Reviews with content warning for Torture - A Curse of Blood and Stone

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A Curse of Blood and Stone by K.A. Tucker

6 reviews

callistag1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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manaledi's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

2.75

For the middle book in a fantasy series, this was fine. Artificially recreated some romantic tension and political drama, but mostly a fairly slow progress that's much more setting the scene for a future throwdown. We got more out of interesting secondary characters, but I mostly wished our main characters would stop making foolish decisions, no matter how well intentioned, and that they all got on with it.

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bibliowhore's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

i have mixed feelings about this. the pace was too slow for my liking. some parts were a snoozefest and it only started picking up towards the near end—which unfortunately for me, still makes me want to see how this all plays out. hopefully romy’s caster abilities will be explored more—which is what i was expecting from this sequel, but alas

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bittersweetcritiques's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

As good as the first!

I appreciate an author who can make the side characters just as appealing as the main characters and K.A. Tucker manages it well. Jarek was a nice addition to our rough found family grouping and I look forward to more of him in book 3.

I love unraveling a convoluted prophecy as much as the next fantasy reader and I can't help but think there will be more than one twist before this story is done.

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koistyfishy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.5

This sequel does not disappoint and is definitely putting this series on the list of one of the best series I have read this year (and the series isn’t even finished yet!)

It is not as strong as the first book, and that’s why it’s not a full 5 stars. There are definitely moments where it does feel like the plot does slow down because majority of the plot of this book is just the journey from place A to place B. Some might also say it almost has a feeling of “Middle book syndrome” where it’s just setting up for the culmination of this series in the last book. And let me tell you, I am dying internally, screaming to myself and in a book depression that the next book is not out and I don’t know how I’ll be able to wait for 2023.

I did not think the world building could be better than perfection, because I love the complex world created in book one book. However this book took it so much deeper, with an even more elaborate and entangled world, but still easy to read, understand, and comprehend what was going on.

This book really does play on your emotions around the relationship between Romy and Zander. They do go through a couple of ups and downs that were heart-wrenching at times but it’s also so heartwarming at others. I would’ve liked a little more the for them to work at their relationship, especially from Zander’s perspective. He can often come across that he is just using Romy and doesn’t actually love her and she just forgives him for his crappy behaviour with very little effort from his part as it feels like she just wants to get into his pants again.

However, horniness aside, I really liked the continuation of the character development of Romy. Whilst she is powerful, I like how she built up to understanding her power and how her Caster abilities worked. Sometimes in books it can be too quick for a “chosen one” to know how to use their power and too easy for them to solve problems. In this she had to learn to have a handle on it and struggled with making them work. I also loved that she had such a unique way of touching peoples lives that they would actually care for her and respect her and would be willing to lay their lives down for her. A true “People’s Princess”. Zander felt a little bit flat. He didn’t have as much depth to his personality in this book, so he was a little bit dislikable at times.

Pan and Jarek are two of the best additions as characters to this story. They were such well formed characters, and so interesting. All I wanted was more scenes with Jarek and Romy and was, at times, sometimes wishing that Romy would actually end up with Jarek over Zander because the frenamies banter between Jarek and Romy was amazing and made me giggle out loud numerous times.

One of my favourite things about this book is I had a gripe about something in book 1 with Romy‘s character, AND THIS WAS ACTUALLY turned into a plot point!!!!

I did not like that Romy was such an amazing thief and never used her abilities in book 1, and both times she tried stealing something she was caught, and it was all part of the story because she was not using her caster abilities when she tried those times!

It’s just amazing how the seeds planted from book 1 started to grow in this book. I have never had something that stood out like that (and annoyed me) turned on its head and addressed like this book did.

Overall really entertaining read and glad that I picked up this series! Cannot wait for A Queen of Thieves and Chaos!

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anoelle896's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

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