Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Prison Healer

This book hooks you immediately! It’s a really easy and binge worthy read. The plot twists are very fun. The puzzles and quest for answers is very intriguing.

It’s dark and checking TW’s is recommended- but it’s not shock value graphic or unnecessarily brutal in descriptions. The author paints the picture without overdoing it, and I appreciate that.

I had a few mild annoyances but those were mostly “me” problems that I don’t think would bother most people.
1) The plants/science:
It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when high fantasy uses real world elements inconsistently along with high fantasy elements unique to the world. The world building was really lacking for me in this regard.
2) How I met your mother:
Another pet peeve of mine is pop culture references in high fantasy. This just 🤦🏼‍♀️ All of it was so pointless or could have been done in a way that didn’t make me cringe at the very obvious ode to/copy cat of the show.
3) miscommunication trope/ betrayal trope/ secret identity trope/ enemies to who knows- just all my least favorite tropes.
4) Space invasion:
Some very intimate moments for the main love interest happened in a very unlikely moment and very cringe worthy scenario considering the circumstances and it completely undid all the butterflies/ character development I felt up to that point.

My biggest issue is probably world building & character development- but it’s very addicting. Despite my grievances, I find myself itching to read the second book ever though I will probably hate it, based on where the plot is going.

Is this a romance with an HEA? The answer might determine my willingness to continue- honestly.

Content Warnings

lisa_m's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No

3.25

I've been looking forward to reading this book ever since I first heard of it and I finally did read it as a buddy-read. When I started this book I could barely remember what it was about, I just knew I used to really want to read it.

My thoughts on this book are quite complicated. I did not love the majority of the book. Most things that happened felt either like complete coincidences or out of our protagonists control. She was just there for the ride and the few decisions she did make did not make a lot of sense to me. She constantly needed to be saved and I just felt like I didn't have enough information about anything. A huge part of this book is 1. descriptions of the prison and how horrible it is in there and 2. Kiva trying to find a cure for this mysterious illness spreading around the prison.

When she finally finds out what happened to the dying prisoners it is by pure coincidence.

A very important part of this book are the 4 trials Kiva has to survive. I hoped that these would be interesting but instead it just felt like we're waiting for them to finally happen. The trials themselves are basically just Kiva being put into a situation that is impossible to survive, and then getting rescued.

The majority of the time while reading I was almost bored and waiting for something unique and surprising to happen. I did not understand any of the main characters or their relationships and we got barely any information about them. Things seemingly happened at random just to make a good story and to drive the plot forwards. Kiva also always made wrong assumptions about everyone to the point where you can pretty much assume all her assumptions are false.

BUT all of this boredom and indifference change in the last 50(?) pages. We finally get answers and information that make the whole story make sense. Certain actions get explained so they don't seem as random anymore and it's honestly very intruiging and I was hooked. My problem is that those last few pages don't make up for how I felt throughout the rest of the book.

I really liked the relationship between Kiva and Tipp. It was the one that made the most sense to me and I found it really sweet. I also liked Naari even though we got so little information and I always knew that there was something missing which made it frustrating to read. The same also goes for Jaren. For me personally the idea of keeping all relevant information until the end for the big 'aha' effect did not work out at all because it just made me more frustrated. At the end it just felt like I was being lied to throughout the entire book because important information has been kept from me which was the reason I did not understand what was going on or why people are reacting the way they do. So all in all it kind of feels like this book tried to be smarter than it is.

I think 3.5 stars is very justified considering all that. Still, now that I'm intruiged and I FINALLY know what's going on I will be reading the sequel as well. I hope it will keep up the intruige and perhaps I will really like the second book. It definitely has the potential to be good.

Content Warnings

tammy_123's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

A bit cliché, but well written.

Content Warnings

that_awkwardbook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I haven't read anything similar before. And I'm in awe. Everything came through beautifully in the end. I can wait to read the next book.

This book is about a young girl, that has been in prison for the last 10 years. She is the prison healer, but keeps mostly to herself and stays out of trouble.

A must read. In my opinion.

Content Warnings

ashlyncherie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad 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? No

4.75

THAT ENDING! Holy cow. I haven’t had a plot twist do me like that in a while. I freaking loved this!! It had everything I could have wanted.

Content Warnings

agiraffereads's review against another edition

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dark inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

That end🤯

Content Warnings

lizrushby's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.5

Content Warnings

charthegoose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

WOW I HAVE NO WORDS! I honestly have no idea what to say THAT ENDING

THE REBEL QUEEN IS KIVA’S MUM!!! SHES A HEALER AND SHES GOING FOR THE CROWN MY DUDES! Jaren has no idea what he’s in for damn. Also Tip is alive thank god 🙏 Naari is one of my favourite characters she better survive the next two books

I’m a student nurse and had a great time reading Kiva’s perspective of caring for her patients

I did call the poison quite early though 😂

this book is a really great read and I highly recommend, can’t wait to read the second book! Make sure to check trigger warnings if that’s something you look at before reading - I’ve listed them as best I can :)

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