Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Shadow Princess by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

24 reviews

elizzabethanne's review

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

3.0

These books are definitely getting better bit by bit. I still have a lot of issues with the series but the plot is very gripping (when it’s not at a stand still because we have to watch the main characters be senselessly bullied and harassed) and I actually am enjoying the plot twists. I’m not gonna lie, I gasped a few times throughout reading this and I love a good cliffhanger. I’m actually glad I continued the series but now that I’ve made it this far… I’m going to have to read all the books. I’m just in too deep now. They’re addicting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

rhysreads10's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

This was the best one of the series so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Blood

stuffed_with_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Best Zodiac Academy book yet. I feel we finally move the plot forward and the stakes actually matter. Much improvement in the writing compared to the third book, though still too much smirking. The audiobook could use another few narrators since the cast is diverse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood

rdaacvhiesl's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This cliffhanger is so bad that I literally have nothing that makes me want to keep reading. 
The authors have a bad habit throughout the series of being repetitive with their descriptions. The lack of growth in certain characters really makes me want to drop kick my Kindle.  <Spoiler>There's slow burn and then there's never going any where but leading you on anyway. </Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

tiinak's review against another edition

dark

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

1.75

I don't think anybook that I can name over 20 different  content warnings for could be recommended. Also, weird to have condemnation arc for main characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and War

kinsportch's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism and Child abuse

autumnwitch14's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Self harm, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, and Alcohol

nineinchnails's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

i feel like the writing has improved a tiny bit in this book but i'm not sure if it's just that i've gotten so accustomed to it so i don't know if any judgement i make in this review will be accurate. i know a lot of people hated tory in this book but as much as she was frustrating i understood her and i don't think i ever really disliked her. what's crazy is darcy was overwhelmingly my fav twin in the first couple books but i think that's now shifted to tory somehow. i'm probably biased because i too am prideful, stubborn, and constantly self sabotage so who am i to judge? i don't want to spoil anything outside of what is already known from the first 3 books so i'll just say almost all of the characters seemed to make progress only to backtrack or revert to their book 1 antics and it made me want to throw my phone at the wall.

also i have probably already said this a bajillion times but whilst i love darcy + (somewhat like) orion individually i hate their relationship. it's not even that it's forbidden or that it's a student/teacher relationship necessarily (because they are both adults technically) it's the dynamics: in a fantasy world there is definitely the opportunity to make it feel less gross (like how underage drinking in solaria is completely normalised) and that just wasn't the case imo so most of their scenes ick me out so bad. i know he cares about her a lot and does a lot for her but i don't like the way he goes about covering up his favouritism to save face sometimes because he just takes it too far imo. darcy is better than me for sure because i would not have tolerated that even once. the only time she's actually seemed to have a backbone was when she was pissed on tory's behalf, which is pretty in character for her but it's still hard to read. this book would've been rated higher if there was less darcyorion but alas!

i'm interested to see how tory and darius' relationship develops because they're both so similar in the worst ways (for a romantic relationship) and i can't see either of them actually compromising for each other as it stands. i know promises get made and words get said but that's an entirely different issue from either one of them delivering on that. they both have deep rooted trust issues, lack communication, and god knows what else + i have yet to see either of them making significant progress on that but i'm hoping it'll slowly happen over the next books and i am very excited because they have potential. tbh i find it hard to hate either of them because despite their very irritating behaviour i understand them (most of the time) and i feel like they have understandable reasons for their twisted logic.

the plot outside of the relationships was insane in the best way pretty much every time i had to put this down i was anxious to pick it back up. i was probably being overly paranoid because there was a lot of long slice of life type of scenes but i just felt the vague feeling of imminent threat the whole time and it was making me super anxious. i feel like the authors kinda make a lot of this stuff as they go along when it comes to the worldbuilding but that's part of what makes it so fun for me to read cause a lot of it feels very balls-to-the-wall crazy and unhinged. even the twins being mary sues is really fun for me cause it just feels really self indulgent whenever they're not fighting for their lives i love it! also yes this book was unnecessarily long but i love these characters and this world so idc!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Self harm, Blood, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Excrement, Death of parent, and Abandonment

student/teacher relationship,

drugging

,

drug induced psychosis

jesshart8's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

ziaxx's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.0

So the fae celebrates Christmas?🤨 

I now understand the heavy criticism of this book series. This book is the best example to prove all of the points. And I'm too annoyed to write a polite review.  But one thing tho, Why the author did the twins so dirty? Even the prostitutes in dark romances have better sense of judgement and a spine but these twins.. Hah! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail