Reviews with content warning for Vomit - The Prison Healer

I enjoyed this book and I especially loved Tipp (some of his scenes almost made me cry). All of the side characters were lovable, though, in their own ways. The book felt slow at times, but that's probably because my attention span has been bad. The descriptions were super good and especially the water trial was very stressful to read.

There was a bit of discrepancy in Kiva saying she helped everyone cause that was her job, regardless of what they did, but then she refuses to help a guard and actively makes his sickness worse.

So why exactly are you helping a person who killed his children but not a guard who sexually harasses people? Is it cause you didnt see the man kill his children but you did see the guard sexually harass people? Bit of a double standard.

My only major grievances: eyes don't have to have stone colours. Just say her eyes are yellow (amber).

And yeah, the plot twist. Not about Jaren, the one about Kiva. On the one hand it explains why her family was so sure of being able to rescue her, but on the other hand we saw her alone with Tilda various times. Why did she not call her "mother" then? I get that maybe she was still super on alert, but apparantly things were safe enough for her to tell the story of how her parents met. It also makes it a bit hypocritical that she was mad at Jaren for hiding his identity from her. And lastly, it does make the ending of this series pretty predictable. Jaren and Kiva will get together, thus uniting both sides, but not before Kiva does a lot of soul-searching and her angry siblings will push her to take her revenge. That relationship is going to break, we'll get lots of angst cause Kiva is heartbroken, etc. I think one of her siblings will probably die and his/her last words will either be for her to stop this fighting and make up or to continue the fight. I'm thinking it'll be the brother and he'll say the latter. Idk, if I'm wrong don't tell me, I want to read the books to see if I'm right!

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charthegoose's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

WOW I HAVE NO WORDS! I honestly have no idea what to say THAT ENDING

THE REBEL QUEEN IS KIVA’S MUM!!! SHES A HEALER AND SHES GOING FOR THE CROWN MY DUDES! Jaren has no idea what he’s in for damn. Also Tip is alive thank god 🙏 Naari is one of my favourite characters she better survive the next two books

I’m a student nurse and had a great time reading Kiva’s perspective of caring for her patients

I did call the poison quite early though 😂

this book is a really great read and I highly recommend, can’t wait to read the second book! Make sure to check trigger warnings if that’s something you look at before reading - I’ve listed them as best I can :)

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gcjay1994's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This one snuck up on me - in the end I realized what a good time I had. A lot darker than anticipated in some spots.

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soos14's review against another edition

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adventurous tense 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? No

4.5

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evebananas's review

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

The first half was pretty good, with all the world building and whatnot. But the whole middle- probably from 40% to 85% through- was boring. The dialogue was so boring and predictable and felt very YA. The last ten percent or so was just an info dump:

jaren is the prince, Naari is his guard, and Kiva has magic to conveniently save Tipp. Oh and wait- she’s actually the rebel queens daughter!! Which makes no sense, because she acted like Tilda was a stranger the entire time.

I’m frustrated with the ending. The whole book felt very very YA and I wasn’t expecting it. Maybe if I were 13 I’d like it better.

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bethisacupcake's review against another edition

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4.25

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allysaurus3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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? No

5.0

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aglittercobra's review against another edition

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4.0

***4.0 stars***

Overall,
I have been getting away from young adult fantasy as I age, I have a more and more difficult time connecting to the characters. However I kept hearing how good this trilogy was so I figured I would give it a go. While not the freshest of story ideas, it is a compelling story that I was quickly engrossed in. There was enough foreshadowing that I wasnt surprised by most of the reveals, except that one at the end. I did not see that one coming. I will definately be continuing this series.

Recommendation,
A YA Fantasy (on the dark themed side of things) that I would say is at the older end of the spectrum for some of the darker themed elements (i.e. graphic torture) check some trigger warnings before starting. So far I am impressed and am enjoying this series.

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