Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Priory of the Orange Tree

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

207 reviews

meghan_w's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

What a perfect book to finish as Pride month begins! I did not plan this, but it is just perfect. At a whopping 848 pages/26 hours in audio this book is not for the faint of heart. I previously DNF’d it because I didn’t have the attention span for its length. So glad I came back to it because I loved it! Sabran and Ead are my two favorite characters with so much character growth. There’s magic, adventure, love, heartbreak, and best of all DRAGONS. 🐉

My struggle with high fantasy is keeping track of characters, but the author is amazing and has a glossary of characters and definitions in the back. 👏🏻

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seastheday's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

3.5

This book is NOT for the feint of heart. You must be willing to wade through almost 200 pages of world-building since there are 4 main characters. There are 2 maps, a glossary of terms & a glossary of people from the east/west/south. This may be a popular BookTok book, but make no mistake- it is HIGH fantasy with romance dappled in here and there. And since this is a standalone as well, most of the things you learn only will apply to ONE book. A tome of a book, yes, but still just one. Also, I have beef with everyone who was like “it has dragons!!” The dragons are barely in it until almost page 740. There is a lot of politicking, speaking of, and debating dragons. But for the actual dragons I expected… barely anything. The idea of them spurred different plot lines on here and there. But was the dragon present and being bad ass? NO. I was really disappointed on that front. You mostly spend your time with a mopey queen, a jerk of a fake grandfather, a mage clouded by love to actually do what she should & a ghost of a dragon rider who doesn’t have a dragon most of the time.
I think it was a cool concept. I definitely enjoyed that it was normalized in the society for queens to rule, the line of succession was only based on eldest & not gender, race wasn’t an issue it was merely regional (it wouldn’t be so regional if the plague didn’t exist), & there were sapphic storylines.
All in all, I liked this book. It was interesting. Near the 650pg mark, I did wish it was over. I didn’t find myself WANTING to pick it up. I wanted to READ and that’s a huge difference for me. I didn’t give up because I felt like it had to be worth it in the end. I don’t think it was. The entire book mounted to this huge end battle and it wasn’t amazing or unbelievable. It was predictable and nothing shocking occurred.

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sarah_bookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

A re-read, but it's been around 5 years I think. Really loved diving back into this world and still being delighted getting to know the setting and the characters, as well as being surprised all over again by the directions the plot takes! There is a little too much book (esp when you're stuck between pages 500 and 700) but the world building is so rich that I can forgive. Can't wait to read A Day of Fallen Night!

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electrachet's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this story and would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in high fantasy. The length may seem daunting at first, but I read the first half of the book in less than a day and I'm usually a slower reader. There's so much world building to really keep you engaged! However, there were a few details that keep me from giving the book 5 stars. I wish we had a tiny bit more in the way of an epilogue. Niclays Roos was also an unnecessary character in some ways and The Nameless One had very little overall participation in the book. I felt the overall "villain" (or villains) driving the plot were underdeveloped. I also wish we got to experience more of Tané's story. I felt her POV was abandoned in the middle in favor of Ead, Sabran, & Loth's stories but she was still a compelling character I wanted to get to know better. I ultimately think the confinement of the story to a single book does weaken the overall narrative. This would have been better as a duology or even a trilogy, but maybe I just wanted to spend more time with the characters in the beautifully rich world that they live in. :')

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-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

i will definitely be rereading this at some point! partly because there was a lot of stuff i didn't fully understand but mostly because i enjoyed it so much. i don't think i've ever read such a rich, sprawling epic fantasy contained within one novel. the characters were complex and interesting but i wish we got a little more focus on tané and loth. they both felt less fleshed out to me than ead and roos. the only other thing that kinda bugged me was how rushed the ending felt in comparison to the rest of the book. i expected the final battle to be drawn out longer than it was so it felt almost anticlimactic but it was still tied up pretty neatly. my main priorities in fantasy are character development and worldbuilding and those elements were near perfect!!

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curlykristenk's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.0

Oft what a doozy of a book. I found it challenging to get into (800 pages is daunting) and confusing at first but once I accepted that I wouldn’t know every persons name or remember every place mentioned it was easier to let the plot and the book carry me along and it did well to remind me of stuff that was important which I loved. I looooved the characters and their intricacies and seeing them develop within the overarching plot. I did end up having to take notes on what happened within each other storyline and where we last saw them because the book jumps between storyline’s so much, once I did that I felt a lot better and was more in tune to what was going on. I loooved the twists and turns of this book I didn’t really ever guess what was going to happen.

I loooooved the role of women in this book and the men being like helpful side characters

although Loths a feminist king and does so much he’s not the main ‘hero’ ya know? Love him tho.

Kit and Meg are fuckin angels too omg.

I love the parallels between this book and the real world regarding misogyny.

Comb said that sabran failed her chief duty as queen by losing her baby. As if that’s a queen or rulers (or women’s) most important task. But misogynists believe that women’s only job is to be baby machines. And in cases of women being in positions of power, that babies overrule everything. And it’s her fault because of something she couldn’t control. And then Sabrán the fuckin QUEEN says “A woman is more than a womb to be seeded”.

Another fun parallel is the concept of balance of nature which I 100% believe in this world as well.

My thoughts on the ending - ⚠️⚠️SPOILERS ⚠️⚠️

I also loved that all the religions were a little bit correct in their own way. Kinda cute of them.

I kinda loooved the witch of the woods character. Slayed.

👎 missing Margrets marriage

I’m glad they didn’t give up their respective careers and paths but 10 years 😭😭💔💔 I wish their betrothal was more of a moment than her just saying have you heard of this thing… I totally love and get them following their own paths but oft it broke me.

Tane??? Damp with blood? Huh? What a cliff hanger. But I’m so glad nayimathun didn’t die.

I love loth and margrets impending swap of responsibility and just both of their characters in general I love.

Roos. What a roller coaster I felt for that man. I was sobbing at the end regardless. Aleidine is mother and queen for what she did and her attitude. EVEN WANTING TO SET NICKLAYS UP AGAIN. I CANT.

I feel like the end went by really quick and got wrapped up really quickly. But I also like how it all played out anyways. I feel like the battle also could’ve been longer or had more go wrong but I’m also not complaining.

I think the slow start and the fast wrap up is what doesn’t get it to a 5⭐️ for me but I loved it all the same.

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a_novel_craving's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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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inlibrisveritas's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-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

Beautifully written
Full of incredible lore
Three badass FMCs
Dragons

This is everything I want in a fantasy and more

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awkwardimagination's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

3.5

There is too much in this book to giva comprehensive review. i have been reading all day to finish it, it is marked up like a text book, and i am hungry. The density of it may be a slight fault, but its one im willing to overlook, bc for the life of me i cannot see this book being multiple.

I will say i have 3 favourite characters (Meg, Nayimathun, and Aralaq) and only one of those is a human. I truly didnt care for one of the main storytellers, but it did provide some good information. The first hundred or so pages of this book is mostly exposition and world building , which isnt a horrible thing but it can be a lot to get through.

I dont know how much a look forward to the daunting task of reading the sequel but i will do it, hopefully in less time than it took me to read this one.

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