Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

La Justicia de los Reyes by Richard Swan, Richard Swan

5 reviews

verinvaldez's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Starts out as a murder mystery, which quickly becomes an empire ending threat. Justice Konrad is a very mysterious character and as the story is told from the POV of his apprentice/clerk Helena as an older woman we get to see his character shift and what seems to be the start of a moral decline from an outside POV. Helena herself is very dull and a victim of insta-love unfortunately, she has no idea what she wants in life, her streetrat orphan background is barely relevant to her character, and for some reason older Helena stands by her insta-love as her "first true love". Sir Radomir develops into a wonderfully charismatic character by the end of the book and the climax makes for a compelling start to this trilogy. I will be reading the sequel and hoping for better characterisation for Helena.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Cultural appropriation, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Child death

ohmage_resistance's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Murder, Gore, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Rape, Alcohol, Child death, and Alcoholism

misterwisp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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

I think it actually lives up to the hype, which I was not expecting. It's everything. The characters feel like people, the world is subtly well established without info dumps, the plot pulls you in and feels like it matters, and the whole framing of one of the characters writing the story of her mentor in his strengths, failures, and changes he goes through due to story events they experience is surprisingly compelling. It was hard to put down and I'm left excited to read the next one. It's quite good and worth the time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Medical content and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

the child death does not happen "on page", the bones of a child are exhumed to determine true cause of death.

fenglei's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book left me feeling quite conflicted, but after a few days, I can definitely say that I enjoyed it and that it made me think.
The plot is rather slow, but the characters, particularly our narrator Helena and Sir Konrad, get you hooked on the story. The magic is not really one of the main elements of the story, but it is still compelling, and hopefully we will learn more about it in the next installments.
The main point, or even character, of this book was definitely the Law. The concept of law, the role it has in society, what it means to different people, how it can unite or divide.. it gave me a lot of food for thought.
If you enjoy fantasy and law, this is a great read. I'm not entirely sure it lived up to the hype that it got, but I still enjoyed it and would recommend it. I will certainly read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol

Minor: Child death

grimdark_dad's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Child death, Grief, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Sexism, War, Blood, Confinement, Alcohol, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Violence