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justagrlandherdog's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I appreciated the romance and that Kaan wasn’t trying to make Reave replace or be his fallen love but tried loving her for her. Dragons are a definite plus.
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Classism
annick's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Banter was often fun. Some of the lyrical writing worked (especially with the prologue). The volume of writing attempting to be lyrical and floral in the first person POV chapters were too clunky. you don’t see enough difference in the head narratives of the raeve and Kaan povs.
some plot choices of miscommunication and holding back missed opportunity for the characters to collaborate and find ways around the villains. This is a common issue with books in these genres.
I have enough notes on the writing choices annoyed me that it drops the writing down.
Carnal knowledge ? Eloquently dressed ? The characters insults got tied when it’s about small brains and small cocks.
Bloated similes and metaphors that aren’t clear to understand. @morelemonheads on Reddit described it well : “ the writing so often like an upside down triangle: rumination paragraph, summary of that paragraph, shorter summary, two words, one word. Hundreds of times she follows that formula in her writing. Irritating.”
*
I was annoyed by the publishing choices of the glossary and especially the family tree. I accidentally clocked the spoiler info when I was trying to check a term in the glossary. this spoiled two important plot points,
Overall, these flaws dont diminish my eagerness to read this book again. The writing
More reflections to add after my initial book hangover.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content and Medical trauma
Minor: Emotional abuse
thecanadianbookworm's review against another edition
- 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
Wow. Such a beautiful writing style, and a sad tale.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Physical abuse, Slavery, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Minor: Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
lakinglaze's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
booksalacarte's review against another edition
- 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
Fantasy Romance
Multi POV
Unique magic system
Assassin FMC
Dragons
Secrets
Politics
Flashbacks
I started out with all 3 mediums of consuming this book. I put the audiobook aside fairly quickly due to finding the female narrator to be to be lacking the inflection to keep my interest. I stopped listening and quickly went to my ebook to start over.
But I highly recommend listening to chapter 15, if you have the audiobook available. As well as any following that feature the characters in the chapter.
The prologue was so beautifully used to start the world-building and laying down the groundwork for this to be the start of a very intricate and intense series! Once I got to Chapter 15, I was all in. That was when the book differentiated itself from other assassin FMC books, for me.
The plot was very steady, providing the breath catching moments that kept me at the edge of my seat as well as moments settling in and showing the softer side of the characters. This made it so easy to relate to, and like, the characters.
I loved it. It lived up to all the hype I saw.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
ashleykhoffman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I could say more, but I'll leave it at the writing being hard to adjust to, but an overall really compelling story.
2.5🌶
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Rape
crybabybea's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I wrote a 3,000 word essay for how much this disappointed me, so here are the bullet points:
- Shallow world-building. There are cool, unique things that happen but they serve no purpose for the world (such as the dragons turning into moons).
- World building is lazy and the author relies on you reading a 20 page glossary to understand rather than fleshing out the world herself
- Dragons are part of the world but don't serve any purpose beyond transportation.
- No political strife, except for the FMC telling you how awful the king in her region is, despite having a crazy cool premise with a dragon mythology-based elemental magic system whose users are denoted by their colorful beaded earrings.
- Nothing happens in the plot except the very slow burn romance which doesn't pay off at the end
- Magic doesn't really serve any purpose except to sound cool
- The conlang is messy and doesn't work well
- The writing itself is clunky, full of heavyhanded metaphors that don't land
- Writing repeats itself multiple times with the same cadence and word usage
- Characters with no real personality beyond the tropes they represent, could be replaced with any other romantasy main characters and it would make no difference
- Poor LGBTQIA+ representation (despite it being praised in multiple reviews)
- Because of all these issues, the book is 250 pages longer than it needs to be.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
elntastic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
One thing I did not really enjoy (hence only 4.5 stars) were the sex scenes between the MC and FC. It was just too physical and there was no kissing or romance in it. Just wasn’t for me. But I do love the story between Kaan and Elluin and I hope that Raeve will go back to him.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
mabelmeeky's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Rape, Grief, and Death of parent