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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
medium-paced
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I will read this women's grocery list if she gave it to me. While i liked her other series more, I still get sucked into her writing. i love how grumpy the hero is in this and how the heroine is more than she seems.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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:
Yes
adventurous
relaxing
slow-paced
Maybe the current climate has made me particularly sensitive to power dynamics between couples, but Martise never got a break! She was a slave and an apprentice. This meant that she called Silhara (the hero) Master and had to submit to his magical tortures as he tried to pry her magic out of her. Her magical awakening, the part I was excited for, was more of a burden as her channeling magic could be easily misused by others. I'm glad they got their happily ever after but sheesh.
Master of Crows sounded like the perfect book for me, possessing as it did a shitty magician lord, an intriguing plot centered around the corrupting influence of limitless power (and its consequences), a heroine whose central conflict was rooted in physical and emotional autonomy, and a romance with uneven power dynamics.
Unfortunately, that's just about where my interest in the book ended: at the concept.
There was nothing offensive about the writing. There were a few more typos than I'm comfortable with ("alter" in place of "altar;" "shown" in place of "shone;" and a variety of missed quotation marks, especially at the end of a block of dialogue), but I’m pretty lenient about that in self-published works. I actually thought the smut was well-written without being overwhelming, and I was pleased with how long it took for the MCs to hop to it.
My biggest problem was with the romance, particularly Martise's character as it related to the romance. There was such opportunity in Martise's conflict (that of her enslavement), but I never felt that this was realized in text. In fact, Martise was so uniformly focused on Silhara--even before she knew of his struggle against the god Corruption's influence--that I plain forgot that she even had a conflict. I felt zero tension or empathy regarding Martise's situation because Martise herself seemed to feel very, very little about it, though she was ostensibly risking her life in order to achieve this highly-prized freedom.
I was, therefore, well removed from the relationship between Silhara and Martise. It was too one-sided. Additionally, my own personal tastes run contrary to the "man disparages woman's looks but falls in love with her despite his initial conceit" trope. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but the burn has to be supremely slow and the characters VERY well-developed before I can buy into it. This wasn't it, I’m afraid.
Nevertheless, I think that it may be that the characters weren't my cup of tea. I'm still interested in Draven's work and will likely pick up Radiance within the next year.
Unfortunately, that's just about where my interest in the book ended: at the concept.
There was nothing offensive about the writing. There were a few more typos than I'm comfortable with ("alter" in place of "altar;" "shown" in place of "shone;" and a variety of missed quotation marks, especially at the end of a block of dialogue), but I’m pretty lenient about that in self-published works. I actually thought the smut was well-written without being overwhelming, and I was pleased with how long it took for the MCs to hop to it.
My biggest problem was with the romance, particularly Martise's character as it related to the romance. There was such opportunity in Martise's conflict (that of her enslavement), but I never felt that this was realized in text. In fact, Martise was so uniformly focused on Silhara--even before she knew of his struggle against the god Corruption's influence--that I plain forgot that she even had a conflict. I felt zero tension or empathy regarding Martise's situation because Martise herself seemed to feel very, very little about it, though she was ostensibly risking her life in order to achieve this highly-prized freedom.
I was, therefore, well removed from the relationship between Silhara and Martise. It was too one-sided. Additionally, my own personal tastes run contrary to the "man disparages woman's looks but falls in love with her despite his initial conceit" trope. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but the burn has to be supremely slow and the characters VERY well-developed before I can buy into it. This wasn't it, I’m afraid.
Nevertheless, I think that it may be that the characters weren't my cup of tea. I'm still interested in Draven's work and will likely pick up Radiance within the next year.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
There were definite glaring issues with this book. The main man is messed up. Maybe he'll be less toxic in the sequel? The FMC and his servant really stole the show.
This book felt very much like Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier and Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, but with a much more toxic MMC (who pays for a mistress and spells her to look like the woman he's falling in love with for a night? Not doing the deed isn't redeeming enough for acting that way. Also, he's just horrible to the FMC for the bulk of the book).
Content: explicit s*x, slavery, son of a s*x worker, abuse toward s*x worker (mother forced to debase herself to a role less than human)
This book felt very much like Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier and Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, but with a much more toxic MMC (who pays for a mistress and spells her to look like the woman he's falling in love with for a night? Not doing the deed isn't redeeming enough for acting that way. Also, he's just horrible to the FMC for the bulk of the book).
Content: explicit s*x, slavery, son of a s*x worker, abuse toward s*x worker (mother forced to debase herself to a role less than human)