piabartolini's review against another edition
4.5
The good - Leo and Anna are a lovely couple and their dynamic is sweet and sexy and hot, especially by the end. Leo’s growth in this story is compelling and you can’t help cheering for him.
The bad - Dean, as an antihero, I like. He has traits to commend him as far as villains go, and complexity I enjoyed. But his myopic fixation and refusal to intelligently view a situation with others that he doesn’t actually personally understand was frustrating to read. And the way he basically
Spoiler
rapes someone, twice over, without even that female character’s perspective admitting it as such, was frustrating to read.Sexual assault discourse ahead
Spoiler
I think sexual assault has to be handled a certain way in stories, even dark romances - there is ground work and prep for the reader, either by us expecting a truly bad character to do it, or in the victim internal struggles with what happened to them. But somehow The Heir didn’t have that build up -It was an excellent book overall and one I’d highly recommend, but I’d love it if there were trigger warnings in the front cover. This is the third or fourth book by Sophie that has really jumped straight into very difficult content and I adore that she takes it on, but stylistically would have appreciated a list to read through to mentally prepare, especially over such a common trigger as
Spoiler
rape and attempted rape of a main character.Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape
Minor: Child abuse
hannibanani29's review against another edition
Graphic: Sexual assault and Violence
Moderate: Bullying
ayaaamor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence
kiabejero's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Violence
andeng's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual content, Drug use, Violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Bullying
psyched_np's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Moderate: Infertility, Mental illness, Bullying, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
folkofthebook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I picked this book up to get to the third book of the series, The Bully (because I'm a sucker for bully romance), but all the reviews kept insisting on readers starting from the first so I begrudgingly abided.
I found myself impressed by Sophie Lark's ability to pull me into this world she's built; granted, the setting is at an academy, and I love academy so that probably explains it, but I tip my hat to her.
Secret isolated academy? Check.
Beautiful Mediterranean setting? Check.
Tournament-esque plotline? Check.
Admittedly, I do not love that they're cousins - "by marriage, not blood." Why can't y'all just have their parents be besties like they already are and leave it at that lol but I guess that's adding the forbidden romance factor?
You can bet that I'm diving right into book two after I post this.
Check TWs
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Murder, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death and Fire/Fire injury
misssekundo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Death, Bullying, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, and Death of parent
weelasswithabook's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.5
I've had this on my list for ages and FINALLY got around to it, and I'm grateful I did. Mafia romance isn't really my thing so when I come across one that does it for me, I'm all over it!
I thought the 3rd person POV wasn't going to work for me, as a love triangle can be super hit and miss (usually a miss tbh 😂), but this vengeful hate and spite driven love triangle was *chefs kiss* done perfectly.
Now I'm not going to lie, a large portion of the book was used to build up the vibe, setup and atmosphere for the Kingmakers college/university, but I really enjoyed it because without all of that, we couldn't have the story we did. Think the Triwizard Tournament, but make it mafia instead of wizards 😍 I was 100% into it. I felt it was a pretty unique concept, having never stumbled across a mafia based educational setting before (which sounds weird but it works).
Moving on to the relationships and characters. Anna and Leo's friendship was super cute. Childhood best friends to lovers, without the "I'm only friends with this person to get in their pants" element is always a winner for me and they had a super solid friendship to build their relationship on top of.
Dean... Well... What a POS 😂 I have no idea how this mf is going to redeem himself when we get to his book.
Side character-wise, I've got such a soft spot for Ares 😭 I haven't looked at what relationships are coming in the rest of the series, but if he doesn't get his own book, I'm suing.
Overall, I really enjoyed this. Suspenseful, sweet, spicy, perfect. Like I said, there were parts that felt quite drawn out, but I genuinely feel it was necessary for the whole setting to be fully realised. The only drawback was the huge delay in the couple getting together. But again, I love a slow burn so I can't complain.
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Violence and Sexual content
Minor: Confinement
shaipanda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
1. This was so longggg - not that it wasn’t without reason but like damn I was not expecting that at all and tbh I don’t know if it was entirely necessary
2. The fact that they’re cousins?? Fucking weirddd
3. I really disliked everyone but Anna tbh and *maybe* some of the other girls like Zoe and Chey
4. Absolutely no discussion of condom use or birth control or safe words when doing more kinky stuff or anythinggg
There were definitly other things too but those were the most significant for me besides the spoiler which im gonna add in a second and in the TW’s
Spoiler
ok so why was there like essentially no discussion or even realization really about the fact that Dean sexually assaulted and manipulated Anna on multiple occasions and also that even if she didn’t fully realize that he was drugged, Sophia Gallo also sexually assaulted Leo like wtf <spoiler/>Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment
Minor: Torture