Reviews with content warning for Violence - Rhapsodic

i love laura thalassa’s work. this was a highly anticipated read for me and i was not disappointed. if you like fairies and supernatural beings and spice and tension, you’ll love this book.

Content Warnings

maddykreed's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.5

this book was terrible, but i talk shit about people who leave one star reviews so oh well.

listen, all i’ll say is, for the love of christ at least make your characters 18 at a MINIMUM. how hard is it to put the character in college instead of high school? come on man.

Content Warnings

caitsreadingcorner's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

I very much loved the writing style in this book. The plot was engaging, the imagery and metaphors were beautiful and well written but there were a few things that I didn’t care much for

the way Callie was essentially groomed by Des at a young age but I did respect that he waited for her to mature and was at least somewhat aware of all of the torment and abuse she had endured. It is obvious that he cares deeply for her and loves her

.

The romance was well written. I typically don’t go for such toxic relationship tropes but I did still enjoy it. I thought the world building was nice though it could have been better. I was not at all pleased with the stereotypes forced on her POC best friend Temper and it’s too cringey to elaborate on. There are a lot of unanswered questions but that just means I’ll have to keep reading!

The other thing that disturbed me was

Callie’s changed physical appearance. I don’t think she deserved anything else to hate about herself, to make her feel tainted and vulnerable. She had endured enough before that.

Overall, a good read.

Content Warnings

jenni_catherine's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? No

2.5

Just couldn't vibe with the writing style at all. It gripped me at the start but found it was a slog to get through. Single pov. Lots of triggers that need to be checked before reading.

Content Warnings

onlyone's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

This isn't a bad book at all, don't think of my rating that way. I'm very impressed with the world building but the FL and 2FL are the best fleshed out characters. The smut was forgettable.

The book didn't spend much time fleshing out the big bad. It was a bit confusing with how quickly the book reached its climax and ended.

But I enjoyed this book and I'm going to read the sequel. I'm hoping to care about the ML more because he has a lot of potential.

I went in with no expectations and this is a decent read.

Content Warnings

ali_sun's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

verk's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

shelbylynnn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This book was....not what I expected. I was excited about an intriguing mystery set in a dark fantasy world, and the concept of the Bargainer seemed interesting. Disappointingly, this book ended up being very thinly-veiled smut for the most part with very little of the book even dedicated to the mystery described in the synopsis. The writing was also very simplistic and read like YA but the content was pretty graphic which was very confusing. Not sure who the audience is for this, but it was not me!

Overall a quick read and kept me entertained for the most part but there were many eye-roll moments and the dialogue was so cringe-y, juvenile, and one-note, it felt like I was reading fanfic. The book definitely focused on the romance, which I found unfortunate because the mystery that was set up in the beginning was actually interesting and could've made for an exciting read but it was never even explored. The characters only think about sex, and even the very few moments where something else is going on, the plot feels like background to the characters' central focus of lust. The mc's best friend is portrayed as such an unfortunate racial stereotype and adds absolutely nothing to the story. I also found it uncomfortable that the protagonist was 16 when the relationship began...the Bargainer's age is never revealed but with him being an assumably immortal supernatural being, he is clearly significantly older than she is and makes reference several times to her being a minor.

The plot finally picked up in the very last quarter of the book but it was so poorly written and rushed through in favor of the characters once again being intimate with each other. The final battle scene was a huge letdown and left me feeling very unsatisfied with this book as a whole. This series has high ratings so I guess I'm in the minority here but this book somehow felt very juvenile despite being so dark and romance-heavy. If it had focused on the plot and fleshed out the characters a bit more I think this could've been a much more enjoyable read for me.

Content Warnings

More...