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vic_to_ria's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I felt that it ended a little too quickly but I guess everything was already set up.
Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
frantic_vampire's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
kmarie341's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and War
ciuli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I pushed through these books because in my mind I was like "it will get better, I just have to wait a bit, the action is coming, war is coming, it's about to get exciting!" but then it never did.
Like, the main focus of this series was supposed to be the fight for the kingdoms and the war and the tactics and in the end literally NOTHING happened. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed plot-wise by a book ever.
Even the antagonists felt completely useless. The Regent only existed to antagonist his nephew, literally no other goal in his life other than that, Kastor was always mentioned but appeared in 3 pages out of 3 books.
I had read a review of book 2 where someone described it as overcomplicated erotica and honestly, they were so right. Joe do you expect me to take the plot of this book seriously, when the characters are on the brink of a war who could change the futures of their lives and their kingdom's lives, but they couldn't give a rat's ass about it because they were too busy having sex to care about any of it.
The worst part is that in the end, even the romance felt flat, I expected some kind closure in the end but the way it ended felt like it was missing and entire chapter. I do love Laurent, he is the only reason I pushed through and read the books till the end, while everytime Damen did something or talked I went "uuugh please shut up", which you can understand is a difficult feeling to have towards the person who is narrating the book.
Overall a very disappointing ending to the trilogy and and the only reason I left 2 stars is because Laurent deserves them and no one else
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual content
divine529's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was the best of the three by a lot. I still consider it all to be "book candy" and like with the previous books, so much telling, not a ton of showing, but it was a stronger book than the previous two by a lot. The reveal of Damen to everyone really helped a lot of things, and getting to unpack all the trauma both he and Laurent went through was good. It definitely needed to be unpacked further, but I'm glad we got what we did. Some of the side characters ended up being a good voice of reason and conscience for all of that (Nikandros is the best). There were some absolutely fantastic scenes - sparring scene and whatever they hell they were doing with the disguises was hysterical to read. It was great getting to see everything come together and wind up, but I didn't love how rushed and abrupt the ending was.
All in all, this was my favorite of the three. I still had problems with the book and series as a whole, but it was entertaining overall.
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Alcohol
Minor: Biphobia, Incest, Rape, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Pregnancy
foxclouds's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War
nitzanschwarz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Not gonna lie, I'm sad it's over! Partly because this book doesn't feel complete. More on that in a second. I will warn you - I will focus on some things that frustrated and annoyed me. I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed seeing Laurent and Damen's story conclude. I have enjoyed them as a couple and would like to read more about them. But I also had a lot of things that I was not particularly happy about, and I needed to let them out, simple as that.
This book picks up right where the last one ended when Damen regains his name. And I suppose it goes the best it could.
I loved Laurent in this, even when he was frustrating. This man is capable beyond his years. I love that his last play hinges on
Damen, however? I am not so sure about it. I don't think he actually has what it takes—oh, sure, he'll be a great military general. But a king? I have my doubts. Being kind and righteous does not a king make, and this man is kind of DUMB. Like, he lets himself be provoked into stupid actions. A King should not be this easy to get a rise out of. He fails to see subterfuge when it's right in his face, and had Laurent not counted on that--counted on his stupid straightforwardness--they'd both be dead.
It's lucky that
I still love Laurent and Damen, and I wish we got to see them happy at any point in this series. We don't. All we get to see is them struggling against, quite frankly, horrible people. Part of my issue with this novel is that I wanted more from how we dispatched these people.
Damen
Not only was I not happy about the showdown with Kastor, I wasn't thrilled about the showdown with the Regent, either! It all felt so hollow. All it took was...
We also never really talked about Laurent's past. We have a discovery and an outburst, and then... nothing. It deserved more than that. For a series that spent so much time in the first book dishing out sexual abuse, it has a remarkable lack of content dealing with or acknowledging the consequences of such abuse...
Overall, I thought the climax was a disappointing end to the series (and it is quite literally the end; the book closes seconds after the climax), that it didn't deliver on some of the things that it set out, and it didn't even have the decency to cushion some of the hurt with fluff at the end LOL. I am very curious to read Pacat's newest series and see how and where she has developed as a writer and a series planner since this one!
Plot - 17/20
Characters - 18/20
Relationships - 18/20
Writing - 14/20
Reading Experience - 14/20
Final score: 81
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia
meganemarshall's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I finally started to like Laurent in this book, Damen is my sweet cinnamon roll and anyone who does him harm I hate. So, it was really hard to like Laurent for a lot of the series, but finally, we started to see a lot of his background and his thought process. The side characters in this book also had some interesting storylines, Jocasta, in particular.
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Pedophilia and Murder
mint_frog's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
This is where we finally fully get to the "lovers" part of "enemies to lovers", and it's done incredibly well. I can fully understand why the characters behaved and felt the way they did in the beginning, and also exactly why the nature of their actions and feelings gradually changed.
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Murder, and War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Pedophilia
willowmae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Slavery