Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

164 reviews

g_monaghan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is definitely one for the girlie's that love side character romances, started off a bit slow but enjoyed the multiple POV's and the explicit explanation of Elena's involvement with the vaalg (I had mostly forgotten about this since the first book).
Adore Aelin and Manon but Kaltain, Lysandra and Elide are my new faves - whilst not being the typical strong female archetype they serve as a reminder of the importance of inner strength and resilience. Scared to read the last installment.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Confinement, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

eleek0609's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility and Pregnancy

kristanjenkins's review against another edition

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

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Sexual content

sydcreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and War

Minor: Physical abuse and Sexual content

mothergoosie3's review against another edition

4.0

Annoyed at the sexual scenes. Unnecessary. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

booksplantsandchai's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Death, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Child death, Rape, Slavery, and Pregnancy

pumpkaboola's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.75

Wow. I did the tandem read with Tower of Dawn and it was honestly such a long haul but also so enjoyable. The plot progression and the character growth throughout this book is so good. My one gripe would be that everyone is coupling up which feels a little obvious/contrived. I wish there was a little bit more variety in the relationship statuses. But I adore these characters and my heart broke at the end of this book 😭. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Pregnancy

literarymary95's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

This is the best book so far of the series so far. There’s so much going on that makes it hard to step away from 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, and Vomit

savage_book_review's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really wanted to try and do the tandem read with 'Tower of Dawn' via audiobook, but I don't have the patience to try and set up all of the bookmarks, nor have I figured out a way to make it work smoothly, so I'm reading then one at a time this go round... I'm interested to see what difference it makes to the flow of the overall narrative, at any rate! And nervous about having to now wait another 22+ hours before getting to the resolution of the climax of this book...

Despite the different story threads happening contemporaneously, they are woven together so well that it all still forms a cohesive narrative and it doesn't feel disjointed. Likewise, while I'm not sure that each thread receives equal page time, they are all well thought out and the whole thing feels very balanced. 

The book serves a dual purpose - it absolutely moves the overall series plot along apace with a great story in itself, giving you a great mix of action, adventure, romance and jeopardy. But equally it's clearly another case of a book serving to move all of the players into the right places at the right times to make sure they're ready for the grand finale. You are rewarded with a lot of payoffs from earlier books in the series, and with the development of newer characters and so it is certainly not lacking in elements to pull you in and keep you reading, but there is a small part of me that keeps saying 'just get on with it already!'

There are a few moments that I found harder to follow via the audio, for example Elena's story and the events that laid the foundations for the current predicament. I get it, but it's not a particularly straightforward backstory (IMO) and, once again, because it takes so much longer to listen to than to read, it just didn't make as much sense. On the other hand, I think I spotted an error in the text that I would probably not have picked up on when reading the physical book. Although it's a throwaway comment, it contains quite a big spoiler for later in the book (although saying that, you're 100% expecting it by this point if you're familiar with the Maasverse). 

On to 'Tower of Dawn'!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Minor: Infertility, Sexual assault, Slavery, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol