
Nikkola is a Noble Princess, but she understands little of that, she only knows what her father Dartein has told her of her heritage and the life she was born into when her father fled the palace nineteen years earlier to escape the terrible grief of her mother’s death giving birth to her. Nikkola understands she is special and has magical powers but is loath to share this knowledge with her father or her protector, her father’s best friend Victor. Blood Ties: Noble of Blood Book 2 by Alicia Lynn Wright presents us with a fantasy world where the immortal nobles are charged with protecting and saving the humans from the predation of marauding goblins. Thousands of years ago, three warlocks led by Nikkola’s grandfather, The Patriarch, believed they had destroyed the goblins and their evil leader for good, but it appears the goblins are now re-gathering to strike again and Dartein must reconcile with his father, join forces with him and the other two warlocks to defeat the goblins again. Nikkola must learn and understand the powers she has been born with in order to fulfil the prophecy that she is the one who will save the world.
I found Blood Ties: Noble of Blood Book 2 to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. As a fantasy, it is short and as part of a series, does leave the reader hanging and thirsting for more knowledge and information, but nonetheless, the story holds together extremely well. Author Alicia Lynn Wright has created characters that are believable and easy to identify with. Even the immortal nobles are not immune to many of the flaws of humanity. The human girl, Friesa who becomes best friends with Nikkola adds a normality to the magical, immortal story, which I found refreshing. What I did particularly like, about this story, were the use of common and easily readable names, rather than the difficult to pronounce and to differentiate names, so many fantasy authors seem wont to use these days. The writer’s style is simple, straightforward and easy to read, which makes it so much more enjoyable and easy to follow. As a second book in a series and despite not having read the first book, I could quickly grasp and follow the story and its history with excellent references to the past scattered throughout the tale, by Wright. I would happily read book three now, to see where the battle against the evil Deep Dweller heads, for these characters.
