Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

45 reviews

marinou00's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Torture, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape

booshort's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

What the actual fuck.
Where was this book when I was in all of my previous fantasy book slumps?

The first ~7 chapters were fine enough, it felt like any other fantasy read, really. Jumping in to a new world, learning terms, and just sort of accepting things as they come up. Oh there’s vampires with different types of wings? Ya sure. This big mega vamp wants this rando human child as a pseudo child of his own? Go wild. But once you’re securely in the trials that take place in this book, *you get hooked*. The world is simple but still feels so real with the way Broadbent describes it. It was almost a theme while I was reading; expecting something shallow due to how little this book/author has been talked about in the mainstream until now (thank you booktok), but then being utterly surprised when proven wrong. Each chapter just revealed more and more strings and important details and connections and and and. I am thoroughly amazed.
I know many people are comparing Broadbent’s series and their respective tones to Sarah J Maas’ books, but there really is no better parallel. I’ve yet to read any other books by Broadbent, but there is no doubt I will collect as many as I can get my hands on. 

Seriously though, if you are a fan of SJ Maas, give this author a go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Death, Blood, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Cursing

Moderate: Torture, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Classism, Genocide, Confinement, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Alcohol, Vomit, and War

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Oraya lives in a world designed to kill her. Rescued and adopted by Vincent, the Nightborn King, she is a human living amongst vampires. In hopes of becoming more than prey, she enters the Kenjari, a tournament held by the goddess of death. During the tournament she meets Raihn, a ruthless and dangerous vampire. 

The vampires in this book are savage, bloodthirsty, and brutal. Humans are merely livestock providing a constant flow of blood. 

I found Vincent to be a very interesting character. On one hand he was a ruthless killer responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. Yet on the other hand, he was a protective and caring father. He taught Oraya how to survive in a world that wants her dead. 

Oraya wasn't a super original character, but she was very interesting. I enjoyed her arc through the book as she struggled with her feelings about Vincent and Raihn. She loves her father but knows he is a terrible man. She was a strong, clever badass. She was underestimated every step of the way, but showed everything just how brave she was. 

Raihn was a confusing character. He came across kind of bland at some points in comparison to the other characters in the book. He was a vampire, yet very unlike any of the other vampires.  He was very human like in his behaviour. This is why he and Oraya worked so well together. They balanced each other. She gave him space to embrace his humanity where he spured her to fight harder. 

I am interested to see how their relationship progresses into the next book. 

I was not a huge fan of the ending. Starting with Oraya winning and onwards. She just betrayed her father like it was nothing. Yes, she had been wrestling with the knowledge of what he had done, but she made a huge decision based on her limited knowledge and feelings for Raihn. Seemed slightly out of character. 

Also I would have liked more backstory as to why the two Nighborne Clans were always at war. We got a bit of the history near the end of the book, but I think having that knowledge near the beginning would have been beneficial. 

Tropes: vampires, slow burn, badass FMC, forced marriage, enemies to allies to lovers, forced proximity 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Sexual content

readingisfun14's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Loved it - hunger games, meets fantasy romance, meets vampires. FMC is badass.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Slavery, Emotional abuse, War, and Toxic relationship

sarahholliday's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.25

An absolute page-turner with excellent tension and high stakes, The Serpent and the Wings of Night is a decent and unique approach to vampire romantasy. The writing is better than your average self-published work, with truly beautiful turns of phrase sprinkled throughout. That being said, an overwhelming amount of passive voice and several repetitive word choices and tropes kept taking me out of the story, especially at the beginning. I think a solid editor could really make this story shine. TBD on whether I'll pick up the sequel—I'm interested in seeing what happens, but wasn't a huge fan of how this first installment ended.

Forced marriages, even if they're to someone you're technically in love with, are a killjoy for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Toxic relationship, War, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, Cursing, Death of parent, and Gore

rachelsimmet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Sexual content, War, Murder, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Slavery, and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexual violence

l1brarygirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Sexual content, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, and Child death

Moderate: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Self harm

cocpop_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• 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? Yes

4.75

Picked this book up the second I saw a comment say that this book was more like Hunger Games than ACOTAR. And that person was right. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked Hunger Games and the Plated Prisoner series.

This book is 99% from the POV of Oraya, and 1% from a third-person/King of the Nightborn.

And this book will 100% leave you with more questions than answers. Mainly this book focuses on Oraya and her views of humanity and how that manifests in her. She is very much the product of her upbringing but her father left her more in the dark than the light on important facts.

I would say this book isn’t really focused on romance until the last half of the book. And for anyone wanting spice, there’s not much. I also don’t know how I feel about the ending. Was it a twist? For sure, but I won’t be able to tell the effects of it until the next book. I’m just interested in seeing how Oraya will define herself in this world.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual assault

januaryt123's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Misogyny, Death of parent, Confinement, War, Sexual assault, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Gore, Blood, and Physical abuse

lex_is_bookish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This scratched the fantasy romance itch I've been dying to satisfy. Can't wait for book 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence

Minor: Self harm