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gabs_parr's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual content, and Slavery
Moderate: Death, Confinement, Violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Torture, and War
joonbug314's review
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent and Slavery
Minor: Pregnancy
akira_vcat's review against another edition
2.75
The writing was okay, the talent ascher has for writing fantasy can be faintly seen. But it truly feels like there's 100ish pages that are essential missing from the book. Its one MAJOR flaw that ruins the whole book with such a simple solution but I feel like the flaw was made cause of red tower.
The flaw:
Like she is just barely getting the guy out of the cage. She's known him about a week and he's been in the cage the whole time. She kissed him to distract him from killing the guy who purchased him for the circus (there's a lot more behind that). Bam instant attraction. In their great escape they need to stay in a hotel room and basically go at it for 5 days straight. Bam they are in love. Again, known each other for less than two weeks. She finds out his huge flaw and runs from him and the story gets good again.
The solution:
Instead of making it spicy spicy spicy in a hotel room, how about having 100-200 pages of them traveling in their escape. Going town to town and BUILDING a bond with each other maybe spanning a month at minimum. AND THEN have the reveal of his past (that he couldn't remember until he gets revealed). And the betrayal she
Feels would definitely hit 100000x harder. And then when the second reveal that gets her trying to find him and save him again would have 10000000000000x more meaning because they built up that bond so much and it's truly love and all that.
In addition, its also feels like sudden pregnancy.
The timeline: Harrow and raith meet, a few days later they escape. 5 days later he gets taken. A couple days later he tries to kill her (cause of events) and he is taken to get a physical form again and out of his vows. They'd known each other for about a WEEK.
Then six months of ZERO contact. They meet, they have sex. Then he is given all his memories back because he lost them (cause of events). And bam they find out she is pregnant from that time of having sex.
AGAIN this issue wouldn't be as much of an issue if we had a more exploration of their characters and relationship and then actually bonding. The book is pretty good but then remembering they literally only have known each other for a week before declaring they are each others love of their lives really ruins it.
The flaw:
The solution:
Instead of making it spicy spicy spicy in a hotel room, how about having 100-200 pages of them traveling in their escape. Going town to town and BUILDING a bond with each other maybe spanning a month at minimum. AND THEN have the reveal of his past (that he couldn't remember until he gets revealed). And the betrayal she
Feels would definitely hit 100000x harder. And then when the second reveal that gets her trying to find him and save him again would have 10000000000000x more meaning because they built up that bond so much and it's truly love and all that.
In addition, its also feels like sudden pregnancy.
The timeline: Harrow and raith meet, a few days later they escape. 5 days later he gets taken. A couple days later he tries to kill her (cause of events) and he is taken to get a physical form again and out of his vows. They'd known each other for about a WEEK.
Then six months of ZERO contact. They meet, they have sex. Then he is given all his memories back because he lost them (cause of events). And bam they find out she is pregnant from that time of having sex.
AGAIN this issue wouldn't be as much of an issue if we had a more exploration of their characters and relationship and then actually bonding. The book is pretty good but then remembering they literally only have known each other for a week before declaring they are each others love of their lives really ruins it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy
em_thereader07's review against another edition
1.0
This book could have been really great, but it was just doing to much. There didn't really seem to be a plot, just a theme.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Torture, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Dementia, Sexual content, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, and Murder
jasper_is_atypical's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Starts great, the middle is kind of awful other than the side character POV bits, and even then... The last third starts with some interesting stuff and then sort of goes downhill, though not to the extent of the middle section's snooze fest. I really don't know what to say. I wanted to like it, but I would have preferred a book about the main side character over the protagonists of this book. A bit messy, though the editing was good and I'm glad they were able to get a good sensitivity reader. I will definitely be reading the author's next book (about the side character, who would have guessed), but I will be going into it with tempered expectations. Overall, not the worst I've read, but it left me wanting. (Also side note this definitely felt like it started out some iterations ago as Acotar Azriel x Elain fanfic with some added diversity~ as spice. A seer and a shadow guy with wings who doesn't talk much... come on)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Death, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Slavery, Sexual content, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Death of parent, Violence, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Trafficking, and Torture
Moderate: War, Vomit, Murder, Hate crime, and Stalking
Minor: Gaslighting, Gore, Body horror, Deadnaming, Infertility, and Pregnancy
chelsea_nailpolishlover's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
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? Yes
4.0
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Red tower and Entangled Publishing was kind enough to send me a ARC of this book. I had already preordered the book but I’m glad I got to read it early!
