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mom_mac_89's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
If you can take the time to wrap your head around the world building in the beginning....
This book was amazing. Loved the dynamic characters, the plot twists, the super wide range of creatures and climates. The characters are super well developed throughout the book, and the relationships in the book are deep and evolving or past coming to light throughout the book. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out!
This book was amazing. Loved the dynamic characters, the plot twists, the super wide range of creatures and climates. The characters are super well developed throughout the book, and the relationships in the book are deep and evolving or past coming to light throughout the book. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Torture
crybabybea's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
This book is a great light entertainment romantasy in the same vein as ACOTAR or Fourth Wing. I, however, feel duped because it was being sold as a high fantasy with romance and incredible world-building. If you love love love fleshed out fantasy, political strife, and detailed magic systems, you probably will not like this book. It falls apart once you look at it too closely. Fun for what it is but I have to rate it low because it's not what I look for in a fantasy. If I were rating this just solely as a romantasy I still wouldn't rate it very high. I felt ACOTAR was even written better than this which is a very low bar.
I wrote a 3,000 word essay for how much this disappointed me, so here are the bullet points:
I wrote a 3,000 word essay for how much this disappointed me, so here are the bullet points:
- Shallow world-building. There are cool, unique things that happen but they serve no purpose for the world (such as the dragons turning into moons).
- World building is lazy and the author relies on you reading a 20 page glossary to understand rather than fleshing out the world herself
- Dragons are part of the world but don't serve any purpose beyond transportation.
- No political strife, except for the FMC telling you how awful the king in her region is, despite having a crazy cool premise with a dragon mythology-based elemental magic system whose users are denoted by their colorful beaded earrings.
- Nothing happens in the plot except the very slow burn romance which doesn't pay off at the end
- Magic doesn't really serve any purpose except to sound cool
- The conlang is messy and doesn't work well
- The writing itself is clunky, full of heavyhanded metaphors that don't land
- Writing repeats itself multiple times with the same cadence and word usage
- Characters with no real personality beyond the tropes they represent, could be replaced with any other romantasy main characters and it would make no difference
- Poor LGBTQIA+ representation (despite it being praised in multiple reviews)
- Because of all these issues, the book is 250 pages longer than it needs to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Torture
vanessaedwards1882's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Animal death
sandyanger's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
WHEN THE MOON HATCHED šš
@sarah.a.parker.author
This book is not for everyone. I, however, loved it.
āSadness is like stones that stack inside you, making it harder to move. Ignorance is my self-preservation tonic, and Iāll swear by it until I die.ā
Raeve is a valued Elding Blade for the rebellion group Fiur du Ath. Her job is to kill. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeveās world is turned upside down.
As painful as Raeveās life has been, she loves living. Loves her beautiful world. But she does not allow herself to love, for fear of what she would lose. Of what sheās lost before.
This is book one in an unfinished series, but well worth the pain. I have already read it twice and will read it again right before the next book is released. I loved it that much. The writing is lyrical and can be dense at timesāyou need to be able to focus when reading. But the picture it paints is worth it. Sarah did such a beautiful job of making me feel for her characters. I had tears streaming down my face at points, which is always a reading goal for me š
I found this very heavy on the fantasy and world building in the beginning. It comes with a glossary. For some people this will be a deal breaker. I get it. I started with reading the glossary and honestly couldnāt get through it without the context of the story, but it was helpful at times to refer to.
The spice is not plentiful, but it was spicinā.
SOME FACTS
* Fantasy heavy-there is a glossary
* Beautiful, lyrical writing
* Witty banter
* Multiple POV
* There are dragons
TW
* Graphic violence
* Sexually explicit
* Torture
* Implied threat of sexual assault
* Cruelty towards animals
* Abduction of an adult (implied off page and post-recounting)
* Death in childbirth (implied, off page)
* Abductino/trafficking of minors (implied, off page)
* Miscarriage (implied for a secondary character, off page)
TROPES below, proceed with caution:
* Strong, sassy, stabby FMC
* Emotionally available MMC/emotionally UNavailalbe FMC
* Revenge
* āWho hurt you?ā
* One āhorseā
* Enemies to lovers
* Forced proximity
* Slow burn
* Dark past
* Elemental magic
@sarah.a.parker.author
This book is not for everyone. I, however, loved it.
āSadness is like stones that stack inside you, making it harder to move. Ignorance is my self-preservation tonic, and Iāll swear by it until I die.ā
Raeve is a valued Elding Blade for the rebellion group Fiur du Ath. Her job is to kill. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeveās world is turned upside down.
As painful as Raeveās life has been, she loves living. Loves her beautiful world. But she does not allow herself to love, for fear of what she would lose. Of what sheās lost before.
