Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - Zatvorska vidarica

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 against another edition

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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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korrinstar's review against another edition

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Nothing makes sense and everyone is insufferable. The "plot twists" are painfully obvious and there is absolutely no chemistry between Kiva and Jaren.

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khajpaj's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

2.5

There were a lot of anachronisms in this book which made it hard to be fully immersed. I finished mostly for the budding romance. I was pretty disappointed with the ending, as it didn't really like up with the rest of the character motivations throughout, but the "big reveals" leading up to the end we're things that were pretty easy to guess early on. Still, it was a mostly enjoyable read. The only part that was really upsetting was the trial by fire.

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sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense 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? No

4.0

Kiva the resident healer has survived 10 years at the kingdoms death prison waiting to be saved by her family on the outside or die, whichever comes first. She’s hated by the other prisoners for being the warden’s tool and informant and treated like scum by the guards (so life’s not great).

When the rebel queen arrives in a state close to death the warden and the prison rebels both demand one thing of her: Keep her alive. 🤦‍♀️

So now she must do the impossible, all why trying to figure out what strange deadly stomach sickness is spreading throughout the prison as well as not be too distracted by the new handsome and charming inmate.

A little slow in parts and I did predict a major plot point fairly early on, I still really enjoyed this start to the trilogy.

Read if you like:
Found family
Hidden identities
Slow burn romance
Elemental magic
High stakes challenges

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csmall73's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was a little bit of let down. I feel sufficiently confused by the events that take place in this part of the story. But I am also intrigued enough to read the next installment. Kiva definitely got poop end of the stick in life and family. Left for an unreasonable amount of time, she becomes the prison healer. Takes insane amounts of crap from the filth of several countries. An impulsive and rash royal invites himself to prison as a way of getting information and intelligence gathering on a notorious rebel that happens to also be royal. We are up to three. Kiva takes the do no harm way to far and volunteers to take the place of her patient in trials. Basically give me liberty or give me death.

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