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carolibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual assault
katiedalton's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. At times the paces was a little all over the place but for the most part was consistent. Looking forward to the next.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
psydneigh's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really liked this book though cliffhangers kill me. It was kind of hard to follow who was who since it didn’t explicitly tell you until the reveal which I felt like made it harder to follow which guy was doing what. I’ll definitely be continuing this series. The First Daughters thing confused me for the longest time. I thought it was a royalty thing, but its just an every family thing. I felt like it would have been better if things were laid out in the beginning a little better.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Grief, and Stalking
hmimoso06's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I found this book very hard to get into; and I still didn’t get into it until page 400. I kept getting confused with the two love interests which annoyed me greatly. Also the writing style was just not something I enjoyed. Good plot, boring story.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
giulia_books's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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? It's complicated
3.75
I found this book very enjoyable, an it was easy to get into. The first 20 pages got me slightly confused because of all the place names mentioned, but after that it got a lot better.
I grew into loving the characters of this book more and more as the story continued, and I also liked the fact that Lia wasn’t “naturally skilled” in fighting like a lot of the main characters in fantasy books.
What I liked a bit less, is that in a very big part of the book, there is spoken about “the gift”, but it isn’t really clear what it is exactly. In the last part of the book things get a bit clearer, but it’s still a bit vague. I haven’t read the other books yet, so maybe those will clear things up.
Minor spoilers ahead
Another thing that didn’t feel quite right to me is that Lia just stole the papers of the Counselor without a good reason, and in a big part of the book those papers are just there while Lia doesn’t do anything with them. When she started to translate them, more things started to get clear so I liked that part.
Pretty big spoiler
I also really liked the concept of “the assassin” and “the prince”, and that you didn’t really know who is who. My guess was that Rafe was the Assasin and Kaden the prince.
Oh how wrong I was. . .
This also caused a lot of confusion when Lia was kidnapped by Kaden and the other Vendan assassins. It made me happy though, because I actually didn’t want Lia to end up with the assassin, but it looked like that was gonna happen.
Conclusion:
This was a very enjoyable, pretty fast paced YA fantasy book, that gave me kind of throne of glass vibes (I don’t know why, but I finally got that feeling I got while reading ToG again) Of course the book also has a few imperfections, and for as far as I know it barely/ doesn’t have representation for POC or Lgbtq+ people, which is a bit disappointing, because there was more than enough space for that.
I’m definitely gonna read the next books. The writing was magnificent and the plot is amazing, so I’d definitely recommend this
I grew into loving the characters of this book more and more as the story continued, and I also liked the fact that Lia wasn’t “naturally skilled” in fighting like a lot of the main characters in fantasy books.
What I liked a bit less, is that in a very big part of the book, there is spoken about “the gift”, but it isn’t really clear what it is exactly. In the last part of the book things get a bit clearer, but it’s still a bit vague. I haven’t read the other books yet, so maybe those will clear things up.
Minor spoilers ahead
Another thing that didn’t feel quite right to me is that Lia just stole the papers of the Counselor without a good reason, and in a big part of the book those papers are just there while Lia doesn’t do anything with them. When she started to translate them, more things started to get clear so I liked that part.
Pretty big spoiler
I also really liked the concept of “the assassin” and “the prince”, and that you didn’t really know who is who. My guess was that Rafe was the Assasin and Kaden the prince.
Oh how wrong I was. . .
This also caused a lot of confusion when Lia was kidnapped by Kaden and the other Vendan assassins. It made me happy though, because I actually didn’t want Lia to end up with the assassin, but it looked like that was gonna happen.
Conclusion:
This was a very enjoyable, pretty fast paced YA fantasy book, that gave me kind of throne of glass vibes (I don’t know why, but I finally got that feeling I got while reading ToG again) Of course the book also has a few imperfections, and for as far as I know it barely/ doesn’t have representation for POC or Lgbtq+ people, which is a bit disappointing, because there was more than enough space for that.
I’m definitely gonna read the next books. The writing was magnificent and the plot is amazing, so I’d definitely recommend this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Sexism
chloerote's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Honestly, it’s just very slow and there was too much time focusing on boring, everyday kind of things. I really liked Lia, the main character, but the rest of the book just fell flat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Sexual assault
justchillinoutinmebox's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
loislane93's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Started out pretty slow but I'm glad I stuck with it. Definitely not your typical love triangle by the end, and I'm hoping the darker tone and higher stakes continue on in the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexual assault and Grief
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