Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - A Deal With a Demon 2: The Kraken's Sacrifice

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

A Deal With a Demon 2: The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert

63 reviews

seawiiitch's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

An agreeable read, though it did not really hit the mark with me. I found the romance a little underwhelming and at some point, I felt a little disconnected from the story. It might have been because I did not like it as I liked "The Dragon's Bride".
It has definitely some appeal if you want to read something short with some "spice" in it, but it was missing a little something for me.

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olivialandryxo's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.5

I was Very Nervous going into this for one reason and one reason only: tentacles. And I won’t lie—I did find the smut scenes weird for that reason, but not enough so that I didn’t enjoy the rest of the book. I did, much more than I expected to. Although there was a portion of the book where I found Thane to be rather annoying and insensitive, he grew on me significantly; I loved Catalina from the start and that never stopped. And pushing through was so, so worth it, because I got to see them become comfortable around each other, heal and build their future together. 💙

Also, in the biggest twist of the year—this book made me genuinely like Ramanu. They had much more page time here than in the first book, which annoyed me at first because I thought they were an obnoxious asshole. But seeing how they softened around Cat and were such a good friend to her… it really endeared them to me. I’m suddenly quite eager to read their book in the Peculiar Tastes series, which I’d already been thinking about but now will definitely be diving into next.

Current ranking of the series:

The Kraken’s Sacrifice
The Dragon’s Bride

Representation:

two queer protagonists, each attracted to multiple genders
nonbinary side character that uses ze/zir
nonbinary side character that uses they/them

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reads_all_the_books's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes

2.75

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morgansbookshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I wish we got to see a little bit more development from the characters!

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kathleenmcg's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.0

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kamreadsandrecs's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh, but this was FUN! Much more fun than The Dragon’s Bride, imo, for a couple of reasons.

First reason: the narrative was stronger in this one than in The Dragon’s Bride. not to say that the first book was told badly, but I just liked how this one hung together, as it were. It just seemed better-told over all, than the first book.

Second reason: I liked the characters more. I liked the way Catalina’s inner angst was portrayed, and ngl I felt as if I could relate to some degree to what she was going through. The disbelief, especially, is something I relate to very, very hard. Thane, too, was interesting, though I personally found that their inner angst was a bit…idk. Broken too swiftly? Like, I know that processing grief is different for other people, and that for some it can take a VERY long time to finally get a handle on it while some people seem to manage it just fine in a couple of weeks, but a part of me wishes there’d been more time given over to exploring that angst. But then again, I’m a slowburn kinda gal, so that might just be personal preference. Would’ve also given more time to explore Catalina’s emotional baggage too, maybe given more room to portray how Thane helped with that - not fixed it, of course, since love and sex don’t fix deep emotional wounds, but it would have been nice to see how Catalina progressed and changed.

I’m also gonna have to say I liked that this novel portrayed a couple actively choosing to be child-free. Sometimes in some other novels, one or both characters will say they don’t want children, only for twu wuv to somehow change that stance and boom! By the end they’ve got one or two kids with more on the way. And yes, yes, I KNOW that for some people that does actually happen, that meeting the right person at the right time can soften one’s stance regarding having kids if one didn’t want to have them before, but I appreciate how the characters in THIS novel stuck to their guns about not having them, and how Thane really respected Catalina’s decision on the matter and didn’t try to get her to change her mind. I also appreciate how it portrayed abortion as something any woman should be able to get, regardless of WHY she’s getting it.

Since it appears that this series gets better with every succeeding book, I’ve got high hopes for the third book in the series - not least because that gargoyle man looks pretty attractive.

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