Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent

49 reviews

literarymary95's review against another edition

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

3.5

This felt a little better than the first book for sure, but it didn't wow me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Slavery

Minor: Child death

radiergummi15's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

4.5

I didn't expect to like this more than the first book, but here I am. Love the way this story does not shy away from complicated emotions while still making the characters pretty loveable, something I would not have thought possible after the ending of the first book. Again, I think this series is especially good with its themes (which I would describe as emancipation and identity) and the parent-child dynamic is still a 10/10. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Slavery

spatterson7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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: Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Slavery, and War

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Rape, and Torture

mj_86's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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, War, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual content, and Death

Minor: Sexual assault, Medical trauma, and Confinement

paperbacksandsnacks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

This book started off a little slow for me. I think because I loved the romance of the previous story I found it hard when they became enemies 🥲 and I had to wait for the love story to properly enter the building again. Although don’t get me wrong I loved the simmering tension underneath the hatred. 

When this picked up about the 50% mark though my goodness. It did not stop. I loved the journey of self discovery in this book for Oraya. The way Raihn started uncovering details of her family and the connections she made were a great wrap up element of this duology. The friendships like the previous book were also beautiful, and honestly I just can’t fault the romance. The bond between Raihn and Oraya was gorgeous and made my heart so warm. The way he loved her and would do anything to see her succeed or happy. Honestly what a dreamy man. 

Again, fight scenes though usually not my thing were executed well throughout this. I found myself holding my breath and getting really close to the page as I was so absorbed and anxious to see what would happen. 

The ending too, I just adored it! I liked that there was still a bit of mystery and tension for us to read about in the other duologies (I hope). And I’m excited to read about some of the other side characters as the series as a whole progresses. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Violence, Death of parent, and Slavery

khymihr's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Grief

Minor: Rape and Slavery

romywrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

4.5

I was able to get a copy before it's official re-release through Edelweiss. I was absolutely ecstatic.

While there were a few technical issues I found to be perplexing or frustrating, I still enjoyed this journey. One issue I did not have was likeable characters. I'm still excited to read more. I read and needed to know more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Slavery, Death, Torture, War, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

vireya's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

I really liked it! Not as much as the first, but I’ll definitely read more of the books in the series/world. It was much slower than the first one. It wasn’t slow paced by any means but it was much slower than the first. It was a lot easier for me to put down than the first one. Which for me wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I could see it turning people off a bit. My favorite thing about it was once again her relationship with her father and the journey she goes on to accept who he was and the things he did while trying to pair that with the man she loved and looked up to. Watching her take off the rose tinted glasses and go through the different stages of grief was well done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Death, Gore, War, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Child death, and Slavery

jax10124's review

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

It was a little bit long, but overall I liked the story and the development of the characters and the world and the story and how the two main characters played off each other. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Blood, War, Death of parent, Confinement, Excrement, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

kenziekat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Slavery, and Physical abuse

Minor: Child abuse and Death of parent