Reviews with content warning for War - The Priory of the Orange Tree

I thoroughly enjoyed this books. The characters were complicated, interesting, and fun to read. I appreciated the casual queerness of it and lived for the Sapphic romance. Like the characters the world was rich and extremely fun to immerse myself in. It was fun to see the world from so many diverse perspectives. I was drawn in by the mystery, action, and romance, as I tried to figure out how all of it came together. The way that realities of our world, such as sexism, classism, and religion, were included and discussed was artful. The intersection of all of these resulted in me really relating to this world and it's characters. My favorit related quote,
"He had built his religion like a wall around his shame. And to save his legacy, he had seen no choice but to sanctify the lie." ooof how shame and masculinity create religion too true to life!

My complaints about this book is simply that some of the back stories, historic moments, and just general information that were supposed to tie up loose ends and help with the climax felt a little under explained. I wanted a little more exposition and built in understanding of why this information was important to know.

That said, the ending did feel mostly fleshed out and satisfying. I did in fact cry reading the last chapter from Roos. This portions of text specifically hit so hard as I wish this is how all straight people could think about those they love who are LGBTQIA+.

"'Jannart swore to give nobody else but you his favor. He swore it in a sanctuary, before witnesses,' Nicalys said tautly. 'You were always a pious woman, Ally.' 'I was, and am,' she conceded, "and that is why, though Jannart broke that vow to me, I refused to break mine to him. I swore, first and foremost, to love and defend him.' She laid a delicate hand over his. 'He needed your love. The best way I could honor the promises I made him was to let him have it in peace. And to let him love you in return.'"

Just goes to show the power of having queer authors write books!

Despite my qualms, I would read this book again and recommend to anyone who wants a fantasy book with some beautiful Sapphic love!

Also, as someone who rented this book from the library I can't help but highlight a quote from the acknowledgements. "We must never underestimated the value of libraries, or the urgency of the need to protect them, in a world that often appears to forget the importance of stories."

Content Warnings

mangofraiche's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-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

Content Warnings

matmatmatty's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

If I could give this more than 5 stars, I absolutely would.

This was an incredible story, told from 4 different perspectives, all across this incredible world built by Samantha Shannon.

The world building was so good and clearly had so much thought put into it, I genuinely will read this again to make notes on it.

I loved Ead, Sabran, Loth and Tané. Niclays grew on me after time but his characterisation was still incredible.

Cannot recommend this book enough!

Content Warnings

jamesfitz3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful slow-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

3.75

I thought this book was okay. It suffered from a common problem multiple pov books often have - the fact that there’s always at least one POV character that I care less about. Reading their chapters just becomes an unwelcome interruption to the story I actually care about. Also let’s be honest. The book did not have to be that long. Just break it up into two books if necessary. Or take out one of the pov characters.

Pros: I honestly liked the romance, the slow burn was nice

Content Warnings

tefi_04's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

Si están pensando en leerlo HÁGANLO. Sí pueden ser intimidantes las 800 y tantas páginas pero es una historia que vale la pena al 100%.

El mundo de este libro es hermoso y lleno de magia y todo tipo de cosas fantásticas. Los personajes son muy reales y les pasa de TODO, no te aburres con este libro en serio.

En definitiva uno de mis libros favoritos.

Content Warnings

fierygecko's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-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

3.75

This book has an interesting take on the water-fire dragon dichotomy and I really enjoyed the world building behind the magic system. However the names of all the countries and people mentioned in the book without explanation made me feel like I didn’t understand the world building at all at times. Given the fact that I felt like I was waiting 600 pages for the action to finally happen, I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it was a series of shorter ones. Regardless, I did like this book and will consider reading the prequel to learn more about this world.

Content Warnings

mabechel's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective 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? No

3.0

The pacing and focus of this book is weird and a little off putting. Some portions are really focused on the day to day and engaging. Other times, the writing is very sparse on the details, even during some important key events. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this acceleration/deceleration of the pacing and it really gives the impression of losing focus. I feel like this would've been better as a more flushed out series than one gigantic book.

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sammy357's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-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

4.5

I loved the book but it's too long and a little too slow in the beginning for me to want to reread it.

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