Reviews with content warning for Rape - Ash Princess

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

11 reviews

sweetordinary's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

At the beginning, I was wholeheartedly intrigued and invested in the characters and plot. However, I found myself utterly dismayed and highly disappointed with the development of the main character. Her mentality has glimmers of shifting towards this powerful force; yet, moments later its dashed into a frustrating blend of selfish nativity for who she is as a character and what she's supposed to become in the future.

The political courtship navigation is a huge reason why I was intrigued to read this story. How Theodosia navigates it is quite painful to read let alone to follow along. I understand that I'm supposed to feel sympathy for her and rally behind her. However, there are events that occur which completely go off the rails because of her. Thus, my interests shift towards Blaise, Cress, Art, Heron, and Soren as more interesting lines of inquiry. I want to know more about their story, interests, personality, etc.

If I decide to read the sequel, it will be because of those characters not because of Theodosia.

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rinku's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

3.5

Ash Princess is your typical YA fantasy centred around a chosen one that has to earn her right place back by killing the hot prince™. The story is as cliché as it sounds, but still enjoyable because of the characters and the interesting and dark world which is why I gave it 3.5 stars.

Like I’ve said, this general plot is not the most innovative, but I still liked the way that it was told. The main character Theo came into this situation because the Kaiser and his people conquered her country, killing the queen, her mother, in the course of it. Theo is now stuck at the Kaiser’s court as a kind of trophy while realizing that she finally has to do something against it. The story is quite dark already at the beginning where she’s forced to

Spoiler

kill her dad

which intrigued me immediately. There are many other dramatic moments in the story which were written so well, like

Spoiler

Elpis sacrificing herself

. Sadly, some plot lines were quite cliché and predictable, like

Spoiler

the main character almost having to marry an older man, or the masquerade ball. It was furthermore so predictable that Theo wouldn’t kill Søren and that her plan with the poison would fail as well

The atmosphere of the story is just so dark and angsty which I absolutely love. The stakes are so high and there were some situations where I didn’t know how Theo would get out of them. Additionally, the lore around the magic and the stones is so interesting but was sadly info dumped at the beginning. It’s especially dark how Theo’s people are treated and how the stones are used by the Kaiser and his people as jewels while they are something holy for Theo’s people. It was also interesting how Theo didn’t use her magic because she didn’t want to risk not going to the afterlife, showing how strong her belief is.

Looking at the characters, I quite liked Theo as the main character. She has a great character development and change of mind in the course of the story. It’s obvious that she struggles with her loyalties and needs time to figure out what the right thing to do is. Her hatred and anger are so powerful as well, I love it. What I didn’t love though was the romance. Theo of course has to fall for the first guy she meets aka prince Søren. It was interesting to see how she was getting closer to him, but their friendship developed a bit fast for my taste. Their relationship didn’t develop fully as I would’ve expected, so that was a little surprise. Sadly though, we also get a love triangle where the other part doesn’t interest me.

Furthermore, what annoyed me was the lack of important female characters besides Theo and Cress and the villain being constantly described as fat. Talking about Cress, her over-the-top jealously annoyed me and

Spoiler

it was obvious from the beginning that she couldn’t be trusted but my heart still dropped when she revealed Theo that she knew everything about her. She could be an interesting villain in the following books

After the dramatic ending, I’ll definitely continue the Ash Princess series. The world and the characters have so much potential, and I hope that this potential will be utilized.

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alyxbeau's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

2.0

This was perhaps a better book than audiobook, but this review is for the audiobook version. Ive had this book on my shelf for ages, as it has one of my favorite plots - displaced royalty working in a rebellion - but I found it VERY difficult to set aside all the (obviously) German inspired culture put in such a negative light out of the historical context of the world wars. This isnt something that should have taken near direct words from the existing language and put into a fantasy setting. The language and titles should have been completely made up. Apart from that, I didnt find any of the characters likable.

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liviamello's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

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whatischellereading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Let’s just start this off with saying this story is brutal. Please check any trigger warnings before diving into this book.

I loved the story as we find ourselves introduced to Thora as she lives in the palace with the king who invaded her kingdom. She lives as a plaything for him to humiliate so straight out the gate you hate the king (the Kaiser) and are whole-heartedly rooting for Thora.

The story is so tense all the way through - as soon as you think there is some reprieve, in comes another scene that gets your pulse racing.

I really liked the development between Thora and Soren and I'm interested to see how this develops in book 2, Lady Smoke. All the characters are compelling and you do develop strong emotions for all of them, whether it be love or hatred.

Marking this down by half a star due to the level of brutality in some scenes. It actually made my anxiety disorder rise and I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy that part of the story.

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hapalyn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.75

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mygvrses's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

im definitely growing out of my ya era but i really loved this! i love the kind of morally ambiguous protagonist trope and this definitely came through with that. very explicit torture/death scenes and descriptions of wounds in case that triggers you!! i will be continuing on with the series im excited <3 ps the prologue and the epilogue were the best parts of the entire book like that little super impactful one paragraph page UGH i love it.

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onefineelephant's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

9/10. This book was much better than I was expecting. There are not many times when I am genuinely surprised by a book, but there were two parts of the book when my jaw dropped. I also really love both of the love interests even though I am not usually a fan of love triangles. I am very much anticipating what could happen next in the other two books.

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steffandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

Spoiler

I wasn’t prepared for this book to be so dark. There’s a lot of violence, death, torture throughout the entire book. Perhaps I only forgot that YA fantasy books tend to be like adult ones, just that the age difference makes so much more violent for me. I understand why Theodosia is acting the way she acts, but I also hate that she doesn’t choose the villain. Although, many wouldn’t put Prinz Søren as the villain, I think he is. Blaise certainly has a violent streak as well, however, he’s being seen as the hero, the one who does everything for his country, for his queen. We don’t get much background information on him in the beginning, so I‘m kinda mad that she chooses him over and over again because they apparently share some childhood crush and many memories. In the end, I can imagine that he might die because it’s clear that he’s mine-mad and might turn into one of those berserkers everyone fears. But it’s only the first book, it might not become the truth. At the same time, I have a feeling that we don’t get a happy ending with this. Theo might get her kingdom back, but I fear that she will be alone by that time. I don’t like Art very much at this point and Heron is too quiet for my liking and we haven’t had much interaction with him in this first book.
After all, it’s a good book. I tend to say that YA fantasy books have the best stories. Astrea and the world it’s in is remarkable and I haven’t read anything like it before. Some parts did remind me of the World Wars, Germany trying to overtake everything the Kalovaxians being the Germans in this scenario, although they mostly have Scandinavian names and look like that as well, pale, with blond hair and blue eyes.
The thing, though, I usually can’t wrap my head around anymore is the age. They are barely adults - 16 years old only - and you want to tell me that they have to act all tough and rose because the adults left can’t do it? No, that’s why YA books aren’t that appealing to me anymore, good story or not.

Spoiler

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allisonsmith120'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

4.5

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