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spicyviolets's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-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? Yes
2.0
This was a bit of a let down. I thought book one was alright and was excited to see how this panned out, but I was pretty disappointed in the plot overall.
Hated the memory stuff. It was just obnoxious. I needed this man to do some serious groveling, but instead he had a book-long pity party and acted like a dick for the majority of it.
Hated the demon baby scene. What are we doing? I know this is dark romance (and I like dark romance) but that whole scene felt like it was just there for graphic shock value. Our FMC got over it way too quickly, and it never being addressed again was weird too. Like… it didn’t leave an impact?
Also didn’t love that epilogue. Why is he downstairs smoking cigars and drinking while she’s upstairsgiving birth ? This book is set in modern day. smh
Lots of loose ends for other characters, but I have no real interest in coming back to this world or the characters.
I think Halle’s writing style may just not be for me. Lots of spice, but the plot and character relationships suffer for it.
Hated the memory stuff. It was just obnoxious. I needed this man to do some serious groveling, but instead he had a book-long pity party and acted like a dick for the majority of it.
Hated the demon baby scene. What are we doing? I know this is dark romance (and I like dark romance) but that whole scene felt like it was just there for graphic shock value. Our FMC got over it way too quickly, and it never being addressed again was weird too. Like… it didn’t leave an impact?
Also didn’t love that epilogue. Why is he downstairs smoking cigars and drinking while she’s upstairs
Lots of loose ends for other characters, but I have no real interest in coming back to this world or the characters.
I think Halle’s writing style may just not be for me. Lots of spice, but the plot and character relationships suffer for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gore, and Violence
porque_no's review
2.5
Rather a let down from the first book. I'm tired of FMCs staying with insufferable MMCs and tolerating abusive behavior for their 'potential'. Also, you don't need a pregnancy for a happy ending. It came out of nowhere and didn't fit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy
kiwhales's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Moments of this book were very frustrating. Didn't feel like the mythology always stayed consistent between books one and two. Plot points seemed to be picked up/disregarded at random.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Sexual violence
melissaslibraryy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Too much smut, not enough plot. While that may not be bad for some (me included sometimes) I thought the premise of the book was pretty good and might’ve been more intriguing then the previous one in the duet, so I was hoping for a stronger plot line and dialed back smutty scenes only to be disappointed (hence the 3 star rating.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy
milliejade2110's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
the scene with the baby really creeped me out and everything relating to the ‘bad thing’
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent
Minor: Infertility
moragscot's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I really wanted to like this but it was lukewarm at best. There's no character development and the plot is weak.
The sex scenes were good at the start (4 out of 5 on the spice scale) but became repetitive. Poor Rose will be black and blue not because of the rough sex but the number of times her orgasms "slammed" into her.
The appearance of the "scooby gang" at the climax of the book was cheesy and the epilogue was unnecessary. The author wanted her characters to have a "happy ever after". Fair enough, I guess.
The sex scenes were good at the start (4 out of 5 on the spice scale) but became repetitive. Poor Rose will be black and blue not because of the rough sex but the number of times her orgasms "slammed" into her.
The appearance of the "scooby gang" at the climax of the book was cheesy and the epilogue was unnecessary. The author wanted her characters to have a "happy ever after". Fair enough, I guess.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence
gemmal777's review
adventurous
dark
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? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Murder
toadfairy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This felt a bit disappointing after the first book. Rose felt like a completely different character from Dahlia (I know they're different people but, are they really if she's reincarnated and the same soul?) and as much as I love a happy ending, this just felt so out of place. Felt rushed and there were so many grammatical/spelling errors. I am feeling hesitant to continue on reading the other books in this universe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence
inkdrinkers's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"I'm someone else's tragedy."
Picking up immediately after the end of Blood Orange, Black Rose follows Rose Harper, a newly turned vampire who has all the memories and emotions associated with her past lives rush into her the moment she turns. It's then she discovers her past with Valtu, who is Dracula and her past lover, and seeks him out to reunite after her past live's death. But fate has intertwined their stories into a tightly woven tapestry, and Valtu is not the same man she once knew.
This is a hard book to rate. It's not as terrible as some of the other reviewer's insist, but it's also in no way as strong as Blood Orange was. I felt like the first in this duet was incredibly powerful, expertly toeing the line of retelling Dracula's well-known story while also weaving in the idea of fated love, witches, demons, and more. Where Blood Orange was gothic and compelling, Black Rose felt more like a journey that didn't know it's ending.
I feel for Karina Halle, the entire book was pushed back and release cancelled when she went through immense grief. These moments in the end of the book where the author's grief comes across on page are some of the strongest writing in Black Rose, but unfortunately it doesn't fit with the other loose plot in the pages. I feel like this sequel struggled with its purpose. Had it just been about reuniting Rose and Valtu, I think it would have been powerful - but throwing in the side plot with Bellamy and Leif felt very confusing and didn't have a satisfying ending. There were massive structuring issues, and glaring continuity errors I found reading 60% onwards which took me out of the story and made finishing this extremely difficult. (It took me three months to read this, but I really wanted to finish it.)
At the end of the day, Blood Orange remains one of my favorite of Halle's books. I think it could have lived without this sequel, but I understand the drive to finish Rose and Valtu's love story. Overall, this is probably closer to a 3-star for me, but again, I really, really found Halle's depiction of grief powerful and well done in the end of this book.
Content Warnings: Sexual content (multiple scenes, including CNC), Death (on page and past), Violence, Child death (in past/nightmares), Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy (epilogue)
Picking up immediately after the end of Blood Orange, Black Rose follows Rose Harper, a newly turned vampire who has all the memories and emotions associated with her past lives rush into her the moment she turns. It's then she discovers her past with Valtu, who is Dracula and her past lover, and seeks him out to reunite after her past live's death. But fate has intertwined their stories into a tightly woven tapestry, and Valtu is not the same man she once knew.
This is a hard book to rate. It's not as terrible as some of the other reviewer's insist, but it's also in no way as strong as Blood Orange was. I felt like the first in this duet was incredibly powerful, expertly toeing the line of retelling Dracula's well-known story while also weaving in the idea of fated love, witches, demons, and more. Where Blood Orange was gothic and compelling, Black Rose felt more like a journey that didn't know it's ending.
I feel for Karina Halle, the entire book was pushed back and release cancelled when she went through immense grief. These moments in the end of the book where the author's grief comes across on page are some of the strongest writing in Black Rose, but unfortunately it doesn't fit with the other loose plot in the pages. I feel like this sequel struggled with its purpose. Had it just been about reuniting Rose and Valtu, I think it would have been powerful - but throwing in the side plot with Bellamy and Leif felt very confusing and didn't have a satisfying ending. There were massive structuring issues, and glaring continuity errors I found reading 60% onwards which took me out of the story and made finishing this extremely difficult. (It took me three months to read this, but I really wanted to finish it.)
At the end of the day, Blood Orange remains one of my favorite of Halle's books. I think it could have lived without this sequel, but I understand the drive to finish Rose and Valtu's love story. Overall, this is probably closer to a 3-star for me, but again, I really, really found Halle's depiction of grief powerful and well done in the end of this book.
Content Warnings: Sexual content (multiple scenes, including CNC), Death (on page and past), Violence, Child death (in past/nightmares), Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy (epilogue)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Murder and Pregnancy
heidi_grey's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Violence, and Grief
Minor: Murder and Pregnancy