Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

37 reviews

kestrelfire's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual assault

jamielikestoread'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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

fanboyriot's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

🔥 Slow Burn

🤝 Mutual Pinning

💍 Arranged Marriage

This book was great for people wanting to read sci-fi but get overwhelmed by the thought of it.  Besides few names I had to look up the pronunciation of, it was fairly easy to read.  I enjoyed how well the sci-fi and romance mixed with this book, there was also a bit of mystery to the plot as well.

Kiem was honestly such a lovable idiot and worked so well with Jainan.  I would have liked a little more romance but the plot was good too.  The romance itself is a bit of a slow burn, the main plot, focusing much more on the political scheming, and an alleged murder that might just be a cover-up, and in general dealing with diplomatic relations.

I got this book from Etsy in a Blind Date with a Book from @theannexlibrary and was so happy with it!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1366979807/

Spice Level: 🌶️ (1/5)

Release Date: 28, December 2021

POV: Duel, Third Person 

Rep: LGBTQIA+ characters, Domestic Abuse (past)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Toxic relationship, Rape, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Death, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Torture

Minor: Blood, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Bullying, Mental illness, Cursing, Murder, Racism, Car accident, and Confinement

lunarexorcist's review

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

This book was so obviously written by someone who grew up on AO3. That has so much potential to be an embarrassing mess for everyone involved. But it works, and I want to read more of it yesterday. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Car accident, Xenophobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Gun violence and Rape

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

shelvesofivy's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Medical content and Colonisation

induced hallucinations

tkhenry99's review

3.5

kiem is a fun character.

i thought the author did a good job with the domestic violence plot. jainan’s reactions to kiem after they get married, his mannerisms and thought patterns, the people around them, and even jainan’s motivations for staying in the relationship/keeping it a secret felt very real.

the ending did drag a bit, i feel like the last several chapters probably could’ve been condensed into like 1-2, maybe with an epilogue. 

some of the dialogue is weird, i just don’t like when authors include things like “oh, uh, i, um, no”, especially multiple times. 

the world building is bad. why bother creating this whole new intergalactic universe if you’re just going to reuse existing earth concepts?

the scene with the bear was especially jarring. why make the iskan bear a 6 legged lizard, only to reveal that actually 4 legged furry bears exist on thea? just don’t use real animals! come up with new stuff!

it’s also underdeveloped. there’s no good explanation surrounding the history of the planets, the Resolution, the empire…. you hardly learn anything about iska or the other planets. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Colonisation and Rape

massivepizzacrust's review

emotional hopeful 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

It's so nice to find a great sci-fi standalone. This one has all the slow burn, drawn out tension between two truly lovable main characters you could want. And the epilogue is the best payoff possible. One of the blurbs recommends this for fans of The Goblin Emperor and I highly agree! But it's also more tense and high stakes, and I really recommend reviewing the content warnings because there's an abusive relationship we see in flashbacks. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Confinement, and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Sexual content

misszoe's review

adventurous emotional medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Colonisation, Rape, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

wilybooklover's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

5.0

This is a tough one to categorise. Ostensibly, it’s sci-fi romance, but it’s a lot heavier on the actual sci-fi than most sci-fi romance is. Or maybe space opera, but it’s a lot heavier on the romance than most space opera. In my opinion, it’s pretty equally space opera/romance/suspense (all three of which are interwoven), but whatever it is I loved it. 

The book starts off with our two heroes, Kiem and Jainan, marrying for political alliance reasons. Now, this is how you do a miscommunication trope. It makes sense that Kiem and Jainan would have trouble communicating properly. Not only are they complete strangers, with very different styles of communication, they’re from entirely different cultures and Jainan has been kept isolated and deliberately in the dark about a lot of things. They’re both so considerate of the other that they overthink and misinterpret and get in their own heads about it. It’s kind of endearing, actually, and the slow unfolding of their thoughts and feelings to each other was such a delight to read. They really complemented each other well, despite being charming-extrovert/anxious-introvert opposites. 

Besides the romance, which was lovely and gentle and soft, the worldbuilding and plot were complex and interesting. Kiem and Jainan get dragged into a murder conspiracy upon which the fate of the Empire hinges, and it soon becomes apparent that their lives are also at stake. On top of that, you have a potential rebellion brewing back on Jainan’s home world. It’s a lot, and I do think there was maybe a little too much going on at times (or, perhaps, not paced correctly). But I very much enjoyed this story of political intrigue. Once facet of the worldbuilding that I really enjoyed was the queernorm world. It was so refreshing to see queer people of all kinds just existing without being a statement or facing hardship because of it. The secondary characters were all fleshed out and interesting as well, although I did think that one of the antagonists was a bit obvious

(it’s always suspicious when someone is a bit too friendly and helpful).

 

Ultimately I think this was a well-balanced story of romance and space politics, and would recommend this to people who enjoy both of those things. There are some heavy topics in this, so do check content warnings first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Confinement, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism