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luchikreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and War
rachel_jones03'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? N/A
3.0
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
spatterson7'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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Alcohol
lara_trio's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
I loved the urban fantasy vibes of this book. The love story between Liam and Dianna is so fucking good I couldn’t get enough.
The only thing I have I say is what the actual fuck, there is absolutely no way. I refuse to believe the ending because no just no.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
dcnireads'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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Pandemic/Epidemic
sarita_reads_books'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? Yes
3.75
They had their interesting flaws and through out their relationships lot enemies to friends to lovers they help each other work through their issues, especially Dianna working with Liam and his trauma. I feel like there was a good highlight of mens mental health and brought awareness to it which I liked.
Plot wise and world building I enjoyed. I do think that some things needed tightening up and explaining as there was a lot of telling us that this is the way the world is because it is and no other logical reason. And things kept getting thrown in. But on a less technical note is was easy enough to follow and I enjoyed myself and had a lot of fun reading this story.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
wishlissa's review against another edition
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail
yarisbooksandbevs'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: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Kidnapping
picaresquedreamer'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? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
nikkisreadingx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Notable things:
- The enemies-to-lovers trope is *really* well done. I don't like this trope when it's not fantasy or dark romance and often times, I feel like it's too rushed. It wasn't with this one. At all. The development of Dianna' and Liam's relationship is so...real. They hate each other for so long until they don't, and then they realized they hadn't hated each other for as long as they thought. It was just beautiful and as soon as that started, I was hooked.
- The world building is unique. The lore is great. In the beginning, it felt very Revelations/Rapture, then became very Valhalla/Ragnorak as we got to know more in the book. I can see now that the twist is because Dianna is kept in the dark about so many things and watching it unfold was interesting.
But I would also call it a little...lazy? If that's the right word. This is called high fantasy, but you could replace 'Onuna' with 'Earth' and it would make sense, because practically everything on the world was a reflection of earth. How people spoke, how they dressed, the technology, the buildings, it was all what we see in real life. This book hit the mark on urban-fantasy with other worlds on different planets. Urban fantasy is my preferred, so this worked for me. If you're looking for a true high fantasy feel, I think it misses there.
- Dianna's personality is fair and makes sense and is entertaining at times, but some of her snark is too immature for a centuries old warrior. However, I *loved* her character growth. So while her commentary was annoying in the first half of the book, it's welcome and endearing in the second half of the book. I didn't quite pinpoint when that shift happened (probably around the time she starts helping Liam with his nightmares), but it was really nice to see her grow and lose a bit of her bravado in favor of confidence in herself.
(I also could have done without the 'evil villain' clothing descriptions every time she got dressed in the frist half of the book. Why are they always the same?)
- The pacing of this book is a little off. The beginning took me forever. Mostly because it was a trauma dump. High stakes from page one, no moments of rest, I couldn't dive in because it was too much. When Liam was introduced, I thought there would be a break -- nope. He's as broken as she is. (Which, I will admit, had me curious to their story and helped me set aside time to continue reading even when I just wanted to dive into something sweet and happy.)
However, when it gets *going*, when Dianna is with Liam and finally removed from Kaden, I was sucked in. Completely. I went from reading 50 pages a day to 250 pages in one sitting. I only stopped because I knew I needed to a break before I got to the end.
- The ending. I hate cliffhangers in books and that's part of why it was slow going for me to get into this book. I also was under the impression this was a duet, so to finish this book and find out the sequel also has a cliffhanger?? 😤😭 But let's not get derailed there.
Part of the ending was predictable from the very beginning -- see: Hunger Games trauma -- and part of it was just heartbreaking. I don't like trauma porn, which was so much of the beginning of the book, that now, to see how much further it goes, how Dianna *cannot* be allowed to be happy, ever, it makes me very hesitant to continue reading the series. Especially when I don't know when the end is finally going to happen. I will because it was really good and I want to know how Dianna and Liam finally fall in love and I want to see how Liam helps Dianna heal in the next one, but I know I will struggle starting that book because it's just going to hurt.
As soon as I got into the book, I loved it. Even knowing what was coming, even knowing that I would hate the ending, even knowing that there wasn't a happy on the horizon for anyone, I couldn't help but love it. And I'm really interested to see where it goes.
Also -- don't go in this expecting spice. He fingers her, she blows him, that's all you're getting between these two in the whole 500 pages of the book. It makes sense -- because they're proper enemies-to-lovers -- but seeing people give this more than half a chili for spice meter is giving me all sorts of dissonance.
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Moderate: Abandonment