This is book one in an unfinished series, but well worth the pain. I have already read it twice and will read it again right before the next book is released. I loved it that much. The writing is lyrical and can be dense at timesāyou need to be able to focus when reading. But the picture it paints is worth it. Sarah did such a beautiful job of making me feel for her characters. I had tears streaming down my face at points, which is always a reading goal for me š
I found this very heavy on the fantasy and world building in the beginning. It comes with a glossary. For some people this will be a deal breaker. I get it. I started with reading the glossary and honestly couldnāt get through it without the context of the story, but it was helpful at times to refer to.
The spice is not plentiful, but it was spicinā.
SOME FACTS
* Fantasy heavy-there is a glossary
* Beautiful, lyrical writing
* Witty banter
* Multiple POV
* There are dragons
TW
* Graphic violence
* Sexually explicit
* Torture
* Implied threat of sexual assault
* Cruelty towards animals
* Abduction of an adult (implied off page and post-recounting)
* Death in childbirth (implied, off page)
* Abductino/trafficking of minors (implied, off page)
* Miscarriage (implied for a secondary character, off page)
TROPES below, proceed with caution:
* Strong, sassy, stabby FMC
* Emotionally available MMC/emotionally UNavailalbe FMC
* Revenge
* āWho hurt you?ā
* One āhorseā
* Enemies to lovers
* Forced proximity
* Slow burn
* Dark past
* Elemental magic
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail
elntastic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I had no expectations, which I believe is always a good start, and was definitely not expecting such a good book. The story and world-building is truly amazing and original. I love how everything was explained thoroughly and that there were so many different unique creatures. Definitely nice to finally read something completely new. What made me read this so fast was mostly the urge to finally understand the full story behind Reave. Although most was explained there are still a lot of questions and Iām really looking forward to finding their answers in the second book.
One thing I did not really enjoy (hence only 4.5 stars) were the sex scenes between the MC and FC. It was just too physical and there was no kissing or romance in it. Just wasnāt for me. But I do love the story between Kaan and Elluin and I hope that Raeve will go back to him.
One thing I did not really enjoy (hence only 4.5 stars) were the sex scenes between the MC and FC. It was just too physical and there was no kissing or romance in it. Just wasnāt for me. But I do love the story between Kaan and Elluin and I hope that Raeve will go back to him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Cursing, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, and Torture
localjoy34's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Minor: Animal death
taobooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
The romance plot got very competitive and the story slowed down too much in the middle for this to get 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Body horror, and Death of parent
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, and Domestic abuse
manaledi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book really sucked me in for many hundreds of pages and I wish the next one was out already. A slow start and some very slow world building but the characters are strong and the tension is well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Confinement, Torture, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, War, and Stalking
heyheyhailey1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Though the book starts out with *A LOT* of world-building, these complex pieces fall into place to create a really beautiful, new world. The magic system, creatures and realms of the Burn, the Fade and the Shade make for a really intriguing and creative backdrop for this character-driven story. I think there are a lot of different parts of this world to explore throughout the series.
I enjoyed the character growth and occasional other POVs to break up the story. Personally, I am always down for a badass FMC with emotional baggage. My only gripe with this book is an overuse of the āforgotten pastā trope. I definitely got lost a few times trying to keep up with what I was supposed to understand already vs. was supposed pick up as I go. You donāt end the book knowing how everything fits together exactly. I found it annoying that Raeve seems to know things that the reader doesnāt get any insight into which is frustrating and strange in a first person POV.
SPOILERS !I understand how Raeve needed to evolve through her grief to remember her past. I think the character has legitimate reasons to push things away rather than reckon with them, and generally enjoyed piecing her identity back together as she learned to be more vulnerable. HOWEVER I do not understand how one character has THREE separate histories that the reader knows nothing about. I am leaving book 1 with more questions than answers. Who the hell is Fallon? What is the Other and where did it come from? I am going to have to google if we found out what her dragonflame healing was from because I donāt know if I missed it or if this also a secret at this point in the story?
I will definitely read book 2 when it comes out, excited to discover more pieces to the puzzle about Raeveās past and their implications on her future.
I enjoyed the character growth and occasional other POVs to break up the story. Personally, I am always down for a badass FMC with emotional baggage. My only gripe with this book is an overuse of the āforgotten pastā trope. I definitely got lost a few times trying to keep up with what I was supposed to understand already vs. was supposed pick up as I go. You donāt end the book knowing how everything fits together exactly. I found it annoying that Raeve seems to know things that the reader doesnāt get any insight into which is frustrating and strange in a first person POV.
SPOILERS !
I will definitely read book 2 when it comes out, excited to discover more pieces to the puzzle about Raeveās past and their implications on her future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Vomit, Blood, Death, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Misogyny and Animal cruelty
Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
spatterson7's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Blood, Grief, Gore, Cursing, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Animal death