Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

78 reviews

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was utterly delightful. It had been floating around the edges of my literary radar for some time, but I honestly wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. I knew by the end of the first chapter that I was going to enjoy this book and it never let me down.

Did I kind of skim over some of the parts that delved more into the political or technical aspects of the story… ok, yeah. Sure. But I do that with most of the books I read involving intricate politics or technology, because I have trouble following. Yet I never lost the thread of the story here, and my attachment to the characters kept me glued to the page.

Granted, I did want to literally throw my phone (I read this on the Kindle app) across the room because of the miscommunication that persists in the first half, but the eventual resolution was so satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Drug use and Car accident

shelvesofivy's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Medical content and Colonisation

induced hallucinations

kirkspockreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Sexual violence, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

ollie_again's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Murder and War

kathigh86's review against another edition

slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

This was my first sci-fi book in many months, it was like a cool refresher for my reading palate. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book. The romance, the mystery, the politics, the world building. I appreciated the fact that everything builds as the book goes on, that there isn’t 80 pages of pure description of the world. There were two main reasons for my 4 star rating over a 5 star. The pacing of this book is SLOW (at least for me), so it was a lot harder for me to get into it and finish it. The stakes of the plot were high, however I didn’t necessarily feel like the stakes were high. Even for this review I find it difficult to tell you how I felt while I was reading. Regardless, I liked this book and look forward to reading the second one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Car accident, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, and War

spaghettii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

I LOVE THEM!!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

theatrealpaca's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Murder, Alcohol, and War

wilybooklover's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

5.0

This is a tough one to categorise. Ostensibly, it’s sci-fi romance, but it’s a lot heavier on the actual sci-fi than most sci-fi romance is. Or maybe space opera, but it’s a lot heavier on the romance than most space opera. In my opinion, it’s pretty equally space opera/romance/suspense (all three of which are interwoven), but whatever it is I loved it. 

The book starts off with our two heroes, Kiem and Jainan, marrying for political alliance reasons. Now, this is how you do a miscommunication trope. It makes sense that Kiem and Jainan would have trouble communicating properly. Not only are they complete strangers, with very different styles of communication, they’re from entirely different cultures and Jainan has been kept isolated and deliberately in the dark about a lot of things. They’re both so considerate of the other that they overthink and misinterpret and get in their own heads about it. It’s kind of endearing, actually, and the slow unfolding of their thoughts and feelings to each other was such a delight to read. They really complemented each other well, despite being charming-extrovert/anxious-introvert opposites. 

Besides the romance, which was lovely and gentle and soft, the worldbuilding and plot were complex and interesting. Kiem and Jainan get dragged into a murder conspiracy upon which the fate of the Empire hinges, and it soon becomes apparent that their lives are also at stake. On top of that, you have a potential rebellion brewing back on Jainan’s home world. It’s a lot, and I do think there was maybe a little too much going on at times (or, perhaps, not paced correctly). But I very much enjoyed this story of political intrigue. Once facet of the worldbuilding that I really enjoyed was the queernorm world. It was so refreshing to see queer people of all kinds just existing without being a statement or facing hardship because of it. The secondary characters were all fleshed out and interesting as well, although I did think that one of the antagonists was a bit obvious

(it’s always suspicious when someone is a bit too friendly and helpful).

 

Ultimately I think this was a well-balanced story of romance and space politics, and would recommend this to people who enjoy both of those things. There are some heavy topics in this, so do check content warnings first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcoholism

purrson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

Adventure with a slowly building romance, full of political intrigue 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death and Colonisation

Minor: Kidnapping

fl0tsam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape

Minor: War