Of Wicked Blood (The Quatrefoil Chronicles #1)

Content Overview

Overall Content
Severity
5.4

Language

10.0/10

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

2.2/10

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

7.3/10

Violence, Weapons, Blood, Crime

5.0/10

Potentially Intense Themes

2.7/10

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Of Wicked Blood (The Quatrefoil Chronicles #1)

Olivia Wildenstein, Katie Hayoz

No rest for the wicked… or the cursed.

SLATE
I didn’t mean to steal the Bloodstone from the De Morel’s crypt.
Scratch that, I did mean to steal it.
Until I realized it was a curse-magnet that only comes off if I, along with a jolly trio, successfully defeat four curses.
If any of us fail, I’m dead.
I’ve never been a glass half-empty sort of person, but my glass looks in dire need of a refill right about now.
The only highlight of this wicked treasure hunt: feisty, entitled Cadence de Morel.

CADENCE
I was raised on tales of magic, in a small town reputed to be the birthplace of French witchcraft.
Did I believe all the stories I heard? Absolutely not. I mean, if magic existed, Maman wouldn’t have died, and Papa wouldn’t be stuck in a wheelchair, right?
Wrong.
The night Slate Ardoin waltzes into my life, wearing a ring he stole from my mother’s grave, I call him a monster.
But then I meet real ones, and Slate, well . . . he becomes something else to me.
Something frustrating to live with but impossible to live without.
Something I will fight for, no matter the cost.

*Warning: profuse cursing (and not just the magical kind).
*Intended for readers 16 and up.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

3.5 out of 5 stars (3.5 / 5) The magic system was my favorite aspect of this book. I loved getting lost in it. The generations-long stories and curses kept me interested and enthralled as to what would happen next. The world of Quatrefoils and Brume magic led to a great mix of life-threatening situations with funny laugh out loud humor.

The intricate details of the curses and magic made me want to get lost in the research. Such great thought was put into it! High praise for the uniqueness but also being able to bring it into a contemporary world so well. I’d be marking this down on my bucket list just to be able to experience this town. The authors brought it to life brilliantly. I am very curious as to what these authors have written previously!

I had a hard time picturing the characters. In the audio, Cadence sounds so young, and naive. Slate sounded so much older. Slate is a bad boy but has a heart of gold. I found myself liking him a lot, but then I would remember the things he had done and it would turn me off. I honestly don’t understand why Cadence didn’t take some of those things into consideration. Cadence is 17 and in college. She has a very close relationship with her father and is very innocent to the ways of the world.

Content Summary: This is the type of book that makes me do content reviews. I would not want my young teen to read this book. I do not think this should be labeled YA. There is one, maybe 2 girls who are 17 but it did not fall in YA parameters. While there is not sex, it’s very sexual. Thoughts, actions and more are way above YA standards. The language is very high also.  I actually feel this book will get better traction if it’s labeled as New Adult or Adult genre. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Twig Publishing for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. This book releases today, February 2, 2021.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***- 143

H***- 62

S***- 67

A**- 49

B****- 2

D***- 64

Bas****- 2

Religious Cursing

J****- 3

Chr***-

G**- 34

L***- 1

Derogatory terms etc-

Blowfly

Tits

Fool

Dick

Dweeb

Douche

Prickhead 

Jailbait whore 

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A young woman drinks wine. 

A man drinks alcohol, getting drunk. 

A young woman is tipsy from drinking. 

Two young women drink champagne. 

A foster father tries to take a young foster son with him on drug runs. 

A man grabs a bottle of alcohol.

A young woman gets wine for herself and others. 

Three young women smoke as a man heads to a tavern. He drinks alcohol. 

Two young women, a young man and man drink wine at dinner. One young woman drinks enough to be tipsy. 

A young woman’s party smells of cigarettes and weed. Alcohol is served. One young woman is slurring her words. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*No LGBTQ+ aspects included*

A man remembers foster “cousins” trying to stick their hands down his pants. He fought back. 

A young woman purposely spins in her skirt to show off her underwear to men and her friend. 

As a man admires a young woman, all his “blood goes south.” He checks out her behind multiple times. He jokes about taking a young woman’s virginity. She laughs and says it’s too late. 

A man remarks about his “eight entire inches of skin.” 

A man walks in on a young woman in her bra and underwear. Her friend says she should wear push up bras and thongs but she doesn’t. 

