In the Blood Book Review

In the Blood Book Summary From Goodreads

Sometimes, love bites.

Marigold, the future Queen of Aurelius, finds herself at odds with the life that has been forced upon her—especially when it comes time for her to take a husband.

On the day of her debut into society, she runs from responsibility that nips at her heels, falling into another world in the process. Three Fae princes save her from certain death and present her with news that changes everything—faeries are real and an ancient blood curse has stolen their magic. It is now stored in humans, like bottled wine, and the only way to take it back is to drink magic-laced blood. The once proud faeries have been reduced to glorified vampires.

When Marigold learns that she is their only hope for survival, she begins a journey to save the people of this new world and find her way back home. Along the way she meets lions, dragons, and unicorns (oh my) while discovering magic of her own. She must fight against blood-thirsty faeries, self-doubt, and a prophecy that has chosen not only her fate, but her mate.

In the Blood contains depictions of violence, adult situations, and abuse. An age rating of 17+ has been assigned to this book by the author.

About the Book and Where to Buy In the Blood

In the Blood by Kristen Cari is a romantic epic fantasy and the first in The Forgotten Fae trilogy. Self-published on July 12, 2025, it follows Marigold, who escapes an arranged marriage and finds a fae realm cursed to lose its magic—now trapped inside humans. Cari, a Milwaukee-based author, is a mom, photographer, and former zookeeper.

You can purchase a paperback version of this book through my amazon affiliate link if you want to support this review. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited.

Tropes:

• Dark Instant Love
• Love Triangle
• Cursed Faeries
• Slow Burn
• Animal Shifters
• Soft Whitty FMC
• Political Intrigue

If you love ACOTAR, Dire Bound or Firebird, this book is for you.

My Thoughts on In the Blood

I was blown away with this book. I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up until 4a finishing it. Instant love, love triangles, political intrigue, betrayal, princes, shifters, cursed fae, prophecies, need I say more. Selfishly, I wish there were 1-2 more chapters at the end because I really wanted to see one of the characters responses from what they just learned. The romance and plot was about 50/50 which I love, because with that much smut, the plot needs to be good and this book delivered!

Spoilers ahead……so stop reading if you haven’t read the book yet.

Marigold is a part fae but she doesn’t know it. She’s in a realm that has erased the fae from its memory. Her aunt is the queen with no heirs, her mom dies when she’s 10 at a ball and her father leaves and she never hears from him again.

When she’s 21 she has her debut but gets overwhelmed and goes to her secret garden to get away and falls asleep and then she wakes up in a different realm where the majority is fae and only a fraction of humans. The fae are cursed and need to drink the blood of humans to have magic, but the humans can’t use the magic within their blood.

The queen in this realm is evil and the 6 elders are as well. They hate humans and half breeds, they want to find a way to end their curse and go back to their homeland and kill the humans for cursing them. Marigold is found by the 3 fae princes who are shifters as well, they tell her she’s fae and that she’s a world walker and she’s their savior. Hello freak out!!!

They teach her how to harness her magic and try to learn how to shift. Along the way she falls in love with the oldest prince that that’s heir to the crown and trains with the other 2 to hone her magic. The younger 2 don’t like the oldest but won’t tell her why…..

I can’t spoil the entire book for you, so you’ll have to read the book to find out how the story continues.

Stay in Touch with the Author

• Visit her website: Author Kristen Cari | Discover Magical Adventures Today
• Follow her on Instagram