Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Fate of Stars by S.D. Simper

11 reviews

tostita's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-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

4.0

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k_cao_xai's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-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

4.0

Mermaid falls for butch who happens to be the princess to a powerful kingdom. What more do you need?

Character Impressions:

Tallora
Sassy bisexual mermaid.

I’m surprised she didn’t do as much as I thought she would to escape. Of course, it’s because there are things limiting her from escaping, but I thought she would at least try to learn how to escape the castle.

Or find a way to remove the bracelet that keeps her from leaving the kingdom’s border.

But I understand she’s miles from home and can’t do anything about it.

I love how she provokes and pushes Dauriel’s buttons at first, only softening her insults once she sees Dauriel’s more vulnerable side. She’s not a fighter or someone who has status but she fights back in whatever little ways she can.

Dauriel
She’s an ass but she’s kind of funny.

My heart breaks for the Princess of Solviraes.

All she wants is for her mother to love and approve of her.

She doesn’t think she’s beautiful or worthy of affection yet she tries to cling onto whatever semblance of love she can find. I was wondering how she and Tallora would fall in love when she was so horrible to Tallora at first, but thank goodness she makes up for it.

Minor Characters:

Plenty of minor characters who have their own roles, jobs, and goals. I like how they’re only mentioned once or twice but when I saw their names again, I wasn’t confused as to who they were.

Empress Vahla: Dauriel’s mother. Empress to the Kingdom of Solviraes. It’s no wonder Dauriel is the way she is with how her mother treats her. I relished the moment she got her karma.
Khastra: General. Council member. Half demon. Dauriel’s mentor and even a mother-figure. She was the most interesting character to me. I loved every interaction she had with Dauriel and I love how she’s the only one who can talk back to Empress Vahla.
The Triage: The trio of goddesses who supervise the world. Neoma, Staella, and their daughter, Illune. I absolutely love the way the gods and goddesses are handled in this world. They interact with mortals, manifest in the world, and even pass judgment on criminals. I can’t wait to see how much more is explored about them in the sequels.

Story Impressions:

The plot did not go at all where I thought it would, but that’s not a bad thing. I thought it would be about Tallora trying to escape once she got captured, all the while she and Dauriel fall in love in a cat-and-mouse chase, but what transpired was a welcomed subversion.

TW: This is my only gripe.

There are way too many mentions of r*pe. Once or twice, I can handle, but more than four or five times and I start to find it challenging to continue the story. There are many ways to make a world dark without using r*pe as the sole element. Death, hopelessness, even torture can be an alternative but for some reason, SA is always the go-to for dark fantasies and I don’t know why. This is not a criticism, just a personal gripe.

I love the worldbuilding. There’s enough lore built into the narrative that you understand how history, politics, and gods work but not so much that it becomes exposition dump.

That trial scene in the last act was tense and glorious.

Highlights:

Highlight 1: I love the names in this story.
Highlight 2: I enjoyed the modern-sounding dialogue a lot more than I thought I would.
Highlight 3: Seeing Dauriel come to sympathize with Tallora and accept that she did Tallora wrong was great to read.
Highlight 4: A love interest who pretends to be tough on the outside to hide her vulnerabilities.
Highlight 5: Goddess Staella is MVP.
Highlight 6: Yes, give me more married lesbian goddesses.
Highlight 7: Dauriel.
Highlight 8: Yes, more female villains please.
Highlight 9: I love Dauriel and Khastra’s student-mentor relationship.
Highlight 10: Khastra is way too clever in helping the heroines without having to break her own flawed loyalty to the crown. I love her for it.
Highlight 11: Tough butch lesbian being cute or adorable makes me weak. More, thank you.
Highlight 12: That book cover.

My Personal Tags About the Book:

Bisexual heroine
Lesbian heroine
Butch/femme pairing
Explicit sex scene
Brooding love interest
Lesbian royal
Princess/citizen
They don’t get together in the end, but what are sequels for?

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wildatheart1339's review against another edition

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4.0

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poisoned_icecream's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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the_lesbrarian's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.75

This book was so fun! Morally gray butch lesbian princess x mermaid love story.
This is a very romance-heavy romantasy. Due to my personal reading preferences, I wish it was longer and more time had been given to development of the political and magic systems.
There are some big skips in logic, plot holes, and a very simple solution to the big problem that the book ends on,

i am really not understanding why she couldn’t just live on land and then meet with her mother/undersea friends by having them swim to the cove and then hanging out with them from the land like she discussed doing with the princess but with talora underwater. this reads like the fantasy equivalent of the romance third act miscommunication to breakup trope

so don’t pick this one up if you’re someone who can’t look past that.
That being said, I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the next one. This is a wild ride and a sweet romance in a fantasy setting turn your brain off & enjoy

also how insane it it that she was able to sneak out of the castle by wearing the in-world equivalent of those spirit halloween sexy nun outfits. hysterical and fantastic

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quechaya's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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starrysteph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I’m really really bummed that I wasn’t head over heels for this sapphic mermaid romance.

We’re following young mermaid Tallora. She’s captured from her home by the mercurial Princess Dauriel who presents her to her mother Empress Vahla in the hopes of finally gaining her approval. Tallora is tortured, mocked, and forced to be a pet for all the kingdom to see. But after an unexpected act from the god she worships, Tallora strikes up a strange alliance with Dauriel. And as politics get messier in the wider world, the two must learn to survive together (and maybe fall in love).

It’s totally possible that it may be an “it’s not the book, it’s me” thing here; I’m really picky about the romance books I enjoy.

I generally eat up enemies to lovers, but the shift from an INTENSE power imbalance to declarations of love gave me whiplash. Dauriel views Tallora as a beast, not a person – and that cold way of thinking can’t just shatter in an instant. The hatred to adoration moved so quickly that all interesting character growth was skipped & their relationship isn’t able to even out. One supporting character actually does mention the manipulation/power imbalance, but it’s only a sentence or two.

Tallora, girl, you HAVE to do better. She accepted her fate so easily, on all fronts! In regards to romance, I think I can see the intention here of building a relationship where someone has deep trauma and depression. It just doesn’t quite work when that person (Dauriel) - amidst their journey of healing themself - captures you with the intention to be sold into slavery/sex slavery and TORTURED. And the ability for any depth was limited by cheesy dialogue that felt like it was being plucked from a bucket of classic romance lines.

And the other elements that Tallora just sort of went with? She didn’t have nearly enough questions about land - she wasn’t really a deep thinker at all. For example, she took on feelings of shame around nudity instantly when we’d previously been told that showing your body was no biggie underwater. And there were sprinkles of potential body inclusivity that were unfortunately tossed aside.

One thing that is still gnawing at me is the framing of sex workers as people that need to be rescued - or to clarify a bit further, the muddled plot lines around the difference between being sold into sex slavery and choosing sex work.

And the ending just made me laugh. No spoilers, but it was a lazy “tie-it-with-a-bow” sort of deal, and it gave me lots of questions in regards to the plot and worldbuilding leading up to that point.

Anyway - points for interesting deities, sapphic mermaid vibes, and the potential of an interesting mental health arc. But this was ultimately a bit of a mess for me.

CW: kidnapping, torture, slavery, self harm, sexual harassment, mutilation, confinement, child abuse, suicide, death of parent, mentions of rape/sexual assault, attempted suicide, infertility, fatphobia

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