Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Silk & Steel by Ariana Nash

13 reviews

samijobrooker's review

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dark slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

0.5

This was a laughably bad book. It contained a lot of graphic depictions of rape and sexual assault, and I would say it was gratuitous except that the cornerstones of the dragonkin society's personal and political hierarchies appeared to be incest and sexual violence. So I guess it was crucial world-building.

The two romantic lead characters were fine but not all that interesting, and their relationship felt hollow all throughout the book.
For large portions of the story, at least one of them — often both — erroneously believes the other to be dead. And this happens multiple distinct times. It's like it's looping through the end of Romeo and Juliet over and over again. Absolutely baffling creative choice.


I normally relish the cheesy moment when the title of the book is said in the text of the book.
In this case the title of the book appears in the text in reference to one of the dudes' dicks. No joke!


I should have quit an hour or so into the audiobook, but I wouldn't have felt qualified to write this scathing review.
And I would have missed the dick title line.
Oh, AND I hoped it would get better!

Oh wait, there's one more thing I wanted to add! One of the most jarring things was when our elf protagonist encounters and begins to cooperate with humans. It brought up a lot of questions about what the hell this world actually is —
they're French? They have guns, and... solar panels?
— but none of that was interesting enough to actually make me want to find out more. The thing that stood out to me was that the text kept remarking on how awesome humans are. They're ingenious, they're so innovative, they're the most amazing and impressive and strong and resourceful... Who is this pro-human propaganda for??? It was inexplicable and hysterically funny.
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bluepaladin's review

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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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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joonjxne's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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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napthenknit's review against another edition

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

3.5

Interesting world building, especially in the latter half of the book.

I would have liked more interaction between the two main characters, but I'm sure that will increase in later books.

Mind the content warnings and take them seriously. There are some very dark scenes running through the entire book.

Audiobook: As always, Cornell Collins is spectacular. Lots of different accents done well and he really leans into the dragon growls and snarls. I also love that he doesn't do shrill, squeaky stereotype voices for women characters. They have varied voices just like the men.
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raintje'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? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bonriki's review

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challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.5

I’m enjoying the slow burn and emphasis on plot and worldbuilding but there was too much sex that slowed events down. The trauma level is also heavy handed, when the setting is already bleak you’re not adding much of value by torturing your characters anew every chapter. 
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marissaz25's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-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

3.0

This was an incredibly out of the box pick for me. I’m a huge fan of high fantasy but I’m not really into when the characters themselves are a different species. However, this one wasn’t bad. It was palatable, the world building was there, intriguing twists were prominent, smut was definitely explicit. A general, overall rating? This book was okay, I wouldn’t say bad nor good- somewhere in the middle. Basically, enough to read the second book.

For the most part, I was turned off by Lysander’s dialogue and internal thoughts, he’s definitely a character that felt completely his own. This book was kind of borderline incest? But not? Lysander seemed completely sickened by the prospect. His relationship with his mom (?) felt so gross. So just be prepared for that. I will say, despite his obvious flaws, I absolutely adore him. He's so kind hearted and let’s just say I’m rooting for him. The entirety of his "dragon clan" was very, very hard for me to get into. Yet, the politics and intensity of Lysander's world was seen through his time there. It gave a clear picture what corruption the dragon's have instilled into their world.

Eroan is probably my favorite character, he’s intelligent and determined. Some scenes with him felt a little bit redundant, but the chemistry between Eroan and Lysander made up for that. I did love perspective a lot especially when we see him in his own element- the world building from his perspective is really good.

Um, the smut? It was there and not gonna lie, it was a little odd at times. For the most part though, it did its job.

Once this again, this book was okay. Some of the content is definitely questionable and this book is most certainly, not for everyone.

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beholder's review against another edition

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

4.0

For the amount of content warnings needed, it's surprisingly not that hard to read -- it wasn't a visceral/painful read to me, that is. Of course, YMMV, but I think if you get through chapter 2 or 3 (the first one narrated by Lysander), then you can do the rest. The rest of the book is not as fucked up as those first chapters 😅

And I was expecting a slower burn, but I am not disappointed by the romance 👁️👁️
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amybear's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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livsdirelibrary's review

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dark medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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