Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller

19 reviews

chapters_and_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

I didn’t really know too much about this book going into it, but as I liked Daughter of the Pirate King, I figured I’d give it a go and I’m so glad I did!

Ziva spends her days hidden away in her forge, using her magical abilities to craft unique and powerful weapons. She much prefers to be surrounded by metal than people. When Ziva creates a sword for a warlord that can share a person’s secrets, Ziva discovers the Warlord’s true plans with the sword, and must flee with her younger sister to stop the sword ending up in the wrong hands. 

I really enjoyed this book! It was a really fast paced, easy to get through read, which I think isn’t as common in fantasy. I really enjoyed our four main characters, as well as the relationships that developed between the group. 

I also really liked the representation of social anxiety which we don’t see all that often in fantasy books. I did pick up on some aspects of Ziva’s character that could suggest that she is neurodivergent. Of course, neurodivergence and Autism isn’t really present in most fantasy books (at least, I’ve never read a fantasy book with the rep) and it could be that as a neurodivergent person myself, I’m seeing similarities in my personality and behaviour to that of Ziva, but whether it was intentional or not, I really enjoyed that aspect and wanted to mention it. 

I loved the gentle romance that blossomed between Ziva and Kellyn, it was honestly adorable, and the sisterly bond between Ziva and Temra was really enjoyable as well. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

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

kassidyreads's review

adventurous fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Violence

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

twinklstarcandy's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.0

Quite enjoyed, predictable and the standard ya but i liked the mc

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Death of parent

asahome's review against another edition

4.0

A customer pays a blacksmith to make a sword. She makes the sword then doesn't want to give it to the customer. The customer chases her down to get the sword she paid for.

Content Warnings added from  Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller - Book Trigger Warnings 
Representation: Social Anxiety (main character/narrator)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Murder

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

oliviaprowse's review

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

bookaholic_in_wonderland's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

middle_name_joy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It was no "Daughter of the Pirate King/Siren Queen," but it got better as it went along. No way did I get as invested in the characters, either. Maybe it was the difference in charisma level of the main characters? I will read the follow-up, though. Eventually.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Death of parent