Jessica (HDB)

Ah, Inked. I'm still not sure where I stand on this book. The concept of tattoos imbued with magical powers fascinated me. The premise held so much promise of a world that I could get lost in. Alas, while there were a lot of pieces that I did enjoy, this wasn't exactly what I hoped for.

The world building was the first thing that left me on the fence. A world where magical tattoos determine the wearer's fate should have swept me up. The fact that there was an evil empire to fight back against would normally have pulled me in. The problem was, that this world building wasn't ever fully realized. Inked is rather short for a fantasy story. It flew by, so quickly that I wasn't able to grab a hold of anything. Sure, the magical tattoos were still fascinating. It just never went beyond that.

As for the characters, initially Caenum and Dreya were adorable. I loved the little bit of romance flowing between them. When Caenum decided that he wanted the opportunity to decide who he was, rather than allowing the magic to choose for him, I was smitten. That strength spoke to me. However these characters also suffered from the short length of this book. There wasn't much depth to them and so, even when the ending was happy, I wasn't that invested.

Great premise, but I really believe that it needed more time to come to fruition.