4 ⭐ CW: Violence, genocide, torture, slavery, ableism, blood, death

Roots of Blood by Elise Volkman is book one in the Nymph Keepers series. I received this ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review. This was a surprisingly good book. I say surprising, because I really wasn't feeling it at first, but it went a different way than I was expecting. 

We follow Forest, a forest nymph who has been enslaved and abused by a man she calls the Master. One day the Master dies and a man named Jay kidnaps her for a bounty from the nymph keeper. Jay just wants nymph blood to help heal his sister, but he doesn't realize that the nymph keeper is going to torture the nymph. So he kidnaps her again, and now they are on the run to the next kingdom. 

Forest has only ever known abuse and isolation, and as such is fearful and uneducated. In the new kingdom, she is shown a measure of kindness, even if it does come with the revulsion of the disabled. I assumed we were getting an enemies to lovers thing between Forest and Jay, but he never stopped figuring out how to not be an asshat all the time. Instead, Forest has a bidding relationship with another Nymph in the palace who guards the prince, Silic. I loved seeing Forest slowly learn how to trust and start creating bonds. I was really starting to like all the world-building, so I hope that continues in the next book. 

We get some themes about ableism , vanity, and selfishness. We also explore the genocide of the Nymphs. The next book will probably be exploring what happens to a kingdom who's culture is based on the genocide or use of blood of another being, and now their forests may be on the verge of dying from lack of forest nymphs. I enjoyed the character moments and look forward to book 2!