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kalefactory's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- 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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Toxic friendship
nineinchnails's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
i feel like the writing has improved a tiny bit in this book but i'm not sure if it's just that i've gotten so accustomed to it so i don't know if any judgement i make in this review will be accurate. i know a lot of people hated tory in this book but as much as she was frustrating i understood her and i don't think i ever really disliked her. what's crazy is darcy was overwhelmingly my fav twin in the first couple books but i think that's now shifted to tory somehow. i'm probably biased because i too am prideful, stubborn, and constantly self sabotage so who am i to judge? i don't want to spoil anything outside of what is already known from the first 3 books so i'll just say almost all of the characters seemed to make progress only to backtrack or revert to their book 1 antics and it made me want to throw my phone at the wall.
also i have probably already said this a bajillion times but whilst i love darcy + (somewhat like) orion individually i hate their relationship. it's not even that it's forbidden or that it's a student/teacher relationship necessarily (because they are both adults technically) it's the dynamics: in a fantasy world there is definitely the opportunity to make it feel less gross (like how underage drinking in solaria is completely normalised) and that just wasn't the case imo so most of their scenes ick me out so bad. i know he cares about her a lot and does a lot for her but i don't like the way he goes about covering up his favouritism to save face sometimes because he just takes it too far imo. darcy is better than me for sure because i would not have tolerated that even once. the only time she's actually seemed to have a backbone was when she was pissed on tory's behalf, which is pretty in character for her but it's still hard to read. this book would've been rated higher if there was less darcyorion but alas!
i'm interested to see how tory and darius' relationship develops because they're both so similar in the worst ways (for a romantic relationship) and i can't see either of them actually compromising for each other as it stands. i know promises get made and words get said but that's an entirely different issue from either one of them delivering on that. they both have deep rooted trust issues, lack communication, and god knows what else + i have yet to see either of them making significant progress on that but i'm hoping it'll slowly happen over the next books and i am very excited because they have potential. tbh i find it hard to hate either of them because despite their very irritating behaviour i understand them (most of the time) and i feel like they have understandable reasons for their twisted logic.
the plot outside of the relationships was insane in the best way pretty much every time i had to put this down i was anxious to pick it back up. i was probably being overly paranoid because there was a lot of long slice of life type of scenes but i just felt the vague feeling of imminent threat the whole time and it was making me super anxious. i feel like the authors kinda make a lot of this stuff as they go along when it comes to the worldbuilding but that's part of what makes it so fun for me to read cause a lot of it feels very balls-to-the-wall crazy and unhinged. even the twins being mary sues is really fun for me cause it just feels really self indulgent whenever they're not fighting for their lives i love it! also yes this book was unnecessarily long but i love these characters and this world so idc!!
also i have probably already said this a bajillion times but whilst i love darcy + (somewhat like) orion individually i hate their relationship. it's not even that it's forbidden or that it's a student/teacher relationship necessarily (because they are both adults technically) it's the dynamics: in a fantasy world there is definitely the opportunity to make it feel less gross (like how underage drinking in solaria is completely normalised) and that just wasn't the case imo so most of their scenes ick me out so bad. i know he cares about her a lot and does a lot for her but i don't like the way he goes about covering up his favouritism to save face sometimes because he just takes it too far imo. darcy is better than me for sure because i would not have tolerated that even once. the only time she's actually seemed to have a backbone was when she was pissed on tory's behalf, which is pretty in character for her but it's still hard to read. this book would've been rated higher if there was less darcyorion but alas!
i'm interested to see how tory and darius' relationship develops because they're both so similar in the worst ways (for a romantic relationship) and i can't see either of them actually compromising for each other as it stands. i know promises get made and words get said but that's an entirely different issue from either one of them delivering on that. they both have deep rooted trust issues, lack communication, and god knows what else + i have yet to see either of them making significant progress on that but i'm hoping it'll slowly happen over the next books and i am very excited because they have potential. tbh i find it hard to hate either of them because despite their very irritating behaviour i understand them (most of the time) and i feel like they have understandable reasons for their twisted logic.
the plot outside of the relationships was insane in the best way pretty much every time i had to put this down i was anxious to pick it back up. i was probably being overly paranoid because there was a lot of long slice of life type of scenes but i just felt the vague feeling of imminent threat the whole time and it was making me super anxious. i feel like the authors kinda make a lot of this stuff as they go along when it comes to the worldbuilding but that's part of what makes it so fun for me to read cause a lot of it feels very balls-to-the-wall crazy and unhinged. even the twins being mary sues is really fun for me cause it just feels really self indulgent whenever they're not fighting for their lives i love it! also yes this book was unnecessarily long but i love these characters and this world so idc!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Self harm, Blood, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Excrement, Death of parent, and Abandonment
student/teacher relationship,shaykay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
4.0
So these books are enormous. They are all 500+ pages, and for the most part, we are focusing on Tory and Darcy's story. We also have the same cast for most of these books as well. I'm finally grasping who is who when the POV changes, but this one, we are starting to pull away from the school some. We're starting to focus more on the world. I was obsessed with it because these twins were born into a family that's supposed to rule over this world that we have no knowledge of outside of school. Plus, we got to spend more time with the guys. However, things are starting to get stale with them. Literally, the whole time, it is like 3 steps forward and then instantly a million steps backward, and it's been really rough getting through all of this. I wish we started wrapping things up since these books are so ginormous, but it's like always waiting on the next foot to drop.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Self harm, and Death of parent
unicornofthesea's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Alcohol
slyveimaeve's review against another edition
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual assault and Suicidal thoughts
hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
csantos's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
bblanka's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
crinkledmochi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Chile….
