Well this is embarrassing! I thought I had already written this review and posted it weeks ago. My bad but I’m here to rectify that now and hope that my memory does it justice.

There was a lot going on in this Book. Given that it was not confusing and easy to keep up with. There was definitely some surprises (yes some, as in more than one) though and I found that wonderful. It’s not often that I get a good surprise from the mystery running the story. I will definitely be mum lips zipped about that!

SYNOPSYS

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements—books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, the death of a beloved father and years of family separation. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries .

This book was fantastic! The story was very interesting and added a new spin on the world of magic. I love when new ideas about magic arise because that in of itself is magical. Books, blood and mirrors individually are not unique but the way they are laid out here just put a fresh spin on things.

Now, the characters, I did have some issues with. Though maybe it was an attempt to make them more relatable the two sisters characters biggest flaws was their self depreciation. Both of them lacked confidence in almost every way which I found a little sad and in Joanna’s case kind of annoying. Nicholas kind of reminds me of the oldest Volturi vampires in the Twilight movies that verge on the edge of albinism or like a bubble boy. And I think he hams up the fact every and thinks he’s so fragile. and then there is Collins who is pretty much the stereotypical body guard-not actually a body guard character (no not really spoiling anything there). So clearly I think the characters could use some development but I didn’t let that take away from the meat of the story.

I give Ink Blood Sister Scribe a 3.5 solidly, I’d lean toward 4 if the characters had a little tweaking.