Review: Blood For Blood

Warning: The following review contains spoilers for Wolf by Wolf. Proceed with caution.


Blood For Blood by Ryan Graudin
Grade: B+
An e-galley was provided by the publisher in exchange for review consideration.
Summary: For the resistance in 1950s Germany, the war may be over, but the fight has just begun.

Death camp survivor Yael, who has the power to skinshift, is on the run: the world has just seen her shoot and kill Hitler. But the truth of what happened is far more complicated, and its consequences are deadly. Yael and her unlikely comrades dive into enemy territory to try to turn the tide against the New Order, and there is no alternative but to see their mission through to the end, whatever the cost.

But dark secrets reveal dark truths, and one question hangs over them all: how far can you go for the ones you love?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The feel of Blood For Blood isn't all that different from Wolf by Wolf - the stakes are still high, there's tension around every corner, and surprises abound. The difference? The ending didn't feel quite as satisfying to me. I hate cliffhangers, but the one (of sorts) at the end of Wolf by Wolf worked well. This ending is much more tied up, but it didn't feel as good for some reason. I blame Luka. (And spoilery reasons.)
BFB does something different than its predecessor and that's giving readers Felix's and Luka's POVs as well as Yael's. It felt very necessary because of all the new threads, and it gave life to Luka's character (and we finally learned what happened during the race that Adele won, the event that made Luka want to get revenge on Adele). I liked the contrast between how he reacted to Yael and how Felix reacted. Not everyone in this book is perfect, especially because of the environments they were raised in. But I liked that Ryan Graudin gave Luka a background that made him less abysmal. 
I liked a lot of the twists, but the ending reminded me too much of how I felt after finishing The Hunger Games. (Don't get me wrong, I loved Mockingjay, but it wasn't quite what I wanted.) 
There's some foul language. A fair amount of violence.

The Verdict: This duology is so worth the read.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Yeah, most likely.