Aside from having a drop-dead gorgeous cover, "Blind Spot" by Kate Peters is a novel with quite an interesting premise to offer. What would a world in which people are born with a magical ability look like? How would it resemble ours, and how would it differ? Perhaps more importantly, though... What would people do to keep them, and how much would they be willing to sacrifice for more power?
I would like to clarify that I enjoyed the book, since I found the setting to be quite interesting and was really intrigued about the snippets of lore that were slowly offered up to me as a reader. Dystopian societies have always fascinated me, since they are an exploration of what our world COULD be and often betray our current societies' troubles and biggest fears—throw in magic of any kind, and I'm in! This was something that pulled me in from the get-go, though at the same time I wish there had been a deeper dive into this world and how it works. Considering how fascinating it sounded, I would've liked to understand a bit better everything that was mentioned in the passing. How is this society that Ambrose and Cai belong to structured? How did it come to be? What keeps it from utter chaos, how is it politically organised? What is the relevance of both families within said society? Does everyone have powers, or is this something only a few are born with? How have these magic abilities impacted the way society works? Etcetera.
Regarding the two main characters, Ambrose and Cai, I quite liked that the book explored how they stay in love, rather than merely how they fall for each other. Many times romance is limited to the journey from enemies, or friends, or strangers, or whatever, to lovers who decide to become a couple. In this sense, it was quite refreshing to have an already established couple be the focus of interest, since it offered a lot of fun scenes and lovely subplots. Something I particularly enjoyed were the little details, here and there, through which we glimpse at how much Cai and Ambrose have been through together. There was a comforting routine to their bond that felt very much like a warm hug, which I enjoyed immensely, and they were far from boring or insipid.
Perhaps the plot was, to me, what might've benefitted the most from a round of developmental edits focused particularly on the pacing. Even though I don't think that the blurb is misleading in any way, I did feel like I didn't know what the main plot was meant to be due to, precisely, the pacing. It took over half of the book for the main conflict to happen, which at the same time disrupted my investment because it came in too "late" and, as a consequence, I wasn't really sold on the idea of it being as relevant as I knew it was meant to be. Another thing I did not enjoy as much as I wish I had was the resolution, since it felt rushed (precisely because it all happened when the story was over 50% along) and there was a lot of information being dumped that seemed to be blurted out just for the sake of justifying how things played out. I didn't really feel like I was reading a sci-fi novel for most of it, because there was nothing that suggested that science and technology were relevant at all or, at least, as relevant as magical abilities. "Urban Fantasy" might be a better fit in terms of literary subgenres, since magical abilities are so prominent in the worldbuilding.
All things considered, this book offers quite an interesting premise and has a lot of potential. I don't regret giving it a chance, since there was quite a solid core concept. Will be watching out for this author's next release!