One Blood Ruby
by Melissa Marr
Seven Black Diamonds #2
Young Adult | Paranormal Romance | Fantasy
In this gripping follow-up to Melissa Marr’s lush Seven Black Diamonds, Lily and her friends are forced to reckon with the truth of their own lineage and to protect one of their own, no matter what—or who—comes between them. Now that Lilywhite Abernathy is the heir to the Hidden Lands, everything is about to change. The Queen of Blood and Rage wants Lily to help broker peace with the human world, but Lily knows that harmony won’t come easily. After decades of waging war on the humans, who cost the queen her firstborn daughter, the fae are struggling to accept Lily, a half-human monarch. And the humans, while no match against faery affinities, will hardly agree to the queen’s détente without resistance. Lily wants to be a fair ruler but fears having to abandon the life she’s known. Now that she and Creed are more than just fellow Black Diamonds—operatives for the queen—her priorities have shifted. But her worries about assuming the throne are derailed when it becomes clear that someone—or some fae—is masterminding violent attacks to discourage peace. Who can end the war between humans and fae?
Goodreads
Drama... This book had so much drama and it was so incredibly wonderful. I love a good fae story, they are my favorite type of supernatural, and I have read plenty of fae stories and Seven Black Diamonds duology is among my favorites.
One Blood Ruby is the second book in the duology and it did not disappoint. Things pick up closely after the events in the first book, Seven Black Diamonds. Lily is the new heir to the Hidden Lands and her coronation is coming up, Lily's friends, the Diamonds, are supporting her while trying to do the tasks that are given to them by the royal fae. They have stopped the espionage and war on humanity to broker peace but someone doesn't want that peace and doesn't want Lily on the throne. The question then becomes who is sabotaging the peace talks and can Lily be the ruler everyone, fae and human alike, need her to be?
The plot of One Blood Ruby seamlessly connects with the plot of Seven Black Diamonds and is very interesting and unique in a paranormal story. The fae are raging war on humanity because humanity is destroying the planet which they all share, there is espionage (think spies), court politics, human politics, worlds clashing, people at unrest and magic all in the mix which makes for a very interesting story. The only thing I can complain about is that the ending was a little rushed and I want so much more of the story, other than that I was in love. The story flowed lovely and held my attention, I actually had to slow my reading down so that I could stretch the book out over a few days, so I could live in the story and enjoy it.
I have never loved a group of characters more than I do this group of characters. I enjoyed these characters, I had admired Lily, adored Violet, crushed on Creed, was jealous of Roan's calm, felt for Zepher, connected to Will and wished for Alkamy. I loved all the diamonds and connected to each of the characters. I loved that Lily's dad Nick loved his daughter so much and was so devoted to her and his wife, I loved that Eilidh was a character that was so very fae that she brought in the surprise element and most of all I loved the regents of faerie, Lily's grandparents. Endellion and Leith, the Unseelie Queen and the Seelie King, husband and wife and utterly ridiculous, mischievous, and scary all at the same time. I enjoyed these two so much and a lot of my laughable moments were because of them and I loved every minute of it. There are other characters that I haven't mentioned but that doesn't mean I love them less, I am just trying to keep this review as short as possible.
One Blood Ruby is now one of my favorite reads, with the fae and elemental magic, romance, mystery, plot twists, shocks and revelations, and some of the best characters I have ever read. This duology has made it into my all-time favorite books and I know I will find myself rereading the story over and over again. If you enjoy the fae, magic, romance, or crazy adventures I highly recommend this series. Melissa Marr has done a fantastic job with this series and I will have to admit that I did enjoy Seven Black Diamonds more than I enjoyed her other fae series Wicked Lovely so if you are a Wicked Lovely fan you might want to try Seven Black Diamonds.
