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kammorgan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.75
I feel like if I had read this in one sitting maybe it would’ve hit different. But it just fell flat - I thought my mind was gonna be blown. The world building at the beginning was cool, the magic was intriguing; even the old history had me on the edge of my seat. But then it just stops…? I wanted more of Luther - barely got him?! Wanted less of Henri. All in all…. Not running to the next book 😅
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
sandse2's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Good setup for a series but needed more character development. Particularly between characters. The love interests were weakly incorporated and the main character was brash and obnoxious. I wish she would have been developed more in terms of her intelligence. But the storyline is good and I will be reading the second book in the series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Colonisation, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Classism, Child death, and Death
dr4manrx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Sexual content
dani_reis's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Death, Child death, Death of parent, War, Grief, and Genocide
moodyreadsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
hapalyn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
4.0
4 stars
The world is interesting, and I find it to be very intriguing. I like the way the land is, and I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with this series. That being said, it wasn't a 5 star purely because of the STRESS I was stressing while reading. Personal preference, I just like less of the angst there, but I will continue reading.
Also Henri is so insufferable, and I can't stand him. Diem is an amazing character, yet she's so easily persuaded, which I hope to see her grow out of. Rooting for her and Luther.. but also Teller and Lily. Something tells me though that there's going to be a long, slow burn for our main heroine.
The world is interesting, and I find it to be very intriguing. I like the way the land is, and I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with this series. That being said, it wasn't a 5 star purely because of the STRESS I was stressing while reading. Personal preference, I just like less of the angst there, but I will continue reading.
Also Henri is so insufferable, and I can't stand him. Diem is an amazing character, yet she's so easily persuaded, which I hope to see her grow out of. Rooting for her and Luther.. but also Teller and Lily. Something tells me though that there's going to be a long, slow burn for our main heroine.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gore, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Cursing
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent and War
larajoye's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- 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
3.5
Don’t let the 3.5 stars scare you off from this book. It’s fantasy.. the world building and background character development took up most of the book. There were only 2-3 chapters before 75% of the way through the book that really had me invested.. BUT the end of the book is explosive and fantastic. Can’t wait to move on to the second book.
🌶️🌶️🌶️
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Hate crime, and Child death
Moderate: Blood, Sexual content, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
carolibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Child death
Moderate: War and Fire/Fire injury
artemis_growl's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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
5.0
MOOODS:
- Fantasy Romance
- Foes to Lovers
- Slow burn
- Easy world building
- Action
- Magic System
- Aliens/Gods/Something????
- Stabby Strong Kick A** Vibes
- Looks like they could kill you is acutally a cinnamon roll MMC
- Rebellion
- Spice 2/5
- Love Triangle
- Political intrigue
Trigger Warnings:
Death/violence (against children too), Sexual Harassment, Sexual Content (ch 7).
Overall spoiler free impression/review:
Missing mom triggers impending doom/war/rebellion and Diem (FMC) realizing she's not who she thought she was (but like duh...she's the only one that's willfully oblivious). We had a 415 page journey of Diem lying to herself thinking she knows what she feels but doesn't leading to internal turmoil, confusing illogical choices, impulsive stabby actions, consequences, and drama... which I happily and decisively gobbled up with some eye rolls here are there which I mean a natural occurrence when you're way past 19 and you come across a 19 year old for 400+pages. Overall 5 stars, not because it's the best written book in the world, and I predicted what would happen with Diem... but because I had fun and easy time reading it... and vibes.
World/Magic Building:
World: Emarion - City of Lumnos. Ruling Class: Descended (I think they're aliens to this world and not spoilers you learn this in the first like 5 pages), and "mortals" are the native species human equivalent of the world. Descended have magic, are stronger, longer living, godly creatures which for some reason you can distinguish by their eyeball colors and hair. Basically descended = British Colonial Empire and mortals are everyone else. Mortals and Descended to intermingle too much and are not allowed to have babies together bc you know the typical "pure blood" power stuff... so Diem knows nothing about the Descended really because momma Diem was being a momma bear and now momma bear is gone and Diem gets to mingle (wink wink) with the Descended.
<<Spoiler riddled review>>
I devoured this book in 1 day. I just couldn't put it down. It was pretty fast paced and kept me engaged the entire time (even during my occasional eye roll gorrrl what you doing moments. I enjoyed the premise, the action, the world building, and the stabby angry healer FMC (even if maybe not the brightest). I enjoyed that Diem actually has a wholesome family that cares about her and even if Momma Bear Diem probably was/is part of the rebellion and has a ton of secrets keeping Diem in the dark and making her think she basically has some sort of Schizotypical personality disorder (not the best mom moment)...i liked Diem's step-dad and half-brother. She was able to learn the best qualities from her mom and dad and surprisingly everyone is alive...for now...
There are typical ruling class/working class political undertones not unlike British/American colonialism and dehumanizing of others. I did enjoy the politics and world building. I do prefer when it's spread out throughout the book versus info dump/500 pages of world building with all action happening in the last 100 pages (yeah I'm talking to you SJM <3)
Overall I did like the book but I will warn others... the eye roll times I experienced with Diem...I can see that getting annoying for some... some of her actions/behaviors with the rebellion were random and nonsensical...and didn't really feel like they went with her normal personality....she was so eager to please she felt like a different character with them but eh...I still liked the book a lot so 5 stars it is.
Also, I need more Luther in the next book....gives looks like they could kill you is actually a cinnamon roll vibes and Diem haven't decided if she's a looks like they could kill you and will kill you or looks like a cinnamon roll but could kill you vibes....will put it up to the people for a vote...
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Violence, Child death, War, and Child abuse
Minor: Sexual content and Medical content
snickerykitten's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
So strong. I appreciate the hella hella slow, snail, not even a kiss until nearly the end of the book and only that kiss, of a burn. Beyond that, the MFC struggle kept me dialed in and into book two. Most current sagas lose me mid way through the second installment, so hopefully this one does not disappoint. The cliffhanger of an ending was 🔥
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Sexual harassment