Introduction
If you’ve been following the blog for the last month, I’m sure you’ve noticed this book in several of my blog posts.
Ever since I saw the cover and read the blurb for this YA fantasy romance, I KNEW it was going to be an insta-love hehe. The premise, overall vibe, and feeling was just made for me.
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And I wasn’t wrong!! I love when that happens.
SO here we are, with a full, in-depth review of one of my 5-star reads in 2024.
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Let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
The Revenant Games by Margie Fuston
Author: Margie Fuston
Genre: Fantasy Romance ( Young Adult)
Published: 2024
Pages: 416
Spice level: Clean with lots of tension
Synopsis
Blood is survival for seventeen-year-old Bly, who lives in the poverty-stricken human villages caught between enemy vampire and witch kingdoms. Most of the time, vampires and witches live in uneasy truce, buying human blood for their food and spells. But for two weeks a year, the ceasefire dissolves, and they hold the Revenant Games.
Any human can play in the games for either the witches or the vampires. Alongside life-changing riches, the witches will raise one person from the dead for whoever captures the highest-ranking vampire. In turn, the vampires offer immortality to whoever captures the most powerful witch. For most humans, the games are a ticket out of poverty. For Bly, itās a chance to get back her dead sister, Elise, and save the life of her dying best friend, Emerson.
The Revenant Games: Main plot and brief sumnmary ( no spoilers )
āWeāre just pretending, right?ā āYes,ā he said, voice hoarse. āAnd the stars are still watching us.ā
Brief summary ( no spoilers )
Although I think the blurb for this book is very well done and summarizes the inciting incident and important points very well, I want to give you my personal insight..
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Two Kingdoms and the humans
The society here is divided into 2 Kingdoms: Witches, vampires, and humans ( who are not considered a Kingdom)
Witches and vampires are both equal in power, whereas humans are treated like garbage and are considered the lowest chain in this divided society.
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Sadly for humans, witches and vampires need human blood to survive. Vampires, well, for obvious reasons, and witches to perform powerful spells.
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Both Kingdoms agreed not to harm the humans, basically to refrain from using violence against them in order to acquire blood, so they have devised mechanisms to obtain blood by trading it for money.
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The Revenant Games
Once a year, the Revenant Games take place between the two kingdoms and humans.
It’s not unusual in society to hold competitions in order to keep people in check, and these special games follow this reasoning.
Any human can play in the games for either the witches or the vampires. Alongside life-changing riches, the witches will raise one person from the dead for whoever captures the highest-ranking vampire. In turn, the vampires offer immortality to whoever captures the most powerful witch.
Easy peasy!Ā
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Our heroine, Bly, desperately needs to win these games. She saw how her sister, Wess, was poisoned by the witches and died in the woods.
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Later on, her best friend (and childhood crush, of course) gets cursed by another witch and has only 1 year left to live.
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So they both enter the contest, and Bly and Emerson will need to find a way to break the game in order to win both prizes.
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The last part of the puzzle : Kerrigan the vampire prince
This couldn’t be a classic YA fantasy without a somewhat good love triangle, right?
Prepare to meet your new book boyfriend, Kerrigan.
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He is one of the Princes of the vampires and offers himself freely to Bly as a prize for the witches so she can win the game.
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Nobody knows his motives or if he’s faking it all to later deceive Bly… but it’s clear that something else forms between them alongside the duration of the games.
Will Bly have the strength to sacrifice the vampire at the end?
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Similarities with other fantasy books
Same whimsical vibe
Hate to love you
Forbidden romance
Trial Games and vampires
The Revenant Games and The Once Upon a Broken Heart Series
One word: whimsical world.
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Although The Revenant Games is darker than Once Upon a Broken Heart (OUABH from now on), both share enormous similarities.
The two stories have a fairytale vibe, with princes, magical creatures, and romance as a central part of the story.
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Yes, romance is central, but it’s not ALL of it. The main plot drives the story, and the romance accompanies it.
OUABH and The Revenant Games are both clean romances but with very good tension scenes between the characters.
The Revenant Games and The Cruel Prince
This series is perfect for you if you love the dynamics between Cardan and Jude in The Cruel Prince (TCP from now on).
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In TCP, the romance takes a little bit more time to get into the scene, but both series share an important trope in common: hate to love.
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This trope is SO HARD to get right, and I think with the second book of this series, we will definitely enjoy it at its finest (the ending in Revenant Games was somewhat similar to the first book from TCP).
Similarities with The Iron King
Maybe it’s because I recently read this vintage fantasy romance series… but Kerrigan’s background has a lot in common with Ash. A LOT.
