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booksalacarte's review against another edition
- 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
Fantasy Romance
Multi POV
Unique magic system
Assassin FMC
Dragons
Secrets
Politics
Flashbacks
I started out with all 3 mediums of consuming this book. I put the audiobook aside fairly quickly due to finding the female narrator to be to be lacking the inflection to keep my interest. I stopped listening and quickly went to my ebook to start over.
But I highly recommend listening to chapter 15, if you have the audiobook available. As well as any following that feature the characters in the chapter.
The prologue was so beautifully used to start the world-building and laying down the groundwork for this to be the start of a very intricate and intense series! Once I got to Chapter 15, I was all in. That was when the book differentiated itself from other assassin FMC books, for me.
The plot was very steady, providing the breath catching moments that kept me at the edge of my seat as well as moments settling in and showing the softer side of the characters. This made it so easy to relate to, and like, the characters.
I loved it. It lived up to all the hype I saw.
Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual content, War, Vomit, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Death, Excrement, Body horror, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Grief
marleyellise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was definitely only 🌶️🌶️ at most.
The glossary/guides were a nice feature to have, and allowed me to reference back when a character, or creature came into the story that I couldn’t remember, but the entire family tree and glossary contain spoilers for the characters and storyline that could have been removed and added to the glossary when the plot point features in the book.
Upon reflection, although I enjoyed this book, it seemed that not a lot happened plot wise. We spent a lot of our time learning about Raeve, her background and her obsession with Rekk Zharos but not much of the secret elements were shared by the author in this first book. I ended the read feeling a little bit frustrated that I didn’t have a big cliffhanger making me ITCHING for the next book. The book did end on what some would call a cliffhanger.. but not one that made me gasp in anticipation!
Will I read the next book, yes. But with an expected release date of August 2025, I’m not that disappointed that I have to wait.
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Blood
Minor: Death of parent, Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
antidietleah's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Confinement
Moderate: Pregnancy, Stalking, Sexual assault, and Murder
cosmic_kurt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death
Minor: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Vomit, Sexism, and Pregnancy
jdasilva's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.75
Minor: Torture, Cursing, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Confinement, Alcohol, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Grief, Domestic abuse, War, and Vomit
rachelbooks's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Grief, Mental illness, Torture, Pregnancy, and Sexism
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Trafficking, War, Child abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Vomit
mzcaty's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Minor: Animal cruelty, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
elledanie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Didn’t give us anything to like or reason to care about the main character. Nothing enjoyable about the dragons either, check trigger warnings. MMC and his friends/family are the only saving grace.
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Sexual content
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Violence, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, War, and Cursing
that_awkwardpart's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This was exactly what I needed. I got lost in the story and this beautiful world. I fell in love with these characters and my heart broke over and over .
I can't wait to see where the story will lead us . It's definitely a must read!
Graphic: Slavery, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Animal death, Cannibalism, Murder, Torture, War, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Sexual assault, Violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Misogyny
crybabybea's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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