Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

25 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

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

exhumedprince's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Death, Alcohol, Blood, and Medical content

minervacerridwen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful relaxing 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

I love how beautifully all facets of this story come together. It's an adventure: we get to visit different places in this world, which makes it feel vast and real. There's the characters, whom I loved so, so much. My favourite part is how Kiem's "superhero power" is the talent of talking to everyone in every situation - like Jainan, I can only admire that skill and love how cleverly Kiem's "big flaw" plays out. It takes a little longer before we get to know Jainan's strengths, but they, too, really matter to the high-stakes plot. Everything about this story is queer, with queerness casually fused into all of society. Winter's Orbit interweaves romance with political science fiction and a murder mystery, and does it brilliantly while still remaining easy to read and relaxing (even if it does touch on very heavy themes, and a past abusive relationship defines every event in this story, so be aware of that when you pick it up!). The story was rounded off in a satisfying way, and yet I definitely want to spend more time in this universe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

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

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

In this sci-fi novel we’ve got political intrigue, a suspicious death, a hastily arranged political marriage, a queer romance and looming intergalactic conflict all wrapped up into one amazing story. I was afraid I wouldn’t finish it before the end of the year, but I went through it very quickly.

I loved the two main characters so much and I just wanted to keep reading to know they’d be okay. The world building is immersive; I’m always impressed when authors are able to draw the reader into a completely new world without a lot of exposition, just by references and natural scene dressing. We only see a little bit of this universe in the first book so I’m eager to learn more in the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Xenophobia, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

scarroll178's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcohol

secretsparrow's review

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? Yes

5.0

Winter's Orbit is the kind of book that sneaks up on you, but once you've started it it's a quick and thoroughly enjoyable read. It is expertly crafted in everything from pacing to worldbuilding to character development, I was never disappointed and frequently impressed. It's ins of the best renditions of these tropes I've ever seen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Torture

Minor: Alcohol