laurenevlyn's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
God, this was so annoying to read. To be fair, I dnfed about 70% into the book, so if the writing style and the characters miraculously increase in quality in the last 30%, I wouldn’t know. What I do know is that Rylan is an annoying “nice guy”, Damian is an overly secretive brat who only cares about himself, and Alexa has no chemistry with either of them. In fact, the only characters I actually enjoyed were Marcel and Jax, one of whom dies not 10% into the book. The book tells you nothing about this “fantasy” world, if you can even call it that because the only fantasy elements are sorcerers and one single magical plant, both of which seem very important to the plot but are barely given any background or lore whatsoever. As another reviewer pointed out, we know nothing of the religions or cultures of this world, although we get many descriptions of skin color in relation to chocolate, like a lot of them. In fact, Alexa remarks on people skin tone at least once a chapter. There’s also hints of homophobia sprinkled throughout, as a treat. Additionally, the main love interest, Damian, is 23 and our main character is 17, which is pretty creepy imo. Basically every part of this book annoyed me, so I would not recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, and Confinement
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Misogyny
Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Child abuse
frankietheavidreader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Generic. It's like Mulan but more focused on the Romance. I like reading romance but the author just made it the main point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death of parent, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Rape
A lot of content warnings.
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