Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Fiorenzo by Sebastian Nothwell

7 reviews

headlessphilosopher's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

steph_weigle's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Confinement, Death, Torture, Classism, Violence, Drug use, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual harassment, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Bullying, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

rhyslightning's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

I absolutely love the protagonists Enzo and Fiore. They’re so magnetic, the setting is fresh and unique, and the book is a feast for everyone that loves hurt/comfort. 

the relationship between characters in Nothwell’s novels always avoid reliance on toxic tropes, and it’s been a huge comfort to read his gay pairings for me. i started with fiorenzo and will now read anything attached to his name!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual violence, Vomit, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

farenmaddox's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

3.5

This book is a fantasy-historical romance, so I went in expecting certain tropes, which I found in spades. Nothwell's prose is lovely, and as a hurt/comfort enthusiast, not to mention a fond spot for narratives that let sex workers be sex workers while still enjoying a romance plot that isn't fuelled by jealousy, I have to say this book really does it for me.

On the other hand, it's too long. Some of the backstory stuff could have been handled quicker and there was at least one too many episodes of convalesence. I sympathised greatly with Fiore's medical trauma, but the amount of repetiveness given to it was excessive. Because of those reasons, the pacing felt wrong in a few places.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Violence and Sexual assault

Minor: Confinement and Sexual violence

purrson's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Medical content

Minor: Murder

rachelgreenreads's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

*Thanks to Sebastian Nothwell for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!*

Fiorenzo is yet another Nothwell masterpiece. These characters are beautifully rendered as usual, with salient emotions that will have you feeling every feel right along with them. The tropes are gold: hurt/ comfort sweet enough to hurt your teeth, dueling, sword play (both kinds), cinnamon roll who would kill/ die for him, secret identity, class difference, height difference, a masquerade ball, mannerpunk, it’s all there! 

The plot moves effortlessly between cozy slices of life, to nail-biting drama: both of which make you forget your reading at all. The smut is top of the line, and doesn’t just get tacked onto the narrative for flavor, but rather their sexual/ relational development is a plot on its own. The tension in this book will leave you completely unable to put it down. 

An added bonus is the very best book dog in the world, Vittorio!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Violence and Sexual assault

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

Warnings for descriptions of genital mutilation (historical, moderately graphic), whorephobia

atlastheninth's review

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

Thanks to the author for an ARC copy, all opinions are my own. 

I loved this. Fiore and Enzo are so sweet, I adore them. Also it's a dual POV, so you know that both of them are a mess and constantly pining for the other. And you get some important moments told from both POV's, which YES! I need that in more books. 

The only thing I knew about this book before reading it was that it has hurt/comfort and it sure does! And it's so good. It's also the most hurt/comfort I've ever read in a single book. 

 

The pacing was rather slow, but I was never bored nor did it feel like scenes were too long. 

 

We don't spend a lot of time with the side characters, but still all of them feel like fully fleshed-out characters with different personalities. 

 

I also felt like Fiore's trauma, his occupation and the class difference between him and Enzo was all handled very well. 

 

It's difficult to say more about it because this is a full on romance with minimal plot. And the bit of plot was only there so we could have more hurt/comfort, which I personally didn't mind. 

 

This book is very spicy and (what I def didn't expect) it starts out with a lot of it. Overall the spice is really good but there are only so many times I can read the metaphor of a sword being put into a sheath before it becomes ridiculous. It definitly was a couple of times too many for me. But that's pretty much the only complaint I have. 

 

Also noteworthy: One of the characters has a "particular peculiarity" as the character himself calls it (which is such a weird combination of words) or as the author calls it a "creative anatomy". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Child abuse