Scan barcode
yarisbooksandbevs'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Grief, Cursing, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, War, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Confinement
Minor: Kidnapping
sfdogmom'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
4.25
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
nikkisreadingx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Notable things:
- The enemies-to-lovers trope is *really* well done. I don't like this trope when it's not fantasy or dark romance and often times, I feel like it's too rushed. It wasn't with this one. At all. The development of Dianna' and Liam's relationship is so...real. They hate each other for so long until they don't, and then they realized they hadn't hated each other for as long as they thought. It was just beautiful and as soon as that started, I was hooked.
- The world building is unique. The lore is great. In the beginning, it felt very Revelations/Rapture, then became very Valhalla/Ragnorak as we got to know more in the book. I can see now that the twist is because Dianna is kept in the dark about so many things and watching it unfold was interesting.
But I would also call it a little...lazy? If that's the right word. This is called high fantasy, but you could replace 'Onuna' with 'Earth' and it would make sense, because practically everything on the world was a reflection of earth. How people spoke, how they dressed, the technology, the buildings, it was all what we see in real life. This book hit the mark on urban-fantasy with other worlds on different planets. Urban fantasy is my preferred, so this worked for me. If you're looking for a true high fantasy feel, I think it misses there.
- Dianna's personality is fair and makes sense and is entertaining at times, but some of her snark is too immature for a centuries old warrior. However, I *loved* her character growth. So while her commentary was annoying in the first half of the book, it's welcome and endearing in the second half of the book. I didn't quite pinpoint when that shift happened (probably around the time she starts helping Liam with his nightmares), but it was really nice to see her grow and lose a bit of her bravado in favor of confidence in herself.
(I also could have done without the 'evil villain' clothing descriptions every time she got dressed in the frist half of the book. Why are they always the same?)
- The pacing of this book is a little off. The beginning took me forever. Mostly because it was a trauma dump. High stakes from page one, no moments of rest, I couldn't dive in because it was too much. When Liam was introduced, I thought there would be a break -- nope. He's as broken as she is. (Which, I will admit, had me curious to their story and helped me set aside time to continue reading even when I just wanted to dive into something sweet and happy.)
However, when it gets *going*, when Dianna is with Liam and finally removed from Kaden, I was sucked in. Completely. I went from reading 50 pages a day to 250 pages in one sitting. I only stopped because I knew I needed to a break before I got to the end.
- The ending. I hate cliffhangers in books and that's part of why it was slow going for me to get into this book. I also was under the impression this was a duet, so to finish this book and find out the sequel also has a cliffhanger?? đ¤đ But let's not get derailed there.
Part of the ending was predictable from the very beginning -- see: Hunger Games trauma -- and part of it was just heartbreaking. I don't like trauma porn, which was so much of the beginning of the book, that now, to see how much further it goes, how Dianna *cannot* be allowed to be happy, ever, it makes me very hesitant to continue reading the series. Especially when I don't know when the end is finally going to happen. I will because it was really good and I want to know how Dianna and Liam finally fall in love and I want to see how Liam helps Dianna heal in the next one, but I know I will struggle starting that book because it's just going to hurt.
As soon as I got into the book, I loved it. Even knowing what was coming, even knowing that I would hate the ending, even knowing that there wasn't a happy on the horizon for anyone, I couldn't help but love it. And I'm really interested to see where it goes.
Also -- don't go in this expecting spice. He fingers her, she blows him, that's all you're getting between these two in the whole 500 pages of the book. It makes sense -- because they're proper enemies-to-lovers -- but seeing people give this more than half a chili for spice meter is giving me all sorts of dissonance.
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Death, Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, War, Death of parent, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment
brooketreads'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? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, and Violence
Moderate: War and Death of parent
There may be more. If I remember any, Iâll add them.sarahjanehayes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Grief, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and War
booksalacarte's review against another edition
- 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
Badass/morally grey FMC
Enemies to lovers
Slow burn
Forced proximity
One bed
Quest
Forbidden romance
Fight scenes
Dragons
đłď¸âđ rep
Cliffhanger
Seems to be dual POV. The beginning started off with interesting world building and introduced us to the FMC. The magic is interesting. I have to admit that Iâm still confused about quite a bit, but Iâm thankful that the magic doesnât look like every other romantasy out there. I think it was a little clogged in its delivery.
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Grief, and Blood
haleyc00k'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
ambenicole418's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Iâd given Vincent the title because, out of all the members of the Hand, Iâd known he wanted it. It was one of many reasons Iâd selected him, another being that I did not want it.
Now I donât know if I just got a bad copy or if all the books are like this, but I paid $33 for a hardcover edition of this book from Barnes & Noble, and the printing and editing of this book was just TERRIBLE. Some of the larger font words was very pixelated (especially on the title page in the book), the map of the world was off center with the page and half of it was missing in between the binding, and the grammar was horrendous at times. Iâm not usually one to gripe about grammar, as long as it doesnât happen often and itâs minor mistakes that my brain can easily fill in Iâm good. But there was a handful of times where the grammar was so bad that I almost had a stroke just trying to guess what the author was trying to say. Overall, this book read like the test copy of the first draft and for that reason Iâll probably be returning it. I just canât justify paying that high a price for a book that heavily needs another round of editing and printing.
Plot
I really wanted to like this book, but I almost DNFâd it a few times. Almost the entire first half of this book is just world building, and the way itâs written is very monotone and info dumpy. And the constant long and drawn out flashbacks in Liamâs chapters in the first half of the book was getting on my nerves. When it came to Liamâs POV chapters about half the pages in each of his chapters were flashbacks, and most of them were way longer than necessary. It got to a point where I was wondering if the author wouldâve just been better off writing a prequel novel or at least a prologue about the gods and the Godâs War. The plot of the book doesnât actually take off until ~200 pages in where we finally get to see Liam and Dianaâs dynamic and see them go on this road trip to find the book. And once the plot finally kicked off I did get really invested in the story, specifically I was invested in Liam and Dianaâs dynamic and budding romance. One of my gripes with the book is that the side characters just werenât interesting. The only side character I cared about was Gabby, and it wasnât even that I cared about her I was just concerned for her safety cause of how much she meant to Diana. I also hated how under developed Kaden was as a villain. Heâs about to be responsible for the end of the world and yet he still didnât feel like a threat to me, mostly because weâre told virtually nothing about him and his motivations. He didnât feel like this world ending, evil villainous threat. He just felt like a narcissistic, abusive, asshole. I just wish the author actually took the time to develop him and make him feel like he actually is the all powerful threat that weâre supposed too just believe he is because Diana said so. Also why is it that every time Diana is frustrated or annoyed (which is like all the time) it is always prefaced by âShe threw her hands up in the airâ. Itâs almost as if the author doesnât know any other way to physically show that a woman is upset. Which is odd considering the author is a woman. I swear that line was repeated almost as often as the phrase âMy inner goddessâ was used in Fifty Shades lol.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this book wasnât bad. After another round of editing and printing, I could see myself maybe bumping this book up a star. I also think that this series has a lot of potential, especially with the way it ended. My only concern is that the author failed to make me care about anything besides the romance between Liam and Diana, and considering the ending I imagine theyâre gonna be apart or at odds with each other for most of the sequel. So Iâm afraid there isnât going to be much that holds my interest in book two, especially if Kaden and the side characters remain bland and uninteresting.
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Body horror
Minor: Death of parent