Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Heir

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Heir by Sophie Lark

11 reviews

zapndoubletap's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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piabartolini's review against another edition

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4.5

I have complex feelings about this book.

The good - Leo and Anna are a lovely couple and their dynamic is sweet and sexy and hot, especially by the end. Leo’s growth in this story is compelling and you can’t help cheering for him.

The bad - Dean, as an antihero, I like. He has traits to commend him as far as villains go, and complexity I enjoyed. But his myopic fixation and refusal to intelligently view a situation with others that he doesn’t actually personally understand was frustrating to read. And the way he basically

rapes someone, twice over, without even that female character’s perspective admitting it as such, was frustrating to read.

Sexual assault discourse ahead

I think sexual assault has to be handled a certain way in stories, even dark romances - there is ground work and prep for the reader, either by us expecting a truly bad character to do it, or in the victim internal struggles with what happened to them. But somehow The Heir didn’t have that build up -

it felt very abrupt and violent and as a reader we didn’t get a good wind up OR emotional cool down in those encounters. That almost throwaway insertion jarred me far more than the actual subject matter.

It was an excellent book overall and one I’d highly recommend, but I’d love it if there were trigger warnings in the front cover. This is the third or fourth book by Sophie that has really jumped straight into very difficult content and I adore that she takes it on, but stylistically would have appreciated a list to read through to mentally prepare, especially over such a common trigger as

rape and attempted rape of a main character.

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hannibanani29's review against another edition

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This is the first book I've ever DNFed, and I feel really bad about it. It's not a horrible book or anything, and I've definitely read worse, but I'm in a reading slump and this book put me further into the slump. I honestly just did not like any of the characters or feel any of the chemistry between them. It read a bit too much like high school drama (despite the characters being college-aged) and there was way more focus on things like a school competition or a basketball game than the romance I was hoping for. Perhaps that would change in the second half of the book, but this one just wasn't worth waiting it out in the hopes that the story would improve. I do want to try some other Sophie Lark books though! This just wasn't the one for me, clearly.

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ayaaamor's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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kiabejero's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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andeng'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

4.5

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psyched_np's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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folkofthebook's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

I just found a mafia book I like?!?! I'm shook.

I picked this book up to get to the third book of the series, The Bully (because I'm a sucker for bully romance), but all the reviews kept insisting on readers starting from the first so I begrudgingly abided.
I found myself impressed by Sophie Lark's ability to pull me into this world she's built; granted, the setting is at an academy, and I love academy so that probably explains it, but I tip my hat to her.

Secret isolated academy? Check.
Beautiful Mediterranean setting? Check.
Tournament-esque plotline? Check.

Admittedly, I do not love that they're cousins - "by marriage, not blood." Why can't y'all just have their parents be besties like they already are and leave it at that lol but I guess that's adding the forbidden romance factor?

You can bet that I'm diving right into book two after I post this.

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misssekundo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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weelasswithabook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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? No

4.5

CW: sexual assault, violence, date rape (kinda), seriously claustrophobic scene

I've had this on my list for ages and FINALLY got around to it, and I'm grateful I did. Mafia romance isn't really my thing so when I come across one that does it for me, I'm all over it!

I thought the 3rd person POV wasn't going to work for me, as a love triangle can be super hit and miss (usually a miss tbh 😂), but this vengeful hate and spite driven love triangle was *chefs kiss* done perfectly.

Now I'm not going to lie, a large portion of the book was used to build up the vibe, setup and atmosphere for the Kingmakers college/university, but I really enjoyed it because without all of that, we couldn't have the story we did. Think the Triwizard Tournament, but make it mafia instead of wizards 😍 I was 100% into it. I felt it was a pretty unique concept, having never stumbled across a mafia based educational setting before (which sounds weird but it works).

Moving on to the relationships and characters. Anna and Leo's friendship was super cute. Childhood best friends to lovers, without the "I'm only friends with this person to get in their pants" element is always a winner for me and they had a super solid friendship to build their relationship on top of.

Dean... Well... What a POS 😂 I have no idea how this mf is going to redeem himself when we get to his book.

Side character-wise, I've got such a soft spot for Ares 😭 I haven't looked at what relationships are coming in the rest of the series, but if he doesn't get his own book, I'm suing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. Suspenseful, sweet, spicy, perfect. Like I said, there were parts that felt quite drawn out, but I genuinely feel it was necessary for the whole setting to be fully realised. The only drawback was the huge delay in the couple getting together. But again, I love a slow burn so I can't complain.

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