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Okay, I know Ash is Fae and not a vampire, but they share some common traits, and the forbidden romance aspect gave me a deja vu from this fantastic series. (By the way, I totally recommend itāa vintage jewel I constantly mention in my newsletter! Haha, XD sorrynotsorry :P)
Similarities with The Serpent and The Wings of Night
Revenant Games IS NOT a spicy book, so that is something these books do NOT have in common.
But they have trials or games as a central part of the story, and vampires… therefore, this series has been compared with this duology.
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The Revenant Games Spice level
There are no sex scenes in The Revenant GamesĀ
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This is a clean fantasy romance.
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But as I always say, when you know how to write tension, spice is unnecessary… and if you add to this that this book has vampires… you get the idea, hehe.
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There is nothing more alluring than a slow burn forbidden romance between a human girl and a conflicted vampire… the possibilities!! Hehe.
Should you read The Revenant Games?
āJust donāt fall in love with the idea of a good-hearted vampire.ā āFall in love?ā Bly actually laughed. āYou canāt be serious.ā
My Opinion: What I loved about this book
This book is pure Young Adult nostalgia but with a modern touch.
It has the whimsical world of Once Upon a Broken Heart mixed with the dark fairytale ambience from Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik.
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The romance fulfilled my expectations, with the added element of vampires.
Vampires are always a source of tension and lust, and – in the right author’s hands – it can create beautiful dynamics between the heroine and the love interest (“I don’t want to bite you, but I lust for you, I can’t control myself”).
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Because this is a YA book, there is no spice involved at any moment, so the tension is exacerbated, and the slow burn and quotable dialogue are INTENSE.
To add to all this, the story itself, the purpose of the heroine, and her “quest path” were well presented.
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The ending, with the different storylines being delineated for the second book, makes me curious enough to be willing to read the second book.
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Moreover, the hate-to-love trope is presented in this book, so that absolutely adds a full star to my rating. (Yeah, sorry, I’m biased, haha. I’m a fan of The Cruel Prince :P)
What should you expect for the second book ( no spoilers )
Considering how this first book ended, I expect a total different second book. There will be no games involved, and considering we met in this first installment many side characters strongly interconnected to Bly, I’m positive thewy will have a more important role in the second book.
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Im sure we will witness some of the decisions Bly made in the third act get repercussions and I can’t wait to read more about her and Kerrigan š
The Revenant Games tropes and themes
The Revenant Games Favorite quotes
Kerrigan is a conflicted vampire, damaged and broken by all the sadness he had to endure in his short life, but extremely sweet and playful with Bly. He has lovely quotes throughout the book.
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I loved him!!
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Here are a couple of them, among others from other characters in the book.
Now she had two vampires peering down at herāone looking like he wanted to eat her and the other looking like this was all a delightful game.
āFeel free to touch me as much as needed or as much as youād like.ā -Kerrigan
āAre you sure you donāt want to be bitten?ā Something had shifted in his toneāthe seduction in it didnāt sound fake like it had moments before. His eyes crinkled at the corners as if he were surprised by the change in him too.
āIāve seen the way you look at him.ā Revulsion pulsed in his voice. āI donāt know why he took those arrows for you. I wish it had been me.
About the author
Lauren Roberts gained a lot of popularity when she began her writing journey on TikTok. She recorded her entire first book writing process and uploaded it to social media. The result was ‘Powerless.’
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Lauren has lived her entire life in Michigan and loves to knit, do word searches, and coloring.
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You can find Lauren on her TikTok account, where she regularly uploads bookish content.
Frequently asked Questions:
Yes. Revenant Games is a series, but there is no info about the second book’s release yet.
The Revenant Games is a clean fantasy romance. It doesn’t have any sex scene and is suitable for ages 13+
Yes. there is a love triangle but it resolves itself before the Third Act of the book
The Revenant Games is a Young Adult fantasy Romance about a human, Bly,who in order to get her dead sister back and cure her friend, enters The Revenant Games to obtain the mayor prize: the chance of resurrecting her sister and curing her friend Emerson.
There is not released date yet for the second book in the series.
Final thoughts : My opinion
Powerless was such a pleasant surprise.Ā
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Lauren Roberts shows real potential as a writer and successfully crafted a compelling first book.
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Powerless delivers our favorite tropes and a charming enemies-to-lovers romance that hints at going into darker territory in the second book of the series.
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Perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince, Once Upon a Broken Heart and anyone who loves fairytales !!