I’m over it like I really tried to figure why I’m still reading this series like yes they are a mess and slightly entertaining but these books are truly bad (and problematic). Especially after having read this one in particular I can not keep going I just can not.
I’m over it like I really tried to figure why I’m still reading this series like yes they are a mess and slightly entertaining but these books are truly bad (and problematic). Especially after having read this one in particular I can not keep going I just can not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Self harm, and Death of parent
Minor: Grief
katevhutchinson's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The moment I started reading these books, I knew they weren't 'good'. I'm a sucker for a 'bad' book that's really enjoyable regardless. So the writing really lacks, to the point where there are odd exchanges of dialogue which slip out of character a lot for me, eg. Orion suddenly making exclamations and bouncing on his heels. Orion. Eternally serious, stoic and sexy, Orion. But having read the first 3 I knew this, and this book doesn't really pick up in that respect, along with odd typos and inconsistency in the magic system etc. Also in order to drill into us the characters, they get incredibly repetitive (Seth likes to touch people WE GET IT). I find myself jarring out of the story to edit the text, half the book could be cut out with the amount of unnecessary repetitions of tedious description. So I mostly skim read all of that now, it's just not needed.
Tory and Daruis are the most infuriating characters simply because I don't feel like their motives match up to their actions. Tory being an ice queen bitch and Darius bullying her just doesn't carry enough for me, like they could both realistically stop doing both of those things and then boom no more strife? Tory acts like Darius destroyed her life and I don't reaaaallly get that? In the grand scheme of things? With everything everyone's ever done to you your souly blaming THIS guy? I get what they were trying to do, but if you're that low and offered a way out of if you'd jump on it, no? You grow up with no love apart from your sister and the ACTUAL STARS give you a love forever and you say 'na can't trust him' ?? it doesn't make sense for me but, whatever you go with it.
We love Geraldine, a queen in her own right. In fact, so many of the side characters I feel are written way more consistently than the actual main characters (Sofia, Tyler, etc).
I think myself, along with so many other readers actually prefer Darcy because she's far more well rounded than Tory, feeling a whole spectrum of emotions as apposed to just rage, which makes Darcy more engaging in my opinion. The whole soulmate thing is also so confusing, why would Darius be Tory's mate but Orion isn't Darcy's? Why would your mate for life try (repeatedly) to kill you? That struggle is so confusing to me and seems like an odd way for the writers to create conflict in that. Surely the conflict based on the fact theyre Heirs is more true to the characters and not just ragingly hating each other. I DIGRESS.
I actually eye roll when I see a Tory chapter, because its just her moaning for 5 pages (a bit like this review). I do love her sexual empowerment, and all the feminist vibes it tries to give us with Tory, however it just ends up falling a bit flat for me because it's giving self destruct vibes instead. Just wanna shake her and tell her to get a grip, really.
Could have done without Max's chapters too, couldn't care less about him or his disheveled mohawk. But we march on.
It would have been a 3, but that 0.75 is for the fact that even with all of these things, I'm still gonna read the next one, and probably the one after that. And credit where credit us due for reeling me in. Mostly just want a Darcy book so I'm holding out for that.
We love Geraldine, a queen in her own right. In fact, so many of the side characters I feel are written way more consistently than the actual main characters (Sofia, Tyler, etc).
I think myself, along with so many other readers actually prefer Darcy because she's far more well rounded than Tory, feeling a whole spectrum of emotions as apposed to just rage, which makes Darcy more engaging in my opinion.
I actually eye roll when I see a Tory chapter, because its just her moaning for 5 pages (a bit like this review). I do love her sexual empowerment, and all the feminist vibes it tries to give us with Tory, however it just ends up falling a bit flat for me because it's giving self destruct vibes instead. Just wanna shake her and tell her to get a grip, really.
Could have done without Max's chapters too, couldn't care less about him or his disheveled mohawk. But we march on.
It would have been a 3, but that 0.75 is for the fact that even with all of these things, I'm still gonna read the next one, and probably the one after that. And credit where credit us due for reeling me in. Mostly just want a Darcy book so I'm holding out for that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment