Reviews tagging 'Death'

Queen of Roses by Briar Boleyn

10 reviews

strawberryymoonlight's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcohol and War

Minor: Slavery

dxmxus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

While this is definitely a slower paced book, primarily focusing on world building and plot development, the characters are easy to connect with. Definitely a difficult book to put down, however, there are moments where the main character seems almost too naive. Readers see through much of the foreshadowing well before the character realizes the warning signs. 

I fully plan on finishing the series, however, I hope the next books focus more on character development as the MC feels somewhat flat and unwilling to learn unless absolutely forced into it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Murder, and Sexual harassment

phangirl's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.5

C - 7; A - 8; W - 6; P - 5; I - 4; L - 3; E - 1.
34/70 (49%)

I really liked the concepts in this book. It really felt like it had do much potential but imo it fell flat in every way. The writing and pacing were decent at the start, but about 60% in the grammar started to drop off and the pacing slowed down a lot for me. 

when I finished the book I was so angry about the Morgan's complete lack of agency that I couldn't s op thinking about rhe book. There is literally no point in which Morgan makes an active choice or takes any action. Eg not drinking the potion (Draven threw it away), leaving (Draven made that happen), killing Florian (self preservation but is debatable), loving/liking Vesper (he enchanted her), etc.

It's not for me. The plot and 'character development' were predictable (and I almost never make predictions while reading), which is so disappointing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and War

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Slavery, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and War

laallain's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.75

Morgan Pendragon is the rightful heir to her kingdom, but her right is revoked and she spends her life living in her brother’s shadow - all because she has fae lineage & blood. Her future is promised by her father to the priestesses, in which she has little interest. So when her brother the king sends her on a quest for a legendary weapon, she embraces the opportunity to spend time away from his cruelty, despite having to travel with two guards she finds despicable. The reader joins Morgan on her travels where she encounters danger, lust, romance, mysterious creatures, and new information about her own identity. 

I absolutely loved this - the writing style is captivating and beautiful, descriptive and emotional yet easy to read. The subject material was often violent but because I loved the writing so much I found it palatable. This was a really fun spin on & retelling of Arthurian life and Camelot! I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where that slow burn romance is going and also following that fantastic ending into the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

irenemayblack's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

lilybonilla's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

3.5⭐️/5⭐️

That this was a solid book and a pretty fun read. I think the authors twist on King Author was interesting and entertaining. This is a VERY slow burn enemies to lovers with little spice, but I’m excited to see the development of the main characters relationship in the next book.

I loved the story building in the book. The author took a lot of time to explain and give proper backstory for this fantasy world. I think the downside to this was that it made the book feel a little slow paced. The plot does move along and is entertaining, but I think the first book lays down a lot of ground work for the rest of the series which is why it feels slow.

One thing I really liked about this book is the characters themselves. The way they were written invoked a lot of emotion. I deeply hated a lot of characters and also really loved others. Each character had depth and a purpose. Until the end, I didn’t know who to trust and believe. I also loved how diverse the characters were!

Overall, it’s a pretty solid book and I’m already planning on reading the next book! Happy reading🫶

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

quirksoflife's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

An easy to read book but the ending did leave me wanting more - it did feel like we were missing crucial information for context at the very end (as in, last few pages end) to make it really pop. That being said, I devoured this book within a few hours. 

The romance part of the book was a major plot piece, and we’re certainly left with plenty of cliffhangers and unresolved tendrils of plot so the book does read a bit as a great prologue to the second book in the series. 

Looking forward to seeing where this all goes…

Thank you to NetGalley for access in return for providing an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

viselik's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found the book quite enjoyable, and it was a quick read. I read it in about 4ish hours. I found the retelling of the story of Excalibur and King Arthur an excellent spin on the story, filled with fae and a believable world! I'm pretty interested to see where this story will go and the story of Morgan (who I totally did not call Morgana more than once).

The relationship between Morgan and Darven was interesting. Still, I did not see a spark of romantic tension between them, which was fine as I got so interested in the world and the story of the fae I forgot this was a romantasy (romance fantasy) book. 

Without going into spoiler territory, I enjoyed how Arthur was in this! I loved seeing his arc and change throughout the book, which also helped me like Darven as an excellent comparison.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Kidnapping

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Infidelity, Slavery, Kidnapping, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lastblossom's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

tl;dr
An interesting take on Arthurian legend. Too dark for me, sadly.

Thoughts
I keep telling myself to give dark fantasy another chance, and I should stop telling myself that. My feelings on this book are split. On the plus side, some great twists on fae and Arthurian legend. The story had some great reveals, and I liked all the supporting friends. But it turns out I am tired of things being miserable always and at all times. While this doesn't go all the way into "gritty" territory, the storyline is definitely dark enough, with our MC constantly being kicked around from all directions (mostly from her really terrible brother), with barely a sliver of relief. At one point, I started to wonder why she was even still doing the quest, when she'd probably be better off just running away. Or perhaps using the time away to build that secret army her brother thinks she's got going on. But if you want a dark fantasy, this book absolutely fulfills the prompt. There's also a decent amount of spice, and a very slow burn romance (that looks like it won't really see completion until later installments), and I liked the world building.

Thank you to NetGalley and Starwater Press for a review copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Xenophobia