Blood Like Fate (Blood Like Magic)

The spellbinding sequel to BLOOD LIKE MAGIC, a rich, dark urban fantasy debut that Kirkus calls in a starred review, "a breath of fresh air for the genre."

Reviews

In Sambury's downright dazzling debut, Voya has finally started menstruating, which means she's ready to come into her family’s magic and receive her gift from her family’s ancestors. To receive this gift, each witch needs to complete a task given to them by an ancestor, and failing is not an option. To Voya’s misfortune, Mama Jova, who suffered at the hands of slavery, imparts her task: to echo the family’s mantra of “suffer and survive,” Voya is instructed to destroy her first love or risk losing her family forever. This engrossing novel features a world both familiar and unfamiliar, in a near-future Toronto. Sambury vividly captures the vibrancy of Toronto as well as the diversity within the witch community, and her dedication to world building lends authenticity to her characters. Family and heritage are two important themes, demonstrated powerfully in the novel's descriptions of history keeping, food, and daily family life. While this urban fantasy takes place in the near future, Sambury does not turn a blind eye to the persistent history of systemic racism against Black people, the evils of slavery, or police brutality targeting Black people, nor how those impact the Black community on a daily basis, all while keeping magic compellingly at the forefront. This impressive debut will wow readers and leave them eager for more from this writer to watch.