Colsten Can’t Wait: Ink In The Blood by Kim Smejkal

Welcome to Colsten Can’t Wait, which is my version of Waiting On Wednesday! Every week, my cat and I pick out an upcoming book we’re looking forward to and highlight it! This week, we picked out Ink In The Blood.

Synopsis:

Celia Sand and her best friend, Anya Burtoni, are inklings for the esteemed religion of Profeta. Using magic, they tattoo followers with beautiful images that represent the Divine’s will and guide the actions of the recipients. It’s considered a noble calling, but ten years into their servitude Celia and Anya know the truth: Profeta is built on lies, the tattooed orders strip away freedom, and the revered temple is actually a brutal, torturous prison. Their opportunity to escape arrives with the Rabble Mob, a traveling theater troupe. Using their inkling abilities for performance instead of propaganda, Celia and Anya are content for the first time . . . until they realize who followed them. The Divine they never believed in is very real, very angry, and determined to use Celia, Anya, and the Rabble Mob’s now-infamous stage to spread her deceitful influence even further. To protect their new family from the wrath of a malicious deity and the zealots who work in her name, Celia and Anya must unmask the biggest lie of all—Profeta itself. 

This one sounds really, really good. Two main characters who tattoo images of a religion onto it’s followers to help guide them, but it’s actually a lie to control them, sounds really, really intriguing. A world that is actually brutal and tortuous, but hide behind pretty lies is definitely something that I want to read. And the two main characters, or what I assume will be the main characters, are best friends! I feel like there aren’t a ton of books where that kind of friendship is highlighted and I’m looking forward to seeing how this relationship works! Oh, and I can’t wait to find out more about the theatre aspect of this book! It sounds so cool and I think it’s going to add a really neat layer to the story. And the Divine sounds mysterious and it’s angry. It should be very interesting to see what it is and what it does to the people it anger it. All in all, this sounds like a really cool book and I’m looking forward to reading it!

Ink In The Blood comes out February 11, 2020! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy in the meantime!

Thank you for reading!