Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Qicksilver

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Qicksilver by Callie Hart

125 reviews

painter_pie814's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional 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: Yes

Content Warnings

witcheep's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow, what a book! I can't even properly put my thoughts into words. The worldbuilding is great with unique twists (warring races/nations aren't new, but the lore behind them sure is special enough to shine bright), the characters are multidimensional and compelling (with both endearing and infuriating traits), and all the emotional plot twists with slowly revealing information are just... *chef's kiss*. I can't wait to get to the sequel when it is published!

//After reading this I came across multiple reviews and commentaries of this book showing how this book has a trope of continuously negating a woman rejecting a man, and the potentially dangerous real-life consequences of enforcing this kind of mindset. This made me drop down my rating vy a star, as I agree. That aspect of the plot could have been handled better.

Content Warnings

rioreadsbooks's review against another edition

5.0

Quicksilver (Fae and Alchemy Book 1)
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

“I'll be grateful for every second that I can say that I belong to you, Saeris Fane. Eighty years or eighteen hours. It doesn't matter to me. It'll still be the highest honor of my life.”

------------------------------------------------
Tropes:
✨Enemies to Lovers
✨Slow Burn
✨Found Family
✨Forced Proximity
✨Morally Grey / Grumpy MMC
✨Strong FMC

Um... Hello Kingfisher 😍. Where have you been all my life? J.k. It was me who put off reading this book for the longest time, and honestly I wish I wouldn't have. It did take me a hot second to get invested into this one. However, I think that was more on me and the fantasy books I read before this one, that caused that. I was in a bit of a book hangover. Also, I will say this book was not quite what I was expecting, which I think also attributed to me having a slow start to getting into it, but once I acclimated I absolutely loved the world and characters in it.

I mean, once I got invested, I was invested! The banter was bantering, the plot plotting, and the spice was spicing. I listened to the audio for this one, and I could not recommend it more! It was one of the best audios I've ever listened to.

Kingfisher, uh again... just 🔥. I absolutely loved him! Though, I'll be honest and say that Saeris got on my nerves for a bit. She was flying off the handle and jumping into things without thinking, but I did think she had character growth, and I came around to her in the second half of the book. Carrion, well, he gave off series Ridoc (Fourth Wing) vibes, and he had me cracking up throughout the book.

--------------------

“That’s what Oshellith means in Old Fae, Saeris. Most Sacred.”

⚠️Warning⚠️
Language, medium spice, adult content, violence, war, battle, death

Content Warnings

trapjawjones's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

Content Warnings

katelyn11's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: Yes

I enjoyed this.

Kingfisher took a minute to warm up to me… initially, he presents as a violent brute. Yes, he does have a soft underbelly, as expected, but he rubs the wrong way to start. The insta-lust was hard hitting and wasn’t altogether congruent with the love at the end. I’m still not sure how we ended up with mates-forever kind of love at the end. Slow burn? No, absolutely not. I liked the Kingfisher at the end of the book… character growth (or revelation?) for the win.

Sairis was amusing. A no-nonsense hard nosed woman who suffered far too much far too young. Again, the sexual component was a bit much too early, but she redeemed herself with some truly kick ass fighting skills.

Onyx stole the show. Carrion was the coarse-tongued jester who provided necessary levity. Everlayne was great in the first few chapters and then disappeared… when she did show up again, I didn’t care as much about her as I think I was supposed to. Renfis was wonderful. What a great bestie. The Triumvirate were sufficiently terrifying, though there was an awful lot of exposition in their reveal. So much talk.

The writing was easy to read but nothing spectacular. I would have enjoyed other means of expressing emotion rather than profanity, but this seems to be the trend. There were points in favour of Quicksilver—the world building, found family, and overall tension. Points against include overly lusty romance and unnecessarily abrasive personalities to start off the book (it was like the author decided to make the characters as unappealing in personality and morality as possible at first in order to demonstrate sufficient character growth throughout the book).

