Reviews

Ishtar's Blade by Lisa Blackwood

mnmtbookworm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

This book was full or surprises. I picked it up with zero knowledge of was it was about. I started it and thought, "Oh no, I'm going to hate this book." And was proven wrong every page. It was like the author said to herself, "How can I take every cringy moment from bad romantacy books and fix them up into something good?" Then she executed it flawlessly. I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

iceboundreader's review

4.0

Quite enjoyable

I found parts hard to follow but overall it was engaging.
The magic system was a bit different and the characters were easy to like.
I was glad for the ending and I am curious to read the next book

blue_skies_tomorrow's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.75

astraia_sun's review

DNF. I was okay with the storyline until a certain part.

Stopped when there was a sexual scene between the protagonist and the king who is married to someone else. It was gross because it was framed as NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD or whatever and the protagonist thinks his wife is cheating on him (I didn't continue far enough to see what that was all about).but it felt skeevy and it was literally unnecessary by the character's own admission.

smuttea_matcha's review

2.0

This was written so that we were told everything instead of shown anything. I was already invested so far, that I figured I might as well see it through. I liked the idea of Gryphon shape shifters, but I feel like all of it just fell flat. The plot was simple, there was no mystery as to who the betrayer was (our protagonist just took awhile getting there), and I just needed to make sure our 2 MCs got together.

lunalibro's review

4.0

Romance was a little meh but the action and political intrigue made it all the more worth it. Really kept me guessing all the way through.

Final Thoughts: Read/Pass

tomi9568's review

3.0

I'm glad it's over tbh

olivialeighhh's review

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.0

It was good-ish? It was fine but a little predictable and kind of felt like someone just wanted to check boxes on a romantasy, like it was fine and I enjoyed it? But it was just fine and probably wouldn’t read it again or continue with the series personally 

cassimarie93's review

medium-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? No

2.0

laono's review

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5