Awakened by Vaughan W. Smith is the first book in the Blood Storm Series. It revolves around Maya, who unleashed the 'BloodStorm'. Seven bloodlines were granted powers. However, Maya is unique, she has powers from all seven bloodlines.
An enjoyable read. I found the first half of the book spent too much time jumping between the two different time periods. Very fast paced, and I could appreciate that we were seeing things from Maya's perspective, so her confusion and lack of understanding is what we as the reader also experience. That could be confusing at times as well, not enough world building and trying to keep characters straight from different time periods.
I liked the story, the magic and how people used it was interesting and certainly different. And the action was exciting. The next book I am interested in reading, hopefully without time jumps and the author will settle into building more of the world and characters. ( )

Maya has been a pawn in the games of the Master Sage who has long been manipulating bloodlines for his own purposes. Each line has special powers that the Master Sage hopes to control.

For the first half of the book, there are split timelines. I’m not sure why this structure was used, rather than a more linear approach because it led to a very disjointed feeling in a plot that was already a little rushed. There was a lot of “okay we’re here doing this, now we’re there doing that,’ usually with some reason, but it was not very smooth. There was some improvement in the last half, once the timelines merged. There were also some incongruences--in that in a scene where an announcer says that the six contestants have arrived (more than once), there are actually seven contestants. I kept having to look back to see if I had miscounted something.

Despite all of that, Maya is pretty charming as well as smart, determined, and brave. The magic system is interesting and different from the usual. The action is not lacking either. There is definitely potential in the writing and world building, and I will definitely try the next in the series to see where both go. ( )

The Bloodstorm Awakened is the start of a good series. I read the first book and immediately went on to the second. The characters are well drawn, and bring life to the prose. The world building is good. It engages the reader and keeps delivering and you follow Maya's struggle to reach her full potential.

Urban fantasy with a refreshingly different take on the fantastic part. It's not simply magic but tied to bloodlines. Really fun and nicely thought out.

I did find some of the early jumps between times a bit confusing. Also the timing later on is a bit unclear, it seems like the hero Maya is simply awesome at learning - and guessing, and figuring things out on the fly. It seems a bit too easy for me. ( )

Pacing was very much too rushed, a lot of the first half read more like author's notes and world-building background, which then compressed the 2nd and much better half of the magic school scenario. In fact even with the world-building notes in front of you it didn't make much sense, especially the technology which was going to be important (self driving cars?) that then got ignored for the rest of the book.

The basic premise was sound - very rare 'genetic anomalies' give rise to magical bloodlines, and by the laws of statistical averages even though they are rare, some people end up with more than one.... and by careful pressure and selection can be encouraged to breed multiples. If you happen to be aware of this and have access to life extension through your own bloodline then you can create someone who has all 7. And a little bit more manipulation means you can add that to your own.. Maria was the manipulated girl target of generations of unknown manipulations. But now she's just a girl at school unfairly picked on by her teachers and of few friends in a hyper-competitive environment. She has to unlock her own potential.

The friends were we all wet doormats, eager to please with no thoughts of their own, and there wasn't enough space devoted to character development of anyone. With substantial re-writing this could be good the author has a keen imagination, and most of the scenes were good, it just needed much better pacing and development. ( )