Reviews tagging 'War'

Zodiac Academy 9: Restless Stars by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

12 reviews

mj_86's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? No

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Pregnancy and Kidnapping

ashleynp24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

By far the best part of this book is Seth and Caleb. I felt they really carried with their relationship. The ending of the book with the war and then the afterwards was fun. I liked seeing their lives after. I did feel like it was kind of anticlimactic though and I felt Lionel and Lavinia should have had worse deaths. I do feel things got wrapped up nicely, I’d have liked to read more about their kids. Also the last chapter said there’s more evil coming so I wonder if there will be more writing in a spinoff of their kids for that? Also I know why they didn’t kill off any main characters but I feel the battle would’ve been more impactful if one of the main characters was killed, not just Justin and Milton.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Cursing, Grief, Hate crime, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Gore, Torture, Death of parent, Genocide, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse

thorabella11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

What’s crazy is that there were several books where it was nonstop sex with very little plot. And now that we get the final book I feel like I missed stuff. I’ve read all of the main books multiple times and I’m fairly certain I didn’t just miss it. So it seems like a lot happened behind closed doors in this book which is kind of a bummer. It almost felt rushed in some aspects which is WILD to say about this series!! Overall, I’m pleased with how things ended. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, and War

mary_catherine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, and Cursing

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

selestre's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual content, Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Slavery, Bullying, Pregnancy, Stalking, and Kidnapping

fiademi's review against another edition

funny tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Wrap UP with the story. It was full of filler chapters, but somehow the end felt a bit rushed. All the epilogues for just giving everyone children felt unnecesary, and wasted since it could have been spent on all the changes the kingdom would have with the new Queens, or whether they would finish the academy, etc. The surrogacy pregnancy was against what the protagonist preached, so it was a Big let down.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexism, Death, Blood, War, and Classism

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

What an ending! I absolutely loved this series. It made me cry, laugh, fan myself, and cheer them on. This book was a great way to finish it off and I think the story closed up really nicely. It did feel a little slow at times but still great.

A few thoughts. Clyde felt a little too easy but I’m glad Lionel ended up being the big bad in the end. What was Max’s mom trying to say about Linda? Where is Vard? Lol

I love these characters and this was great!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Pregnancy, Grief, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol

sarah_sedai_blueajah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Cursing, Gore, War, Blood, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief and Injury/Injury detail

tguccione's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful tense 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Slavery, Death, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, War, Classism, Murder, Violence, and Body horror

kittykels's review against another edition

3.0

This was so painfully torturous to finish reading. It was way too long, but this whole series was too long. 

What I liked that made me give 3 stars instead of one or two:

• Tharix,
  although we were totally left hanging at the end. What happened with him??? He was the most interesting character in this book, yet we got no kind of closure for him.
• The overall magic system for this series was interesting, despite most of the characters and scenes being ridiculous, annoying, or otherwise cringe-worthy and making me want to stop reading. I can't believe I made it through the whole series (I skimmed, a lot)
• Darius and Gabriel were pretty good characters that helped me get through to the end 
• Diego.
  He was the only character I actually felt emotional over in this series, despite him being a relatively minor character and, ya know, dead.

I honestly don't think I can ever read anything else by these authors. I didn't hate this series by any means, but it was definitely a struggle to trudge through the thick sludge that is their writing style. It's crazy how the pacing can feel quick while also feeling like there are way too many words describing what's going on. And there isn't a lot of variation to their sentences and descriptions so it gets really burdensome to read after a while. Even after giving myself several months buffer before reading this last book, it was still a chore to get through. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Violence, and War