Reviews tagging 'War'

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

35 reviews

starlitpage's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

I love this book! The political intrigue and mystery grew me in quickly; I've learned I really like that sort of thing! The characters are great and I loved watching the romance grow in this arranged marriage trope. Plus there's some alien gender norms, which more sci-fi should have. Definitely 5 stars from me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Torture, Violence, War, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Medical content, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Drug use

Previous abusive relationship; deals a lot with thought patterns due to that, and some scenes of the abuse, but specifically is about moving on from it

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Gun violence, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Confinement

Minor: Drug use, Alcohol, Sexual content, and War

Vehicle crash. Attack by animal. Abuse only briefly explicitly depicted in flashbacks, though the aftermath is present and discussed throughout. (Attempt at) memory modification.

reginacattus's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse, Colonisation, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, War, Violence, Sexual violence, and Confinement

rjbedell's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

A gripping, intimate, and profound romance plot line is weakened only slightly by incomplete world-building and repetitive language.  The sci-fi component drives the plot, but takes a back seat to the two emotionally embattled and haunted leading men.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Stalking, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture

Minor: Murder, Medical content, and War

miraileah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

5.0. I absolutely love the arranged marriage trope in romance novels, and this one was an outstanding example. I adored the two leads and reading about each of their unique baggage, as well as the ways their partner and friends helped them process and move past it. I can’t speak to if the domestic abuse rep is good/accurate, but as someone who has not gone through that, I thought it seemed excellent. I also really enjoyed the politics and the mystery elements of the novel. Highly recommend this book!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual content, War, and Torture

analenegrace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

This was a very interesting sci-fi with loveable characters, a good romance, and an interesting mystery to solve. My greatest criticism is that I was, at times, a little confused about how this world functioned, and I needed a little bit more understanding of the universe. 

My big question is about the humanness/earth of this world, they used the word human but didn't seem to be traditionally human on earth and there weren't, seemingly, other species besides humans that I could tell. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and War

Minor: Sexual content

thoseoldcrows23's review

adventurous funny medium-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

3.0

 I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. There are some solid bones here; however, I think the execution was clunky and deeply unsatisfying in a lot of places. This was sold to me as a sci-fi romance, and, while I love speculative romance in general, I find that sometimes authors struggle to balance the speculative plot and the romance, and I think that that was a problem here. Much of the book’s energy is put into the science fiction plot and the romance suffers for it. By the end of the book our two leads are talking about how much they love each other I couldn’t fathom why. A big part of the reason for that is that the entirety of the romance pivots on chronic miscommunication, which I found absolutely infuriating. It feels like they barely know each other because all their conversations are riddled with misunderstanding. They each spend way more time in their own heads when they're talking to each other than they do focused on the other person.  So much of the tension between the two leads would be completely gone if they would just behave like adults and talk honestly with each other but they don't do that until over halfway into the book. At the same time, the sci-fi plot wasn't compelling enough to warrant all the focus that was put on it. It's effectively a mystery plot, and I didn't find myself particularly caring who the culprit turned out to be, and in fact struggled through most of the book to even remember who people were because nobody really stood out that much besides our two main characters. Overall, this was just a big letdown for me. It's not a bad book, and I understand why people like it, but I definitely think it's been way overhyped, and this is a story that could have been told much more effectively than it was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual content, War, and Alcohol

kanonkita's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

The romance plot of the book was some sweet hurt/comfort. I felt that the leads had good chemistry with each other and their relationship had satisfying pacing. The only thing I'd change is that I would have liked a little more complexity in the world building and political situations. There were a lot of times where the ways that things just sort of shook out in the characters' favor because very important people with a lot of responsibility just trusted them without question took me out of the immersion of the story. That's not really the point of the book though, so if you can shut that part of your brain off, you'll probably have a great read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, War, Domestic abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, and Death

stinkologist's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: War, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, and Violence

gardens_and_dragons's review

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I read this in a day because it is simply too good to put down once you start reading. It tells a very intense political tale, wrapped up with interplanetary war, and a great romance. It also covers some really hard hitting topics with past abusive relationships, insecurity, and we use the miscommunication can really affect mental health. The world building was so perfect. It really felt like there was this huge, interplanetary empire just beyond the scope of the story that added this very realistic element to all of the politics surrounding the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Colonisation

Moderate: War and Domestic abuse