I guess we can start with what this book was supposed to be about. The circus 🎪. Was it about a circus? No not really. If you are expecting this book to involve a lot of aspects of circus and circus life you will be disappointed. I personally wasn’t disappointed in that aspect. I do think it could have included more details and time spent but I also didn’t mind that it didn’t spend hundreds of pages on circus life.
The characters themselves were intriguing, fun, and charismatic. I did love Mal more than any other character. And from those I talked to who have read the book as well agree that Mal needs her own book. And I’m hoping there’s another book to this series in their pov. 👀
I did enjoy the main characters as well. Harrows and Raiths relationship was interesting. I liked them individually, Raith is obviously a complicated person, the issues surrounding him though I felt weren’t explored well enough. And Harrow has trauma, but I felt like it was pushed aside and ignored because ✨love✨.
I really don’t like instant love tropes. And that is what this book revolves around. I mean I understand why and the reason for it, I just think the immaturity of both the main characters made it even worse for me while reading.
There were also moments that characters thoughts and feelings were repeated MULTIPLE times in the span of one or two pages. It got a bit annoying.
The ending was upsetting and not in a good way. Pregnancy tropes.. why? Why must authors take an interesting concept and new and I do mean NEW relationship and ruin it by throwing a god damn baby in there. It wasn’t necessary, it was messily done. It did not add any weight or enchanting plot to the story.
When I first started reading this book I enjoyed it a lot. And I couldn’t understand why people had rated it so low. After finishing it I now understand. I could pick this book apart easily. No real twists and turns, instant love trope, pregnancy trope, plots not exactly what the synopsis said it would be, the rushed job of the ending, predictablity.
Still why am I rating this book 4⭐️’s you might ask. Purely vibes. I couldnt stop thinking about the book every time I put it down. I enjoyed the world, I enjoyed the characters. And I would recommend the book still despite its issues. And because I’m honestly excited to read the next book of this series or spin off book. And hopefully the next book is longer, with some interesting twists and turns, and fun and charismatic characters. 🤞🏻
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Red tower and Entangled Publishing was kind enough to send me a ARC of this book. I had already preordered the book but I’m glad I got to read it early!
I guess we can start with what this book was supposed to be about. The circus 🎪. Was it about a circus? No not really. If you are expecting this book to involve a lot of aspects of circus and circus life you will be disappointed. I personally wasn’t disappointed in that aspect. I do think it could have included more details and time spent but I also didn’t mind that it didn’t spend hundreds of pages on circus life.
The characters themselves were intriguing, fun, and charismatic. I did love Mal more than any other character. And from those I talked to who have read the book as well agree that Mal needs her own book. And I’m hoping there’s another book to this series in their pov. 👀
I did enjoy the main characters as well. Harrows and Raiths relationship was interesting. I liked them individually, Raith is obviously a complicated person, the issues surrounding him though I felt weren’t explored well enough. And Harrow has trauma, but I felt like it was pushed aside and ignored because ✨love✨.
I really don’t like instant love tropes. And that is what this book revolves around. I mean I understand why and the reason for it, I just think the immaturity of both the main characters made it even worse for me while reading.
There were also moments that characters thoughts and feelings were repeated MULTIPLE times in the span of one or two pages. It got a bit annoying.
The ending was upsetting and not in a good way. Pregnancy tropes.. why? Why must authors take an interesting concept and new and I do mean NEW relationship and ruin it by throwing a god damn baby in there. It wasn’t necessary, it was messily done. It did not add any weight or enchanting plot to the story.
When I first started reading this book I enjoyed it a lot. And I couldn’t understand why people had rated it so low. After finishing it I now understand. I could pick this book apart easily. No real twists and turns, instant love trope, pregnancy trope, plots not exactly what the synopsis said it would be, the rushed job of the ending, predictablity.
Still why am I rating this book 4⭐️’s you might ask. Purely vibes. I couldnt stop thinking about the book every time I put it down. I enjoyed the world, I enjoyed the characters. And I would recommend the book still despite its issues. And because I’m honestly excited to read the next book of this series or spin off book. And hopefully the next book is longer, with some interesting twists and turns, and fun and charismatic characters. 🤞🏻
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Pregnancy and Violence
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Death of parent, Slavery, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Murder, and Vomit
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