A man thinks of a young woman’s bra “straining to hold in” her chest. 

A man kisses a young woman. His hands are in her hair. Their tongues meet and the kiss becomes “almost violent” and she loves it. They kiss more, “slower, sweeter.” 

A young woman says she will have a one night stand that night. She “doesn’t want to die a virgin”. 

A woman accuses her boyfriend of calling a young woman’s name when he was “balls deep inside” her. 

A man (20)  is very sexual in his thoughts toward a 17yo. He wants to “make her his” and he admires her curves multiple times.

An older man looks a 17yo up and down multiple times through the book. 

A man “goes hard, very hard” when a young woman touches him. He’s wearing sweatpants and doesn’t want anyone but her to see what it does to him. She asks what’s wrong because people stop talking (they have noticed). He looks at his crotch and so does she, blushing. If no one was around he would’ve “laid her on the stacks.” Something happens and his erection goes to “pin size” as she notices. 

A young woman and man kiss passionately with tongues. She feels herself falling for him. Her lips get swollen from kissing and he pulls her body into his groin area. She talks of her virginity. He decided not to “corrupt her” there even though he wants to. He will later. 

A young woman kisses a man. 

A man kisses a young woman.

A young woman kisses a man. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

Foster siblings smacked their foster brothers face on a book, bloodying the pages. Another foster brother broke their noses in return. Whenever they would attack the one brother, the other would break a bone of theirs. 

When foster cousins attempted to molest a young boy, he smashed ones knuckles and smashed another body part. 

A foster father stabbed a knife into his foster sons hand. 

A man punches a woman (on accident). He has blood dripping off his fingers from breaking ice, trying to save someone. He then punches a man. 

**SPOILER** A man stabs a young woman (siren)  in the side multiple times as she tries to kill him. She claws his neck, making him bleed. She tries to bite him but he sticks an ice pick into her multiple times. He’s drowning but he kills her. 

**SPOILER**A man is drooling blood and has a concave head. He is a ghost. The ghost takes a woman and tries to suffocate her. It then encompasses its bones and lunges for the woman again. 

A man threatened a woman’s pregnant belly saying he will kill the babies. 

Previously, a woman killed a man after he threatened her. She hit him with a rolling pin. 

A man puts a man in a headlock. 

A woman lights her shirt on fire. She is tackled and water poured on her, blisters have formed. A man thinks a demon has taken over her body. He straddles her and puts pressure on her neck while her face is turning blue. 

**SPOILER** A dragon with horns fights with a group of people. It uses fire and they use swords, spells and salt. 

A woman gets a large piece of glass impaled in her leg. A man pulls it out and it squirts blood. 

**SPOILER** A large magical statue chases a young woman, a young man is hit in the head and knocked out. The statue throws objects as the young woman fights. Her face is dripping blood. They fight back and forth. She is hit on the head and passes out. 

A young man tries to cut off the finger of a man. Blood spurts and bones crunch. 

Potentially Intense Themes

A man loots graves. He takes jewelry and uses a thigh bone to pry a lid off. Later, the daughter of one of the bodies sees her mother’s bones and casket opened. She is very distraught.

A man tries to save a young woman from drowning but can’t reach her and she slips.  

A group fights with a ghost. He targets one woman, trying to kill her. 

A group of people dig up the body of a man. Mostly bones are left. 

**SPOILER**A young girl has a bad reaction to magic. Among other things, her heart stops beating and she falls. A man performs chest compressions but she dies. Many adults decide to dispose of her body in a lake. She is rolled in by a few of them. The young girl’s mother is determined to find her daughter she felt was kidnapped. 

A magic fireball lights parts of a room on fire. People scramble to put it out. 

Magic causes a large earthquake. 

A man stands on a cliff to jump and kill himself. 

A young woman is in a coma. 

**Any quotes from the book are taken from the advanced copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

4 Comments

  1. I have read a few of her books and mixed emotions about the ages…I think the Boulder Wolves was supposed to be YA but this sure as heck isn’t

  2. I mean the F word is probably my most often used but damn… That’s quite a hefty number. I struggled with a YA labeled book lately that was just 😳🤐

  3. I feel like I’ve read/seen a lot of YA books lately that feel very adult.🤔 I can tell that you put a lot of effort into these posts and I think you always do a great job!

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