Scan barcode
cocpop_reads's review against another edition
- 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
Clay and Talin’s story is much darker than the others but no less hopeful. I’m glad that by the end, they both are accepting of everything of each other.
I desperately want to know who the Ghost is, I have my thoughts but I’m gonna keep them until there’s more hints.
Minor: Child death, Sexual violence, and Child abuse
sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The abuse mentions in the story were hard for me to get through for personal reasons.
I'm interested to see where the story is going as far as the Psy Counsel goes, so I'm excited to continue the series. This is my lowest rated Nalini Singh book though, I don't think the main characters resonated with me like the other main characters of the other 3 books did.
I'm giving this 3.5 stars out of 5.
Graphic: Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death, and Child death
vivivi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This one pulls at the heartstrings, is full of history, misunderstandings, betrayals, and hurt feelings. But it's also interspersed with the characters' strong loving feelings for each other, which balances it out, making the hurt feelings bearable for me. It is not always the case for me with Nalini Singh (one of the Rock Kiss books comes to mind), but in this one, it's sweet, sweet torture. I love that we see the characters from the other books! They're very much still a part of the story.
We also learn more about the Forgotten, which were only briefly mentioned in the previous book. One thing that I enjoy in this series is that everything is connected somehow, and will come up later if mentioned earlier. It's a great way to keep me reading the next book.
Also, as an aside since Storygraph has a section that asks if the characters are diverse... yes, they are, but you'd never know by the cover, which are almost always of white people. The actual characters are definitely not always white.... So it's verrrrry annoying when the covers don't reflect the actual characters' skin. Clay is supposed to be a "dark" man, by Tali's own description. He has very dark skin...the covers for this book though... Nope. Not even close.
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Sexual violence
Minor: Death of parent
givemaribooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
And here comes why I struggled with this book. I hated Clay whenever was around Talin. He was fine on his own, but he was an overbearing judgmental asshole to Talin. She owed him nothing. She was a traumatized 12 year old when they last saw each other. She didn’t owe him fidelity, and judging her for sleeping around was unforgivable to me. At one point, she even feels impure because of her past, including because of the abuse, and that was so problematic to me. It’s one thing for her to have those feelings and to have reacted to the abuse by becoming promiscuous, but he doesn’t get to judge that. As I said, she didn’t own him fidelity and he didn’t own her body. And apart from the slut-shamming (and a bit of victim-blaming), I don’t think the puritanical views about sex that keep appearing in these books make any sense in this setting. One on hand we are told that younger shifters are very sexual and need sex, but then they also expect their mates to magically be virgins?! Make it make sense! This is also supposed to be in the future and they still are worried about virginity?! Even the psy not having sex doesn’t make sense. It’s a normal bodily function. It would’ve made more sense for them to be super causal about sex and treat it the same as exercise the way they do yoga.
I was also annoyed with the story line about Talin’s missing time. It didn’t really add to the story for her to be further violated this way. As in the previous book, the author used sexual trauma as a plot device. It felt unnecessary since she was already dealing with trauma and she could just had missing time without it being about sex.
The author also uses outdated terms, especially when it came to ableist language.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator is great.
CW: murder, child sexual abuse (recounted), medical issues, trauma from neglect and abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, and Sexual violence
solacelight's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Child death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, and Vomit
Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
samixox's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual content
mariathelibrarian's review
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual violence
ruthiedr89's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture