Reviews with content warning for Violence - One for My Enemy

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake

31 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.5

Review of One for my Enemy

By: Olivie Blake

Two witch families, both alike in magic, in dangerous Manhattan we lay our scene. From ancient rivalry, results a new war for power where wicked deals make wicked hands unclean. From forth the heirs of these two witches, two pairs of rivaled lovers are forced to make a sacrifice.

This is a paranormal retelling of Romeo and Juliet that was sexy and exciting as the next generation must bear the burden of their parent’s greed. Blake creates several characters that each have their own personalities, but because Blake only wanted to focus certain a lot of the other characters suffered lack of development. The romances were enjoyable to read, and the sexy times aren’t two graphic. Sasha was my favorite of the sisters. I was disappointed by the Fae, Byrn, who was introduced as someone playing both sides. He is implied as half human and half Fae, but he came as a weak and passive character, just sassy. He doesn’t have much power, and the witches have more power that he covets. I know the author wanted to focus on the witches being the dangerous ones, but I guess I’m used to Fae having more power than humans. There is drug use with characters selling drug that causes hallucinations and puts you in euphoric state of mind. There is also violence, because this is a mafic type of story but with witches and magic. I liked the references to Russian mythology and fairytales combined with the retelling of the famous Shakespeare play. There’s a lot of clever ways Blake pays homage to the original Shakespeare play, but if you’ve never read or seen Romeo and Juliet you can still enjoy this story.

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maggiereadz's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

4.0

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sarahjanehayes's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

super interesting characters, multiple epic love stories, Olivie Blake writes a modern tragedy like no other

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pippinthepuffin's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.0

I absolutely adored this book until the end of act 3, then it all went to hell.

I despise when authors bring characters back to life. Especially when it means there are no consequences for ANY actions.</spoilers> I find that sometimes authors (or maybe its the editors) struggle with doing hard things to their characters even when it would make sense. I heard the original Witch Way story is darker so I am hunting that one down. However, even though it is a Romeo and Juliet retelling (which I’m historically not fond of) this was probably the best one that I read. Blake provided reasons as to why the families were feuding (I said there were reasons; not that they were good)

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memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

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mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

i liked the idea of the book, and i liked some of the characters, it was an interesting take in romeo and juliet. my only issues were:
1. i wasn’t a fan of the narrator of the audiobook and
2. there wasn’t much plot, it was just a lot of dialog that wasn’t going anywhere
that being said there were some very poetic moments in the author’s writing. overall i liked it

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kwthor's review against another edition

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challenging sad tense fast-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

4.0

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erinreadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

What a fantastic roller coaster of a book. The plot drove relentlessly forward, the main cast of characters were clearly outlined from the beginning but were filled in as the story progressed, and the foreboding air of tragedy hung above the whole time but didn’t fall predictably. It really did feel like reading a tragic play; the focus was entirely on the characters and their relationships and histories and the worldbuilding really only consisted of “vaguely moody New York City but with some witchcraft”. I didn’t mind the sparse setting details seeing as the plot was so active I never felt bored. The stakes were high and the tensions were higher and I enjoyed watching things fall apart and get rebuilt as everything spiraled into tragedy.

Read if you like dramatic tragedies with both poetic speeches and also realistic dialogue.

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carrie_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I absolutely loved Sasha scaring the shit out of Roma - I was laughing so hard I couldn't handle it.

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praaliine's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

this was a story about family, duty, and love. it was devastatingly romantic. the prose was so silky smooth and i lost count of how many memorable quotes there were (i made sure to mark every single one). however, there was hardly any magic practiced by any of the characters, considering what the premise of the book is. also, at some point, i was expecting a bit more depth from the characters (not to say that they completely lacked depth). but these little quirks just felt so insignificant as i read on. i won’t be forgetting this one anytime soon.

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nataliebootlah's review against another edition

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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

Lovers to enemies. Enemies to lovers.
A modern day Romeo and Juliet retelling complete with family drama and forbidden relationships, plus quite a few twists thrown into the mix. The story revolves around two powerful witch clans who have been rivals for over a decade: the Antonovas and the Fedorovs.

The characters felt realistic, multi-faceted, and thankfully, developed without being entirely predictable. Which was great, especially since I’m not a huge play-lover so the characters are ultimately what kept me tuned in. But I did enjoy being surprised multiple times for a retelling!

This is my third book by Blake and each time I’m reminded that I love how she writes—always so poetic.

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