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Wildblood
Click for more information  Ebook
2023
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Publishers Weekly Review
Blackwood (Within These Wicked Walls) explores colonialism and slavery via a treacherous sentient jungle in this ominous adventure. Black 18-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood, a group of people who are treated like second-class citizens for their magical blood science abilities. Kept captive within a community bordered by a high retaining wall and a frightening jungle, they're forced to protect tourists from the horrors that inhabit the jungle in service to the Exotic Lands Touring Company. Hoping to earn better opportunities for her chosen sibling Bunny and desperate to help him control his unwieldy blood science, Victoria strikes a deal with her white boss: make Dean, her Wildblood ex-boyfriend and her boss's adoptive, white-passing son, look good to a wealthy mining magnate on the next tour, and she'll be promoted. But when Victoria and the magnate, Black 21-year-old Laertes Thorn, hit it off, he tries to persuade her that there's still hope for escape beyond the company's walls. Blackwood's creativity shines through via the Jamaica-based jungle setting, which overflows with spirits and creatures of legend. It's an intense, socially conscious narrative featuring a compassionate and resilient protagonist. Ages 13--up. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Triada US. (Feb.)
Booklist Review
Victoria is a Wildblood, as are all the "Rare Beauties" employed by the Exotic Lands Touring Company. Her blood science--her magic--allows her to change blood into weapons, a skill that comes in handy as she leads tours into the Jamaican jungle. That jungle, which Victoria loves, is full of ghosts, demons, and an assortment of creatures that can kill a man with barely a look. Now 18, Victoria is due for a promotion and raise, but her violent boss only agrees to give it to her if she helps his protégé, Dean, with a massive tour to the most dangerous part of the jungle: the Gilded Orchard, where beasts are drawn to gold. The tour is made up of gold-mining tourists who are completely unprepared for the danger, including client Laertes Thorn, for whom Victoria falls almost instantly. Deliberately paced and built with setting-specific terms and legends, this is a lush fantasy for fans of The Gilded Ones (2021) or Children of Blood and Bone (2018).
Kirkus Review
A teen with powerful magic embarks on a life-changing trek through a Jamaican jungle. Eighteen-year-old Victoria works at Exotic Lands Touring Company, guiding wealthy clients on jungle treks. She is a Wildblood: Her blood science abilities allow her to protect herself and the customers, but despite their powers, Wildbloods are treated as inferior in society. Victoria desperately wants her deserved promotion to team leader, a step toward the freedom she lost when the company kidnapped her as a little girl. Her boss agrees but with conditions attached. Victoria must go on her next expedition with Dean, her light-skinned, White-passing Wildblood ex--who is also the White company owner's adopted son. And she must impress Black American gold miner Laertes Thorn and his companions on a potentially deadly trip to the Gilded Orchard in search of gold. Victoria is immediately smitten with Thorn, and the feeling is seemingly mutual. Still, she has her plate full between fending off the jungle spirits and creatures and dealing with her hostile, competitive ex. Will she be able to survive this journey, much less explore a romance? And will the promotion be worth it? Blackwood's worldbuilding combines folklore and fantasy with strong pacing, and the suspense will keep readers intrigued from the outset. Victoria is a sympathetic protagonist with a painful past and a persevering spirit. A page-turning adventure set in a vividly imagined world. (Fantasy. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary

A thrilling new fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blackwood!

Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she's worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters.

When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she's determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she's not the image the boss wants to send their new client, Thorn, a renowned goldminer determined to reach an untouched gold supply deep in the jungle.

Thorn is everything Victoria isn't - confident, impossibly kind, and so handsome he leaves her speechless. And when he entrusts the mission to her, kindness turns to mutual respect, turns to affection, turns to love. But the jungle is treacherous, and between hypnotic river spirits, soul-devouring women that shed their skin like snakes, and her ex out for revenge, Victoria has to decide - is promotion at a corrupt company really what she wants?

A fierce, lush fantasy by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blackwood, Wildblood tells the story of a girl who must find the strength to defeat the demons of the jungle as well as her own to find where she truly belongs.

"A lyrically told story of healing after trauma and finding home, Wildblood is as fierce as it is beautiful, and as hopeful as it is heartbreaking." - Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf

" Wildblood is a poignant, thrilling, emotionally complex story of love and sacrifice. Victoria's tense journey through the haunted jungle is filled with terror and beauty, both supernatural and human, and will grip you until the very last page." - L. Penelope, award-winning author of the Earthsinger Chronicles

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