Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Darker Shade of Magic

this book blends involuntary compulsion and sex in a way that was not disclosed, and which i personally do not care for. in the first half of the book, we have:

attempted rape on a protagonist, whippings of magically compelled S&M slaves, someone discloses being compelled to offer sexual favors in the course of an ordinary business transaction, involuntary boob grabs, one protagonist straps the other to a bed and summons a nude clone of them for implied sexual gratification, magical torture, magical chains, the other protagonist is in the bed again...

and so on. there are readers who will enjoy this, but me, i think i really need to know up front if the author intends to go all Anne Rice and such.

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tazzyreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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rubybastille's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

4.0

Fun but feels like it's doing a lot and some threads felt left behind. Each London is vividly imagined, from the sumptuous Red to spine-chilling White. I wish we could have learned more about Kell's lost past and the vanishing Antari, which feels like a big deal but isn't really addressed.

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mformato's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

Ignore how long it took me to read this, life just got in the way. When I did read it, I flew through the pages. I was loaned this book after originally thinking I wouldn't be interested and I adored it. Good fast pace writing and interesting stories and characters to discover. Overall it felt like had this been a stand alone fantasy, I would have been satisfied as the story wraps itself up neatly and the world was immersive enough that you could have just let your imagination wander with where things could have gone. But I am interested in seeing how the story actually continues.

Not full five stars because of too many coincidences that move the plot along despite fitting well with the characters themselves.

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eparris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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poorkid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.25

The world is fun, but barely fleshed out. The characters are interesting, but don't grow. The plot is just plain bad, predictable, messy, and dare I say unintelligiblely designed? So much potential and it feels like a first draft...

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lisa07xie's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

I would give it free point five stars and I really like the story itself it does have a different view of Magic then over books. It was kind of hard to get into for me because the beginning was Just Not for me but after some time I began to enjoy it and I accustomed to the writing Style which was really descriptive and it is in 3 Person but we get to see the pov from so many small Characters even which I think is quite rare. But the romance was lacking I was told it has a romance subplot which I think is really untrue the romance in this book was a whole sentence long which was quite disappointing... But I did like the Characters and the story it was something different

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