Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

A Court of Sugar and Spice by Rebecca F. Kenney

15 reviews

maddydactyl's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

I loved this book so much. The development of feelings between the different love stories was completely brilliant - one set falling harder and faster, and the other set fighting it every step of the way. Rat King was truly terrifying, and I loved the use of magic throughout. Also loved the resolution with Drosselmeyer! Did not go how I expected it to at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

I loved this book so much. The development of feelings between the different love stories was completely brilliant - one set falling harder and faster, and the other set fighting it every step of the way. Rat King was truly terrifying, and I loved the use of magic throughout. Also loved the resolution to the Drosselmeyer situation! Did not go how I expected it to at all.

cozy_soul_reads's review

4.75

This book was the perfect book club pick, beginning of 2024 book, and so much more! I adored the characters and felt immersed in this magical world. 

Sugarplum fairy & the prince were enchanting in multiple ways & the spice was superior. 

There were also darker elements that reminded me of A Court Of Mist & Fury via the high risks. But it was all worth it!! I highly reccomend this book & can't wait to read the series with my book club friends!!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent

robinwritesallthethings's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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

5.0

What It’s About: A massively creative, very horny, much darker retelling of the Nutcracker ballet with a gender-swapped Sugar Plum Fairy.

Spice Level: Uh, I need a new scale of spice to describe this book, because it took things to levels of hot I’ve never read before.

Realism: Generally, I don’t like retellings, because I think many of them rely too heavily on the original and don’t deviate enough to make it interesting, but I have to say that this one incorporated everything from the source material and made it its own unique story. Everything fit. The plot made sense, the lore made sense. It’s just good, y’all.

Trope Alert: Enemies to lovers, slow burn, friends to lovers.

Trigger Warnings: There is some serious CNC in here, so skip it if you’re not into that. It is dark romance, so there’s some mentions of sexual assault and also some torture. And this last one isn’t really a trigger warning, but the Rat King is gross, dude.

Final Thoughts: I read this book because it was recommended to me by a Kindle achievement for their reading challenge. I decided to read it because I thought the title was a fun play on the whole fantasy Court of Blah and Blah thing that’s been so popular lately. I had no expectations, yet so many were met. Further proof that sometimes you find exactly what you were looking for even though you had no idea what that was. I will be busy trying all of Kenney’s books now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Torture, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

jesshart8's review

fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Kidnapping

druzyquartz's review

adventurous challenging dark funny lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

lady_valhella's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

I tried to look past all the straight sex to see the story underneath but I couldn’t find the story. It was really a lot of sex, not that it is bad or wrong, but there was no christmas here. This is not a cozy Christmas read. This is dark sex fantasy story.

lauramparis's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Rape, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

Way spicier than I normally read but overall I had a great time with this one. It was fast-paced and kept my attention throughout, which is saying something because I read this over the holidays in the middle of being busy prepping for Christmas and other winter gatherings. I will say, that even though it’s marketed as a Nutcracker retelling, it reads more like ACOTAR with the lightest sprinkling of characters from The Nutcracker, so adjust your expectations going in that it might not be as Nutcracker-y as you were expecting. Overall, I would recommend this one if:

• You’re looking for an easy book to read during busy times.
• You’re a romantasy fan
• You love smut and spice

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

alilbitofeveryth1ng's review

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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual assault, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

tguccione's review

adventurous dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Torture, Grief, Cannibalism, and Death of parent