Review: Bad Blood (Thirteen Crowns #1)

Bad Blood, Book 1 in the Thirteen Crowns Series by Jenna Wolfhart

Publication Date: December 10, 2024
Date Read: December 14, 2024
Genre: Adult – Fantasy / Romantasy
Source: eARC from Jenna Wolfhart
Format: E-Book
Pages: 448

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About The Book:
Duty. Desire. Destruction.

To Selene, duty is everything. She is the last of her kind, a royal descendent of the original generation of vampires. And as the final Titan queen to rule the kingdom of Troy, she is the only one standing between her people and the cruelty of Zeus.

When her enemies—the twelve Olympian vampire monarchs—summon her to participate in their annual blood ceremony on a remote island, she has no choice but to attend. It’s a requirement in the treaty.

But one by one, the Olympians start to show up dead. It seems a monarch has broken the pact of peace and is trying to take out all the others, including Selene. And when she tries to escape the island, she finds all the boats have been destroyed. She’s trapped.

Worse, dark desires stir in her heart for the one king she knows wants her dead. Ares, bloodthirsty for war, tried to kill her months before. And even now, his touch feels like the heat of battle—or something more.

Before she loses her life, her kingdom, and her heart, Selene must do whatever it takes to win this vicious game—even if it means destroying every single monarch on the island, including Ares.

Bad Blood is a thrilling vampire romantasy loosely inspired by the Greek myths, with true enemies to lovers, villainous characters, and steamy romance.

Jenna Wolfhart is a new to me author for 2024. I discovered her work with her cosy fantasy series, Falling for Fables and fell head over heels in love with her writing. So when I saw that she had a new romantasy with vampires coming out I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Before I go any further with the review I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jenna for an ARC of Bad Blood. Me receiving this early to review had in no way influenced my review.

Bad Blood is such a unique, fantastical story. It is loosely inspired by Greek mythology, and I found this concept so intriguing and interesting. In this world, Olympians and Titans are vampires. I actually really really enjoyed this concept but I will admit it took me a long while to be able to picture these characters as vampires. As we use the original Gods names, I couldn’t stop myself from just picturing Zeus, Ares and the like as typical Gods. It wasn’t until I would come across the descriptions of their fangs or their blood red eyes that I was like ‘oh yeah… they’re vampires’. It such a great take on these myths but it did take me a while to be able to picture them like that.

Even though it took me a while to get my head around the idea of Greek Gods as vampires, honestly I absolutely loved the book. It was such a unique and interesting plotline and I really enjoyed the characterisations that Jenna wove in to make this version of these Gods so different. Our main female protagonist is Selene, a Titan and after the death of her mother she is the only living Titan who is not in Tartarus. She has such conflicting emotions about the Olympians as she hates them yet knows she has to play nice with them if she is to help protect her people. Our main male protagonist is Ares. This in itself was so interesting to me. I’ve read so many books influences by Greek mythology and I’ve never read one where Ares is anything but a bad guy, so I really loved this take on him. He is still a bad guy, but Jenna has really added an extra depth to him while I really enjoyed.

Bad Blood is a book that is so easy to fall into. I couldn’t put it down. I was absolutely obsessed with this vampire filled romantasy. This is a definite slow burn with a lot of plot as well as the romance, which I absolutely loved. I will forever be a plot-driven reader and to see this book have such a big plot outside of the romance was perfect for me. I loved every single moment of it, and I truly can’t wait to get my hands on book 2 and see what happens next. This is a must-read for any fans of Greek mythology, vampires, romantasy or all three. I highly recommend it.