Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Awakening: As Told by the Boys

There’s two sides to every story, which is why I freaking love dual POV books. I’m glad I decided to read this before jumping into book two, because having a peek into the boys’ heads during the events of The Awakening was super enlightening. However, now matter how compelling the reasons behind their actions were, I still hope the twins come into their power and completely hand the boys their a$$es.

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briochebun's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

4.25 out of 5 ☆’s.

”The darkness is your closest friend, but it’s time to let it go.”

ੈ✩‧₊˚

This retelling of the first novel FAR exceeded my expectations!

(I still cannot believe that I had such a wondrous — and at times painful — time reading about these events that I already knew the outcome of…)

Going into this novel, I was a bit worried that my decision to read “The Awakening: as Told by the Boys” before ”Ruthless Fae” would prove to be an unwise one because I would be interrupting the flow the story (therefore potentially sending me into a slump if I didn’t end up enjoying ”The Awakening: as Told by the Boys”).

Now that I’ve finished the novel it’s clear to me that I did in fact make the correct decision by reading this first! (yayyy 🥳)

ੈ✩‧₊˚

Getting to see everything that the male characters were up to during the events of TA was an eye-opening experience, and I’m sooo glad that I got more insight into their personal lives as well as their thought processes (especially Caleb’s) during all of the chaos…

ੈ✩‧₊˚

I’m just itching to begin “Ruthless Fae“ and continue this story! ♡

P.S. Orion still owns my heart.

Content Warnings

charhollyx's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A really interesting insight into how the boys perceived the awakening and the events following.
As I read this after book 7, I found it was difficult to reread the boys without their character development, Seth in particular who I grew to love.
I would recommend reading it last, because although the characters are still hard to swallow, there is a little too much obvious foreshadowing which annoyed me a bit.
I would have preferred all of the boys pov’s, as it was mostly Darius and Orion with a splash of Seth and Caleb and only one chapter of Max - I wanted equally distributed chapters for all the heirs and Orion, but it was still a fun read and I have missed Solaria and Zodiac Academy a lot!

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katvou's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

kat1105's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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