Book Title: Inked (Gilded Blood #1)
Author: Rachel Rener
Genre: Fantasy
Target Audience: New Adult
Publication date: March 15, 2022
Format: Kindle
What it’s about
When Zayn, your smoking hot boss, tells you never to touch the cache of deluxe tattoo ink locked away in his office, you listen to him… until the day you run out of your own ink, your squirming client is on the verge of peeing his pants, and your boss is nowhere to be found. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?
I fully expected Zayn to yell at me when he returned to the shop. What I didn’t expect was the fresh cobra tattoo on my client’s butt magically springing to life. Or the interdimensional filing cabinet hiding in the back of Zayn’s office. And, oh, did I mention that my gorgeous, magic-ink-hoarding boss is actually an incubus?
Now – through (mostly) no fault of my own – we have to venture into a strange and distant land where a never-ending list of lethal flora, fauna, and fae await us. When you add in my Jewish mother’s string of poorly-timed, hysterical phone calls, there is one thing I’m grateful for: there’s no cell service in the fae realm.
What I thought
So I decided to read this book based on this advert on Facebook which definitely caught my attention. Not only is the cover so eye-catching with all of the colours but the bullet points intrigued me.
However, it talked a big game but didn’t quite meet the expectations of the post.
Talia was an interesting character being a tattoo artist with no tattoos due to a needle phobia and a Jewish mother who forbids it. She seems to have a knack for getting herself in trouble and a shoot first ask questions later type of person.
Zayn is certainly main man material although not quite as brooding as the usual suspects but he does have his moments.
I love the idea of the Fae relm being almost parallel to ours but with a ton of more colour and Zayn’s familiar (Hibiscus/Biscuit) brings something to the book which I think makes it that little bit more. I am scared of birds but this one (if it were real) would probably put me more at ease than scare me.
I am glad of the glossary at the back of the explanation of blood types and Jewish phrases. I have heard some of these phrases before but never really knew what they meant as I am from a place where it’s not commonly practised.
Now going back to when I said it didn’t meet the expectations this doesn’t mean I didn’t find it enjoyable. It was quirky and had elements to it I had not encountered before. I have also preordered the next one in the series as I do want to know what happens next, but as an asthmatic, it didn’t cause any asthma attacks and I have read books with more smut in lately so no cold showers were required on this occasion.
Star rating
Laura's Literary Loves 