Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

A Kingdom of Flame and Fury by Whitney Dean

3 reviews

hopecobbledpots's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Stars: 🌟 🌟🌟🌟

Scoville Spice Scale: 🌶🌶🌶½

Book overview:

At ten years old, Raven was mysteriously willed to be the next ruler of Seolia, a kingdom nestled within the realm of The Four Kingdoms. Orphaned as a baby, she has spent fifteen years ruling over a kingdom she believes she did not earn all while hiding secrets: she possesses dark magic, and she thirsts for blood.

Now at almost twenty-five years old and with a sudden addiction to stealing life, Raven must fight through her new procured darkness to save her soul, but when a mysterious stranger arrives in her kingdom, she starts experiencing vivid dreams that detail who she truly is. As she slowly starts to unravel her story, what she uncovers at the end of the spool will change the course of her life and her kingdom forever.

My Thoughts:

Raven, the FMC of this book, has been lied to by everyone. By her best friend. By her Court. And now by Zeke, our MMC who is tangled in his shadows, shortcomings, and misdirection. Raven rules the small island nation of Seolia but she still doesn't understand why she was chosen. Things unravel to us,  the reader, but not to Raven until the end. Raven is caught between two men who seem hell bent on hurting her; secrets about herself; and her evolving magic. While Raven has her Elements, she must learn to depend on herself rather than those who have their own agendas. 

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the excellent Worldbuilding. I felt totally immersed in the kingdom of Seolia. I loved the village and the progression of Raven's relationships with the villagers. Especially Eva. 

Tropes:

🔥Forced Proximity 

🌎Abandonment 

❄️Love Triangle

⚔️Insta-Lust

🔥Magic

🌎Secrets

❄️One Bed

⚔️Break Up, Make Up, Break Up, etc.

Check for trigger warnings. 

Thank you to rrbooktours and authorwhitneydean for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest opinion. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

bellebookcorner's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

I really want to like this one because the blurb sounds interesting, unfortunately this one was not what I expected. It has the potential to be a good series with unique world building and magical powers. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully enjoy reading it for some reasons. 

 

At the beginning I was enjoying the story, the writing style is actually pretty good. There’s no info dumping – the world building was explained as the story goes. 

Raven (FMC) has an interesting power and she was such a badass in the first few chapters, I also like how she cared for her people and interact with them and in return they also respect and accept her. 

 

However, things started to go downhill when Raven meets the love interest – Zeke. Raven’s character started to change into this whiny and weak character, like she can’t do anything and started losing herself. 

I’m not fond of Zeke’s character as well, I questioned his decision-making skill. I don’t understand his reason for his actions toward Raven which only prolong Raven’s misery instead of helping her. 

 

I wasn’t a huge fan of the insta-love happening between Raven and Zeke. There wasn’t any progress of getting to know each other. 

I usually don’t mind with spicy books as long as it balanced out with the plot but for me this one has slightly too many spicy scenes. 

 

I was also surprised that the mystery of this plot with Raven’s past and Zeke’s mission was revealed very early at the beginning which confused me even more. The plot started to shift into focusing more about the love triangle romance which slows the pacing down and I started to lose interest in the plot. 

 

Some scenes/topics can be sensitive to some readers so I highly suggest checking out the trigger warnings before picking up this dark fantasy romance series. 

 

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse and Blood 

 

<i>Thank you to RR Book Tour and the author for giving me an e-ARC of the book and for having me on this book tour. I’m leaving this review voluntarily.</i> 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Blood

boundbymischief's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

This book was SO good! From start to finish. A roller coaster of love and hate. Best friends and soulmates and enemies and royalty. Raven is a baddie, Zeke is daddy. It had everything I adore in fantasy novels. I was hooked as soon as those gray eyes appeared 🫠

•dual POV

•Spiiiiiiiice 🥵 🔥 

•forbidden love

•dark secrets/secret identities

•reverse harem

•dark romantasy

•toxic relationships 

•willtheywontthey

As always, if you know you can be triggered by a book, please research before reading. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, and Abandonment