with the rest of their family was killed in a fire when Lily was only a baby. Cole lives an entirely different life in a rich, gated community with his adoptive parents, but he’s finding being under their thumb more and more oppressive. The lives of Ashley, Lily, and Cole collide in one unbelievable night and thus begins a roller coaster ride the kids can’t seem to get off of…and they’re discovering things about themselves that could change the world for not only themselves, but everyone.

Though the action started off rather quickly in this book, it took me a little while to get into it. The story is told in third person through multiple characters’ points of view, which made for a nice way to figure out how all the characters were feeling–and there were a lot of characters.

It’s not that Ashley and Cole were unlikable, but I couldn’t help connecting with Lily…she is just so young to have gone through so many traumatic things in her life, and she’s mature way beyond her years. I loved watching her grow and change. I did have a lot of respect for Cole and the decisions he made, though…not too many people would have gone off to save a couple of strangers the way he did.

As I said, the action did move quickly, but I just felt it took a while sometimes for it to get there. I found many parts of this book to be very wordy, and the book is a hefty one at over 330 pages. I sometimes skimmed when I felt the plot wasn’t moving forward fast enough for me. It’s rather hard to review this big book without giving too much away, so I’ll just say that if you are entertained by X-Men, superhero books and movies, and even action movies, you should give this book a read.

I congratulate the author for creating such a unique world with magnetic and powerful characters. I would definitely consider reading the next book in this series.
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