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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
hopeful
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
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Something that maid this book not 4 star is little to fast paste, (random) pow charater and magic system.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
For my money, Rachel Aaron (also writing as Rachel Bach) writes some of the best pulp genre fiction out there. It's well crafted, solidly written, and has genuine heart.
I wasn't quite sure about where this book was going as it got started, but once some of the secrets start coming to light, the stakes got exciting and the plot picked up. It's about a witch who hires a team of demons to help protect him while he grows his own protective forest in the Pacific Northwest, but soon everyone's motives and goals begin to converge and the action picks up.
One thing I always appreciate about Aaron's books are that the stakes feel real and they feel earned. The characters' motivations make sense, even if they're witches and demons and warlocks and a Heavenly Princes. Every character has some depth to them. Also she is clearly just having so much fun doing what she's doing that it's impossible not to have fun too.
I wasn't quite sure about where this book was going as it got started, but once some of the secrets start coming to light, the stakes got exciting and the plot picked up. It's about a witch who hires a team of demons to help protect him while he grows his own protective forest in the Pacific Northwest, but soon everyone's motives and goals begin to converge and the action picks up.
One thing I always appreciate about Aaron's books are that the stakes feel real and they feel earned. The characters' motivations make sense, even if they're witches and demons and warlocks and a Heavenly Princes. Every character has some depth to them. Also she is clearly just having so much fun doing what she's doing that it's impossible not to have fun too.
adventurous
dark
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:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Alright the world is SLEEPING on Rachel Aaron! This was SUCH a fun read, absolutely addictive. Rachel’s writing style was engaging, fun, and interesting af.
The magic system was my hands down favorite thing about this book - the Blackwood and how it’s connected to the witches is so fucking cool😍 Also, I really enjoyed the twist of Gilgamesh being the bad guy, and the way the demons and lore of Paradise was written is fascinating! All the different types of demons, and the nine goddesses was just🤌🏽
Absolutely obsessed with Aaron’s fresh, creative portrayal of all this, her character development and writing were absolutely fantastic!!
This isn’t a sophisticated literary review because I’m just so EXCITED about how good this book was. I’ve already ordered #2 and #3 and am anxiously awaiting their arrival🤗
The magic system was my hands down favorite thing about this book - the Blackwood and how it’s connected to the witches is so fucking cool😍 Also, I really enjoyed the twist of Gilgamesh being the bad guy, and the way the demons and lore of Paradise was written is fascinating! All the different types of demons, and the nine goddesses was just🤌🏽
Absolutely obsessed with Aaron’s fresh, creative portrayal of all this, her character development and writing were absolutely fantastic!!
This isn’t a sophisticated literary review because I’m just so EXCITED about how good this book was. I’ve already ordered #2 and #3 and am anxiously awaiting their arrival🤗
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
I tagged racism specifically due to the enslavement and treatment of a magical minority group that’s at the heart of the persecution and oppression.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Adrian is a witch. He’s the only male witch around since the rest of the males are given up by his female family and made into warlocks. Adrian was sent too, and escaped several times until his family gave up and hid him. The warlocks side with the eternal king, who rules the heavens and the entire world basically, and by hiding Adrian, his mother and relatives are standing against the king and all his powers and endangering themselves.
Adrian has finally become a full-fledged witch and he decides to go out on his own, so that his family won’t suffer the consequences of hiding him for any longer. So, he hires a security team to keep him safe until he’s established himself enough to protect himself.
Only, pretty soon he discovers that this security team is a team of demons. Demons are usually enslaved by warlocks, and these are free demons, meaning they’re on the run from the heavens themselves.
Also, they’re hiding a few more secrets of their own.
The storyline and world were definitely interesting. There was plenty of action, excitement, and secrets. The world itself was an intricate one with a background of a god taking over everything, and while some of the details in this war of the millenia lost me, there was enough there to keep me invested in it.
The relationship of Adrian and Bex, the head of his team of security-demons, didn’t completely convince me. Both sides went very quickly from client-customer to genuinely caring about the other side and going above and beyond the contract, even putting themselves in danger for the other with no reason whatsoever. There was potential for a romance but nothing actually happened in this book, which I appreciated, since it gave time for the world setup, and the excitement to happen, without interrupting the flow with intense attraction at all the wrong moments.
Their decision by the end to band together to save the world worked nicely, and there was enough struggle in the middle that it was even convincing. And, while this had of excitement and interest in its own right, it ended in the middle without any real resolution, so ended up seeming more like a setup for the next one than anything else.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Religious bigotry, War
Minor: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Self harm
Content:
Religion: Praying, mentions of dying, reincarnations, souls turning into the river in the land of the dead and demons then cleanse these souls so they can be born free of sin. There are gods who live in the holy city, and are responsible for creating heaven and hell. A war is going on between them, various demons (lust, greed, war etc.) take different sides. Bex is a demon queen, the daughter of Ishtar, the goddess of the dead .
Romance: Some suggestive comments. A lust demon is called they, has different forms: male, female and neither male nor female. They go after men and women, with some vague references to what they do when they catch them and said to eat them. Some noticing of men’s looks, a man bathes an injured woman.
Violence: Some violence including nongraphic killing in self defense, discussions about different witches using their body for witchcraft and Adrian burying his heart in the woods.
Other: Some language.
adventurous
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
This was such a good series! Once I started, I couldn't put it down. Gods of old and heroes a new. Reincarnation and love mixed with leadership and loyalty.