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voidature's review against another edition
emotional
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Vomit and Transphobia
meridianriver's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, and Suicide
kayleypew's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? Yes
2.5
I thought the pacing was so bizarre - let’s have four paragraphs describing the clothing he’s wearing and one paragraph describing a major plot point - and often would break pace to explain something to the audience during important dialogues, so when you real the reply you have to read back to the question again.
The intro was so painfully wordy and over descriptive of nothing happening I almost frogged it, but truly had to reread sections multiple times to stay focused long enough to put meaning to the words. Thankfully the wordiness subdues and becomes more readable.
The intro was so painfully wordy and over descriptive of nothing happening I almost frogged it, but truly had to reread sections multiple times to stay focused long enough to put meaning to the words. Thankfully the wordiness subdues and becomes more readable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Abandonment, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Violence, and Homophobia
sabertoothjello's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Suicide, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Outing, and Blood
Moderate: Vomit, Animal death, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Infidelity
tesshersh's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
first things first, HUGE TRIGGER WARNINGS, please take them seriously because the scenes are very descriptive.
I do overall think the authors note is truthful in that it is a story of healing at the end of it all. it’s rough that the triggering content happens so soon into the book before you’ve really gotten the chance to get into the story/characters, so I can def see how it would put someone off from continuing the book.
overall, though, I had a lot of fun reading this! I found the characters likeable and the casual diversity very refreshing. The writing felt a bit like a debut novel at times, and the pacing was overall a bit awkward (a 500+ page book taking place over a week? like 10000 things happen every single day), but tbh I had a really good time with it because I love gay drama!
I do overall think the authors note is truthful in that it is a story of healing at the end of it all. it’s rough that the triggering content happens so soon into the book before you’ve really gotten the chance to get into the story/characters, so I can def see how it would put someone off from continuing the book.
overall, though, I had a lot of fun reading this! I found the characters likeable and the casual diversity very refreshing. The writing felt a bit like a debut novel at times, and the pacing was overall a bit awkward (a 500+ page book taking place over a week? like 10000 things happen every single day), but tbh I had a really good time with it because I love gay drama!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
angel_hardy's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Vomit, Self harm, Homophobia, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Suicide
Moderate: Animal death
skitterythump's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I thought I would love this book because of the slow-burning fake marriage love story and magical world, but found the ending was incredibly disappointing. The mystery was interesting at first but in the end I was questioning the villain’s motives. I felt like the resolution was incredibly rushed at the end, making it really unsatisfying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
Moderate: Rape
nely's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Suicide
madelegg's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
This one's so hard to rate because when it was good, it was really good, but there's like a good 200 pages of shit that could've been cut out of this damn book. I've never seen an author be so good at character writing and abandon that for a mystery plot that was absolutely beat to death with how much the book focused on it over the characters' interpersonal relationships. The end of this book is a banger and the romance, when it actually happens, is excellent, romantic, and the couple has great chemistry. But you have to weed through 300 pages of Velasin generating useless theories about whodunit only for the culprit to be captured by chance, and holy shit did they go hard on these theories and logic trails and analyses of the situation, only for it to all be a waste of time!! Quite literally if you'd cut out every single bit of Velasin and Cae working with the guards and hunting for clues kinda and talking about "what if the culprit is ralian" "what if they didn't know vel married cae" "what if what if what if" IT WOULDN'T ACTUALLY CHANGE THE BOOK AT ALL because of how they discover the culprit in the end! So slogging through all that boring shit was basically for nothing! The editor should've gone through this book with a fat tipped sharpie.
As angry as I am about it wasting so much of my time with the plot bloating, the characters were just spot on and excellent, every dialogue exchange was killer, and I was invested in almost every main character. This book would have soared if it cared more about characters than plot. The two just didn't mesh right.
Oh but my real biggest complaint is how poorly the manufacturers bound this book. Brand new copy and I had huge chunks of pages falling out of the back because they were poorly glued. Do better, Tor. This is a fucking disgrace.
As angry as I am about it wasting so much of my time with the plot bloating, the characters were just spot on and excellent, every dialogue exchange was killer, and I was invested in almost every main character. This book would have soared if it cared more about characters than plot. The two just didn't mesh right.
Oh but my real biggest complaint is how poorly the manufacturers bound this book. Brand new copy and I had huge chunks of pages falling out of the back because they were poorly glued. Do better, Tor. This is a fucking disgrace.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
Minor: Ableism and Panic attacks/disorders
marareading's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
I got this book as an arc on NetGalley from Tor. I absolutely LOVED IT! it is the romantic fantasy this genre needs. It has queernorm relationships and kingdoms, a beautiful relationship, wonderful relationships, healing, and Markel is my favorite in case you needed to know. He happens to be a side character who is cunning and also mute.
This story centers around Vel and Cae. They find themselves in an arranged marriage from different kingdoms and then all hell breaks loose, and they have to figure out what is happening. They are learning to trust each other. Vel has to find a way to heal his trauma and has his best friend and valet Markel with him in this new kingdom with new customs. This new kingdom, where Cae is from also happens to have a wonderfully queernorm society.
I loved that Vel is such a genius with politics. His character is wonderfully written. This is a great fantasy that had a cozy renaissance feel, but also had danger, politics, and mystery to it. I loved the magic that was tied into the story. This is exactly how I would love to read my fantasy from now on. The atmosphere and scenery were so well thought out that I felt immersed in the story every time I picked up this book. There were some slower parts in the beginning, but I definitely think the pacing overall balanced.
This story centers around Vel and Cae. They find themselves in an arranged marriage from different kingdoms and then all hell breaks loose, and they have to figure out what is happening. They are learning to trust each other. Vel has to find a way to heal his trauma and has his best friend and valet Markel with him in this new kingdom with new customs. This new kingdom, where Cae is from also happens to have a wonderfully queernorm society.
I loved that Vel is such a genius with politics. His character is wonderfully written. This is a great fantasy that had a cozy renaissance feel, but also had danger, politics, and mystery to it. I loved the magic that was tied into the story. This is exactly how I would love to read my fantasy from now on. The atmosphere and scenery were so well thought out that I felt immersed in the story every time I picked up this book. There were some slower parts in the beginning, but I definitely think the pacing overall balanced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
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