Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Shadow Princess

This series is starting to stress me out. Also, I totally called the outcome of BOTH of the events at the end and being right was a freaking PUNCH TO THE CHEST.

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briochebun's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

3.5 out of 5 ☆’s.

”So maybe it was time we stopped denying our birth right. Because the Vegas had been born to rule. And I was sick of being forced to bow.”

ੈ✩‧₊˚

I must admit that I struggled at times while reading ”Shadow Princess”…

I found that the only chapters that I was looking forward to reading were Darcy and Orion’s — Tory’s were frustrating me immensely because it just felt as though we were stuck in a loop that just kept repeating itself the entire time.

ੈ✩‧₊˚

One aspect of “Shadow Princess” that I did enjoy, though, was seeing the Vega twins visit the palace for the first time! :)

Seeing their parents love story play out, and seeing the love that they had for their children, was so heartwarming and sweet…

(The snowball fight scene was also adorable — I’m so glad that Xavier was able to participate in his order form! He deserved that moment of freedom after everything that he’s been through…)

ੈ✩‧₊˚

P.S. Orion is still my number number one man — I refuse to believe that he is dead. ♡

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shorthannah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

1.0

No book has ever made me as angry as this one, I wanted to punch the screen multiple times. I grew to hate all of the main characters because of their stupidity and refusal to learn from mistakes we've seen them make over and over throughout the series, and I'm still not convinced it was worth finishing it. I persevered this far based on reviews saying the series improved in books four and five but this was the most infuriating one yet. Rather than having character development they actually got worse; for a bunch of characters who are meant to be at least 18 they were unbelievably immature and really haven't had much real character development. Perhaps that is down to the bizarre pacing of this series because while we have slogged through four increasingly, unnecessarily long books, only about one semester has passed in the plot, with most of the books being filled out with constant repetitive bullying. Not to mention this book was filled with my two least favourite lazy tropes: miscommunication and the dreaded betraying body trope. I wanted to shake the characters and scream at them so many times. Take tory for example,

rejecting Darius and becoming star crossed

was the most sensible decision she made when it came to him.
I'm torn over whether or not I want to continue reading this series. I'm a sucker for magical academy settings and I'm desperate to see the Vega's grow into their powers and earn their place on the throne but it feels like these authors refuse to let them catch a break. Any time there is hope for them the Heirs or Lionel do something even more horrific to them (and then no doubt a vega will "get back at them" by immediately screwing them *cough* toxic Torius *cough* and make me want to throw my phone at a wall), so I don't know if I could put up with more of the inevitable bullying and abuse.

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maddysbooks_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

i’m a sucker for a happy ending and this wasn’t it lol. i get a little frustrated with books that have a lot of conflict that stems from miscommunication, and i felt like that happened a lot throughout this book
that being said i really enjoyed getting to finally see some development in darius’ character and seeing more of darcy and orion’s relationship

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charhollyx's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

What the fuck was that ending for? Do the writers ENJOY inflicting that kind of heartbreak?!
Honestly this book had me along the entire spectrum of emotion, turning my love for some characters into hatred and my hatred for other characters into love.
There wasn’t a great character development for the main and side characters, whilst one characters development crashed and burned entirely.

if Orion is dead I’ll scream.
I can’t believe Tory and Darius and Elysian Mates, it doesn’t really make sense. Yes their desire is deep but their hatred CLEARLY ran deeper. It makes me question whether Darcy and Orion are mates because his love outweighed any other feeling and responsibility he had.
I wouldn’t mind if Tory died, sacrificing herself for Darcy as she keeps foreshadowing. Soon, ideally.
I get the reason she had for rejecting the bond, but did she really HAVE to reject it anyway? She saw that her mother loved her evil father despite his flaws, why couldn’t she follow suit?!
Diego is 100% evil, I’m calling it.
If book 5 doesn’t mend my heartbreak then idk what I’m going to do

Xavier is the best character. Nobody else will compare. If he dies I’ll scream.

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