Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Una corte de rosas y espinas

I’m really torn on this one. For most of it it was a fun read with action mixed with a touch of tawdry romance and a good amount of folk lore, but I was really turned off by the glaring and underemphasized issues with consent.

Spoiler

She’s drugged and then hyper sexualized and publicly debased. The perpetrator “owns her” and admits he only doesn’t rape her so he can keep that as a bargaining chip. Somehow this is painted as a redeeming quality in him? They give him a redemption arc that ruined the book for me. I don’t want to be on the side of abusers.

Truly I think the consent issues ruined this book for me.

Content Warnings

dreamwrapt's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

Where to begin... this was just horrible. Literally a remix of Twilight. I don't get why this is popular. Read something better written, please.

Content Warnings

skylover's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Got this book on a whim bc I heard so many great things and wanted to see what the hype was about, After 14 chapters of slow, boring, world-building content, I put the book down and planned to DNF. I recently read Fourth Wing (which is incredible from start to finish), and wanted another fantasy read when I saw this book unfinished on my shelf. I think another fantasy book needed to come along to show me why it takes so long to build the world and why it's important to explain in such long detail. Second go-around, I finished ACOTAR in less than 24 hours. Spoilers ahead:

Pros: Lucien is a ride-or-die fav, he's so witty and reminds me of that enemies to best friends vibe so few characters have with one another. Rhys, while being a tad toxic, was a unpredictable character that added a thrill to under the mountain. The villain was interesting and I enjoyed learning about the lore and other good or evil characters for the worlds.

Cons: Not a fan that most of the romance was borderline abusive or straight up harassment (Rhys LICKING her tears?? Tamlin BITING her neck?? no thanks), Tamlin was the most disinteresting love interest, Feyre was difficult to get behind for the first half of the book, and turning her into High Fae reminded me of Twilight, but instead of waiting 4 books and having arguments with her partner about it, she was just turned without her knowledge or consent. Also not a fan that the plot was kinda giving "can't live without my guy/romantic interest" vibes. Lastly, idk what kinda writing style this was, but it was very repetitive and redundant - if you highlighted your book when the phrases "he (Tamlin) growled", "he (Tamlin or Rhys) gave a lazy smile", Feyre mentioned her newfound love of painting (we get it, you don't hunt so you paint - cool!), random fire being mentioned, or eyes as green as (the forest, grass, emerald jewels, shrek at this point, you name it) - you'd have a very colorful book cause you had to use so many highlighters.

Would recommend to fantasy lovers who know how to get into world building.

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