Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Malice

It was fine. The mc starts out very ‘my life is hard and sad’ and turns into ‘I was bullied so it’s okay for me to be a jerk.’ I wasn’t super impressed with that. We all have hard lives and you made bad choices all along the way, baby. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. There was a jumble of fairytale aspects, some of them executed better than others.

And listen y’all, Laurel was right. Aroura and Alyce were neither one fit to rule. They’re both idiots.

I didn’t really understand the whole shifter thing? It didn’t contribute a whole lot except making the mc seem like a Mary Sue. It could have just been part of her magic rather than another special trait. But it was nice to have her actually being a villain on purpose at the very, very end. I think a story about the actual powerful being would have been much more interesting. Or about the first queen in this kingdom. The author did pretty well with the actual court politics, so that part was interesting. I think there’s a sequel, but I don’t think I can be bothered with it.

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acidicgoddess's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

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

3.25

CW: grooming & manipulation

Ngl, this book would have worked wonderfully as a prequel.

The story was definitely intense. It also did a really good job at making you feel for those who tormented Alyce. It was the writing style that threw me off most of the time. Sometimes the lore would just be dumped into a single chapter and not integrated well AT ALL (which, unfortunately, meant that all of it went over my head to be ignored.)

The author tries to almost personify the atmosphere when Alyce talks to Kal, but it’s so out of place and obnoxiously interruptive that I found myself hating scenes where Kal was involved. She doesn’t do it with any other character and that’s probably why I found it interruptive.

As for the romance in the book… Well, it was a let down.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t a fan of Aurora at first. I felt like she only existed as a character to reflect Alyce’s wants and needs - and for most of the book she was - she lacked any personality outside of wanting what Alyce wants. But, by the end of the book, we really get to know her. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get a taste of it from the beginning of the book, it made the romance aspect feel bland.

This isn’t to say I’m a fan of her, however. Aurora is painfully ignorant to Alyce’s predicament with the public and doesn’t notice when she becomes uncomfortable. Their relationship feels very one sided. Even towards the end. Alyce is left anxious and Aurora can only take it as Alyce not being able to trust her.

Oh, and the one character I was actually finding enjoyable turned out to be one of the bad guys, too. Not a good move on the authors part considering none of the other characters were enjoyable.

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islesbiyana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

3.5

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solenekeleroux's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

3.25

I'm torn about this book.
I loved the world-building, with the Grace system and how it explores capitalist exploitation of magical beings, that's something I wasn't expecting from this book and I was here for it.
The most lacking part was the romance, especially in the build-up part. It was all tell and no show, so not very believable when something did end up happening. The twists at the end are not bad, but too little too late. I was bored during all the middle part of the book (when the romance was supposed to build-up).
The character development is also a bit weak. It started well with Alyce's character, I loved the storyline of how she discovers herself and her power. But then there's no real growth or transformation, it stays very much on the surface of what she can do with her powers instead of the deep inner exploration of good and evil that I was expecting. Most other characters have little substance and are very black and white, except for the graces (again, I think I would have loved a novel just about the graces because that was the most interesting part), especially Laurel and her political reasoning.
Side-note, I am very pissed off whenever there is a shape-shifter character/storyline and it doesn't lead to a real exploration of gender and identity, especially in what is supposed to be a sapphic novel. Don't give me shape shifters and not make them queer!

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kaziaroo's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

3.5

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puffybus21's review against another edition

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dark sad

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Originally, I was going to rate this 3 stars, but that ending really blew me away. I can't believe how dark this book became.

However, despite the pleasantly unexpected ending, this duology isn't compelling enough for me to continue with it. It lacked the to most important qualities I like in books: good prose (not that the prose/writing wasn't good in this, it just pales in comparison to some other books I've read) and interesting characters (Alyce and Aurora were good characters, however, I just didn't feel a connection with either of them).

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