Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Fall of Ruin and Wrath

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

8 reviews

cheeseburger69's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

erindarlyn's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

2.0

So many elements of this book pulled me out of the story as I was reading. The prose was repetitive and the plethora of editing errors distracting. The pacing was off and there was an odd overuse of ellipses. Not my favorite reading experience.

Content Warnings

itmakessenseincontext's review

Go to review page

medium-paced

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

2.0

This is just a disappointing book tbh. If you are here for smut sure its fine, but if you are here for plot or character development look somehere else. Could not tell you a single thing about the MMC other than he had magic aphrodesiac sperm that undermines the frequent conversations about consent.

Content Warnings

notbambi's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Well, this is the sexiest book I have ever read. This is my first time reading an Armentrout book, and damned if she isn't a master of building sexual tension into every scene, whether it's a spicy scene or not. It's what I wish the ACOTAR series had been.

There were some annoyances. Thorne uses very formal speech most of the time, but then starts talking about his dick in very casual, modern language, and that switch in register felt jarring. Some parts were rather infodumpy. Very little happens in the non-romance plot until the last 5 chapters or so, when suddenly everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Content Warnings

vabraham's review

Go to review page

adventurous slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

Content Warnings

hellodebbies's review

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

I very much enjoyed the book even though it has flaws.
The plot really begins towards the end of the book (~70%) and the summary resumes the first30% of the book 💀. There's, of course, some filling but honestly it's a very good summary of the first quarter of the book 😂
It is mainly focused on the characters and their relationship.
The writing is okay.
However the cliffhanger is insanely good ! Will definitely read the next one !

Content Warnings

purplepenning's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.25

I haven't read any other books by Armentrout but picked this one up because it's the first in Tor's new romance imprint, Bramble. I read pretty widely, including fantasy and romance, and I can see why readers are drawn to "romantasy" in general and to Armentrout and this book in particular. I can also see why reviews here vary so much — amusingly, with the same things being both *loved* by some and *hated* by others (the writing style, the dialogue, the main characters, the chemistry, the side characters, the steamy/spicy content, the world building, the ending). Readers bring a lot of previous experiences and expectation with them to their reading, but perhaps trope-heavy fantasy and romance taps into that most of all. A key phrase ("who hurt you?") or characteristic can tap right into an established set of feelings and expectations and can do a lot of heavy lifting as far as characterization goes. But that's a ramble for another time...

"Good and evil are real. They always have been. Yet the weight of the realm has always fallen on those in-between. Ones neither good nor bad."

My experience with A Fall of Ruin and Wrath is that it's like the beginning of a Sarah J Maas story written by Katee Roberts. It leans into the theme of "morally gray" like it was the assignment and plays with the push-pull of "fated mates" and "star-crossed lovers" in a way that could get interesting if a lazy "chosen one" trope doesn't get in the way.

Parts of it were kind of a mess for me — sometimes in ways I didn't mind and sometimes in ways that I did. The world seems like standard high fantasy at first but then it's also sort of post-apocalyptic and maybe less fae and more seraphs and demons? I don't need the world building to be completely nailed down in the first book in a series so I wasn't too fussed about this. If anything makes me pick up book two it'll be wanting to figure out this fantasy world and system. I mean I did not have

moral rot, climate disaster, and divine intervention

on my bingo card for what created this world, but I'm kind of here for it. I also didn't expect our vaguely angel-y immortal prince to come from

some Uruk Hai-style underground creation process

and I might be less here for that. Our female main character is gifted with insight, foresight, and intuition but hasn't learned to control her mouth or expressions and doesn't use her gifts for much of anything, including advancing the plot. There does seem to be some self-awareness about that eventually, but there's also a realization that she has some

intuitive, unearned ability to fight, which... sigh

. The story is drenched in public, partner-sharing sex and the premise of a powerful species of overlords and personal partner who "feeds on pleasure" but much of it feels like set dressing and lacks connection. And for all the sex positivity, casual queerness, and bisexuality rep, it still seems to be mostly / entirely women who are draped on laps, played with in public, sent to service visiting nobility, etc. in a system of class and power differential that makes it all pretty sexist and sketch.

I mean how is a baron expected to have a diplomatic meeting with a powerful visiting prince WITHOUT feeling up and fingering his trusted spy/companion/rescued orphan in front of said prince and then sending her over to him to finish so the diplomacy can be punctuated with her orgasm? It's okay — she has a *choice.*

Our male main character is entirely logical, taciturn, always gets what he wants, and is never wrong but finds himself

staked down and tortured in a barn

and wants the FMC with no logical reason for it and blabs a whole lot of seemingly sensitive and personal information to her almost immediately.

(Information about what can be done with all of his parts, yes, all of them — and his fluids — if they are harvested from him. I know there's been a lot of blood loss at this point and you're busy regrowing eyes and such, but, sir — kept your secret semen info to yourself!)

Anyway... a lot of the character building felt muddled and a lot of the "steamy scenes" felt disconnected and kind of cringe — like they were included because auction winners won the right to have their personal fantasies written into the book.

Content Warnings

maxinesf's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Content Warnings

More...