Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Throne of Broken Gods

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Throne of Broken Gods by Amber V. Nicole

19 reviews

bookaholic84's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

toastyness's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

I love this book. I loved the character flaws, the varied depictions of grief, and the small moments of joy.

I can’t get over the betrayal though! I saw it coming but at the same time not to that extent so I was still shocked. How dare they! And my heart, Dianna and Samkiel deserve all the happiness. Waiting for that mark to come back like Gathrriel’s and Vvive’s.

May can’t come soon enough.

Content Warnings

bea__reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

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

2.75

Almost nothing happened for the majority of this book. It could be a lot better, given that the world is interesting and the characters have a lot of potential. But the pacing is so off and it got boring, which really made it hard for me to connect with the characters or to care about their relationships.

While it was slightly gratifying (but also rather boring) to be right about so many of the plot twists, I honestly just don't see the point in reading 600+ pages or listening to 28+ hours just to get 10 good chapters in at the end. This also has the unfortunate effect of making some plot twists seem really obvious while others come out of left field.

Plus, I can't stand the (pretty major spoiler)

soulmates

trope and the way it's handled here really rubbed me the wrong way. (Again, I think this is a pretty big spoiler to know what the trope is)

I usually avoid the soulmates trope because it's often based heavily in amatonormativity and pretty much by definition excludes asexual and/or aromantic identities, as well as polyamory and other non-monogamous relationships (unless intentional efforts are made to expand the soulmate concept, which did not happen in this book). Unfortunately, I didn't realize that this trope was going to be a thing before recommending this series to my book club 🥲

This series is not for me. My book club loves it, but I think I'll be skipping book 3 when they read it later this year. 🙃

Content Warnings

sleepygym's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.75

Content Warnings

jaedee09's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious slow-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

4.0

As much as I couldn’t put this one away, it felt very, very long. The story and characters are so rich, but there was a LOT to get through. The depiction of grief and love felt very real, and I loved getting to know more of The Hand. Very curious where the third book will take us, and

confirming what it price Dianna had to pay to bring Samkiel back.

Content Warnings

nloprest6318's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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

3.75

Content Warnings

rowanwolf13's review

Go to review page

i wasn’t super thrilled with the first book, but it ended on a cliffhanger so i picked this one up out of curiosity. i should have known better because all of the repetitive faults of the first book are just amplified in the second one.

the first half is just a retelling of the events of the first book. and while the characters grief is important the recaps through flashbacks are wholly unnecessary. I read a good couple hundred pages, got super bored with reading the same thing over and over again and then skimmed through to see if i could pick up any kind of forward plot movement.

the author also introduces so many new povs that the story is further convoluted and drawn out. the spicy scenes are super cliche and cringey. the story itself had promise. too bad it was such a chore to read. this book also ends on a cliffhanger. i won’t be picking up the next one.

Content Warnings

brooketreads's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I was conflicted on the first book, but this one I just felt mad a lot of the time.

I know others loved Dianna’s bad/villain streak in this book, but not me. She did so much work on herself in the last book, and to just show up with her emotions “turned off” and threaten Liam… no. I just wasn’t here for it. I’ve seen characters turn their emotions off in other things and I just hate that. For me, it also felt cliché. Like of course instead of facing her emotions she explodes and goes on a self-destructive path. Liam was being really strong and level headed through it all though. I wouldn’t have expected any less from him. Still, I didn’t feel Liam was as strong of a character in this book for some reason.

I thought the first book was too long, and this one was even longer… unnecessarily so. And again, just as book one, this one was doing too much too.

When Dianna saves Liam though. And yes, I’m going to keep calling him Liam still because I loved the reason for his chosen name in book one. It was everything. “…I want you to remember that I love you.”

Other things I hated besides the length and Dianna’s resurgence:

Azrael being alive because of course he is…
Azrael being Dianna’s dad because of course he is…
The nickname Sami.
The rename to Reggie… like why do people have to have multiple names.
Vincent.
Kaden obviously.
The reveal of the actual villain… 🙄

Content Warnings

bangiebangs's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

- ends in cliffhanger

- spice 4/5 (very good spice!!)

I immediately jumped into this from Book 1, and I was not disappointed. The cliffhanger in Book 1 is less easy to predict than the one here, and I went in already mad about Book 3 not being out because I knew what was coming. Beware this book if you don’t like unfinished series, this will leave you hurting.

Spoiler for cliffhanger

I thought it was pretty obvious that the price for resurrecting Samkiel would be something to do with their finally-admitted love. I’m expecting him to have lost feeling for her maybe in the next one, since she still seems to have feelings for him? Unsure, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m excited to see how that gets resolved, though, since I fully expect everyone to live and love again.

The world-building continues in this book, and at this length it gets pretty detailed. I’d argue it is close to being a bit too much in terms of characters to remember, side stories to follow, who feels or felt what and why. So many gods, so many celestials! Getting more info about Logan and Neverra made sense, but while I really really want Cameron and Xavier to also get a happy ending, I think their unadmitted love doesnt hit enough (yet?) to make the actions towards the end of the book make sense.

In general, this whole “suddenly everyone’s the enemy” reminded me of the Hydra-takes-over storyline in the MCU which also felt like it came out of nowhere...

I did also like the banter a LOT and had some laugh out loud or big grin moments while reading it. It might be one I pick up again, though that also depends on Book 3… no release date yet afaict, so that’s super sad. But I heard that the author got a series deal, so hope springs eternal!

Recommend this book if you like big epic stories (some parts had a whiff of LOTR for me), deliciously spicy spice, lovely banter, hot flirting… and a journey out of depression and grief. It’s such a good book.

Content Warnings

katharina90's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

Enjoyed the characters and the plot was ok, the book was just way too long and dragged endlessly.

Content Warnings

More...