Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett

5 reviews

jennifermreads's review

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slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

A reluctant young, middle daughter, heiress thrust into the role of Grand Duke of her frozen kingdom? Yes, please! I loved Claire Eliza Bartlett’s We Rule the Night and was excited to read another one of her feminist fantasy novels. Toss in the political intrigue and risk of death by magical curse plus the simply divine hardback cover design and I was ready to be on the edge of my seat because of all the drama. 

While I enjoyed it overall, each evening as I set the book aside, I kept hesitating, thinking “What is missing? Why am I not reading until my eyes droop and racing to grab it first thing each morning? Why am I not on the edge of my seat?” By the end, I decided that what I was missing was more development. I needed a little more background on the frozen world that is Kylma Above and the watery underworld of Kylma Below. I needed some elaboration on the Grand Duke’s ministers, their backgrounds, roles, and relationship with Ekata’s father, the previous grand duke. Other than Prime Minister Eirhan, I had a difficult time keeping the who-is-who of the ministers straight in my head. 

During the first quarter (at least) of 2025, I am reading from-my-shelf with the goal of unhauling the books that I do not see myself ever re-reading. While I do not hesitate in keeping We Rule the Night, I will probably move The Winter Duke into the hands of another reader. I just do not have the shelf space to keep a book because the cover is beautiful, I loved the author’s other work(s), and/or I have a “liked it but” review at the end. 
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bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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

3.5

This was a pretty solid read, which was a nice surprise considering I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book.

The characters felt really well rounded. The MC actually read as a teen thrown into a situation she didn’t know how to handle, but that did lead to moments that I was extremely frustrated with the MC because she came across as incredibly stupid. The rest of the cast I found considerably more enjoyable and she we had gotten more of. I also really liked the character dynamics, both posters and negative. Each character played off each other in a unique and interesting way that I really enjoyed.

The mystery of the book was also really solid. A lot of the conclusions the MC came to I also suspected and pieced together, even if getting there felt a bit rushed at times.

My only issue was the world building. There were a lot of details that felt conflicting with what had been established and what we were seeing on page. And a lot of what was established didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why was the MCs family so violent and prone to killing each other? What sense did that make? Why was the issue of following the MC was that people believed she killed her family when every leader before her had? I just didn’t feel like it was super consistent at times, despite how interesting most of it was.

Overall pretty solid sapphic fantasy read!
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angstifies's review against another edition

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

3.5

the premise and the setting were very interesting and the plot was good enough but i just didn’t connect with the story at all, i didn’t find any of the characters that likable and the main character made very dense decisions almost all the time.
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wet_towlette's review

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

3.25

This book has very strange pacing. It was super fast (in a bad way) in  the beginning and then completely slowed down for the bulk of the book, and picked up near the end. I also don’t understand most of the characters motivations. Like the only person who makes sense in Aino. This book isn’t bad by any means and I did enjoy quite a bit of it. The plot was very interesting albeit the blurb was a bit misleading. I had fun with it, it’s just aggressively mediocre. 
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offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was pretty good. The book’s representation of queer folks and gender diverse characters was very well done. Good slow burn sapphic romance. The political elements were interesting, though the end of the book felt overly complicated in its wrap up of the plot. Overall, this was a decent young adult fantasy but not amazing

Spice level: 🌶/5
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