Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

9 reviews

cdoubet's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, War, Genocide, Death, Physical abuse, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Torture, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, and Kidnapping

Minor: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

qrschulte's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Enjoyable book, but I didn’t love it as a whole. And I CALLED IT!

Things I loved: 
- a protagonist with a disability who is affected by their disability but not defined by it. So refreshing that she was a fully realized person
- the Rhen narrator. Honestly, the book might have been better with just him narrating the whole thing. 
- believable reasoning for why someone from our world could ride a fucking horse

Things I did not love: 
- How whiny the Harper narrator made her sound sometimes. It made it a lot less believable it was the same character between the narrators. 
- The monster narration (so fucking creepy/scary). Could have done without that. 
- The parts where it was said Harper was “not like other girls” *cue vomiting*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Medical content, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, War, Ableism, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Cancer, Suicide, Torture, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Self harm, Classism, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, and Stalking

Minor: Gun violence, Child death, and Infidelity

taryn_g's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Death, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Confinement, Kidnapping, Child death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Grief, and Cancer

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, Vomit, and Infidelity

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Violence, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Stalking, Alcohol, Gore, War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child death, Vomit, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Rape, and Ableism

amykwrites's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Ableism, Blood, Cancer, Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Infidelity, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Murder, and Torture

rensreading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

*clenches fist* 

i have no idea where to begin with my love for this story. it was heartbreaking, tragic, funny, and full of so much promise.

though to be fair, i think that plot twist at the end was completely unnecessary and this could’ve just been a standalone. but that’s just my opinion and it might change after i read the sequel. i suppose we’ll see in time.

i adore absolutely everything about harper. she’s so badass. i hope if i ever end up in her position i too can do what she has. wishful thinking though heh

rhen, oh that man. and scary gray!!!! gods they were the best thing to come from this book. zo too! i just loved their dynamic so much. gray’s undying loyalty was just the absolute best. i love him so much. and rhen was so tortured but so unwilling to let anyone else shoulder his hurts. that’s the kind of love interest i would give up everything for.

100% a 5 star read for me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Violence, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Torture, War, Infidelity, and Medical trauma

Minor: Ableism and Abandonment

readwithde's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

This may be my favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling. 

First, I love having any character, but especially a MC with a chronic disease or disability. It was handled so well in the narrative; it never felt like a plot point or focus, but simply part of Harper. 

Second, I really liked the way the romance between Rhen and Harper played out. The friendship and trust is built first, then the romance begins to bloom. I liked that there was initial attraction, but it was a true slow burn. Normally I'm impatient about that, but it felt so organic and well-developed. 

I'm less of a fan of the

love triangle with Grey. At first, it felt like he was a brother figure to both, especially when Harper compared him to Jake a few times. Honestly, I would ship him with Rhen over Harper.

I do like how Grey's narrative turned out, for the most part.

Being a "halfling" human and magic user, and perhaps heir to the throne, was a big revelation, and I'm glad we saw him struggling with that in the epilogue.

I was most excited about how the kingdom and the people reacted to Rhen and his decision to start doing something for them. It helped build up the story to be worth a trilogy instead of a single book.

Even though it's off-brand for me, I like the semi-vague ending

of whether or not Harper loves Rhen, whether she broke the curse or if Grey did.

While there's still a clean ending, a resolution, it gives room for more play in the series without stirring up extra (i.e. unnecessary) drama.

Overall, I really liked it, and I'm excited to read more in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and War

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Torture

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Ableism, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Torture and Kidnapping

Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, Cancer, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

thereadinghammock's review

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.5

I would not have picked this book up on my own; a coworker lent it to me when I asked to borrow some books for jury duty and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise! I enjoyed the characters, the banter, the plot, the worldbuilding. But I did not expect to get sucked into the story as much as I did.  Kept telling myself, "Well if I don't like it by the first 100 pages, I'll just stop. Well if I don't like it by chapter 30, I'll give it back to [coworker] the next time I see her..." then I was halfway through the book and needed to know how it all played out.

I enjoyed how much Harper and Rhen goaded each other through most of the book, the "it's all just for show......right?" until almost the very end. I also appreciated that Brigid didn't shy away from the fact that there was definitely a spark of something between Harper and Grey, if for no other reason than he expected absolutely nothing from her since she had to fall in love with Rhen to break the curse.

Bit of a plot twist at the end there with Rhen's legitimacy as heir to the throne tossed in. A bit of political intrigue does a story good.

But then to find out that Grey has been the true heir to the throne THE WHOLE TIME AND DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT HIMSELF?!?!?! Talk about a plot twist (that we probably should have seen coming, but still)

.

Not sure if I'll be rushing out to grab the sequel, with the stacks of other books I want to read, but I enjoyed the story and the characters and my time with this universe.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, and Suicide attempt