Reviews tagging 'War'

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller

5 reviews

mythian's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and War

hayzey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

beautifulpaxielreads's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

So I didn't fall in love with Blade of Secrets.

Let's start with the good stuff first. Levenseller's depiction of the MC Ziva's social anxiety was very, very well done and realistic. I also liked reading about the relationship Ziva had with her sister, and the

slow-burn romance with Kellyn was also developed nicely

.

The main areas which I felt were lacking were mainly to do with worldbuilding and pace. As the novel began, I assumed it to be taking place in some kind of quasi-medieval fantasy setting - a country called Ghadra which is split into territories. But then I kept finding inconsistencies that took me out of the world completely. The really big one I noticed came when Ziva mentioned the term

"boomerang", a term which I believe originated with Indigenous Australians. How would she know this?

. I was also unclear as to what Ziva meant when she referred to the "world", because practically no broader context is given outside of Ghadra. 

The pacing was also really weird. There were parts of the novel where not a lot happened, and when the action did take place there was no build-up, no suspense. For me, this meant whenever the characters were under attack by enemies, it took a moment for me to realise that "oh, they're meant to be in danger now." 

I also wasn't clear on all aspects of how the magic was supposed to work. I felt Ziva's magic was described in most detail, but other parts seemed pretty vague.

All up, Blade of Secrets had some good, and some not-so-good. I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue with the series, given how this book ended on something of a cliffhanger. But we'll see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: War

thecatconstellation's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

4.25

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I found it to be a quick read. While Ziva’s social anxiety at times can feel overused, it was really nice to read about a character struggling in ways that I have. The main group of 4 characters make a good mix, and I enjoy seeing the relationships develop. I would not call this an “enemies-to-lovers” as I have sometimes seen it called, more of a “ugh he’s gross and selfish to lovers”. I do think the pacing was a bit odd at times, sometimes a bit slow and sometimes a bit fast. But I enjoyed it! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol and War

sunniva174's review

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Death

Minor: Death of parent and War