And yet, I enjoyed it. There was far more sexual content and profanity than I typically prefer, but I enjoyed the world, its characters, and its plot. There was something about it underneath the abrasiveness that I enjoyed enough to blaze through it. I suppose there was a sufficient Throne of Glass vibe… and I truly love TOG. For those who aren’t yet sick of Far romantasy, this may be for you.

Content Warnings

keimre734's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Quicksilver follows Saeris Fane. Saeris is a 24 year old who is having to steal to support herself and her little brother. She ends up stealing a piece of the guard’s armor and gets caught. She is taken back to the Queen’s palace to be executed and ends up being pulled into another realm instead.

After reading the first chapter, I was hooked. I wanted to keep reading about Saeris’ adventure. The banter between Saeris and Kingfisher was top notch! I do think Hart could have explained some things better. The concept of quicksilver and the gods could’ve been explained in a better way. I also think this book would’ve been even better if the book was written from both Kingfisher and Saeris. Also, at the beginning of the book, Saeris talks about how the Queen of her land has been ruling for over 1,000 years but then she is shocked when she learns that fae are real. How did she think it was possible for the Queen to rule for over 1,000 years? 🤔

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Content Warnings

katyakat's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

This book had me hooked from the first page. Quicksilver is the kind of story that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go—sharp, dark, and brimming with tension. If you love morally grey characters, enemies-to-lovers that actually deliver, and a world that feels fresh even with familiar tropes, this one is for you.

Let’s talk about the banter—absolutely top-tier. The sarcastic, razor-sharp dialogue had me grinning, and Carrion? I lost count of how many times he made me laugh out loud. The writing is modern, quick-paced, and unafraid to be bold. I can see how it might not be for everyone, but personally? I loved every second of it.

The world-building is chef’s kiss—a mix of fae, vampires, gods, and fate-bound alchemy woven into something that feels unique and immersive. And let’s not forget Kingfisher—unhinged in the best possible way. Dangerous, obsessive, violent, yet somehow impossible to resist. Every line he delivers is a beautifully veiled threat, and when he focuses all that intensity on the heroine? Whew. You feel it.

And then there’s her—Saeris. No trembling damsel, no naive heroine waiting to be saved. She’s fierce, defiant, and ready to burn the world before she bows to anyone. Their dynamic? Pure tension, pure fire, pure addiction.

Is it a classic romantasy with familiar tropes? Sure. But that’s exactly why it works. You go in expecting the push-and-pull, the reluctant partnership, the smoldering tension, and Quicksilver gives it to you with a sharp edge and a feral grin.

I devoured this book, and if you love dark fantasy romance with wicked banter, intense chemistry, and characters that leave you obsessed, you will too.

Content Warnings

mooncat25's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

yorweth's review against another edition

1.0

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

What on earth did I just read? This was just NASTY.

Content Warnings

jefferz's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Desert dystopia, war-waging fae courts, hordes of the undead, metal-crafting and a dark, snippy otherworldly savior, Callie Hart incorporates a lot of appealing elements from all-across the fantasy genre and melts them together into the romantasy epic Quicksilver. Featuring a strong-willed and resourceful FMC cast into a magical multi-dimensional and vast world, there's a lot to like in Quicksilver and the intertwined fates of its main characters paired with steamy scenes feel directly catered to what most romantasy readers are looking for. Unfortunately despite being full of ambition, demonstrated through its overarching plot, the actual execution of its various fantasy elements doesn't feel connected and at times, the rules of magic and world-building to be quite wild and unhinged. With less than graceful transitions between its fantasy and romance scenes and near incoherent magic rules towards the end of the story, Quicksilver was unfortunately a miss and an overhyped booktok influencer pick for me.

Depending on how you look at it, Quicksilver can either feel like a nod to many popular fantasy books that came before it, or a manic combination of everything trendy thrown together haphazardly. Taking the romance element out of the equation temporarily, the fantasy-filled story of Quicksilver has lot of things going for it. The FMC Saeris is akin to Aladdin, struggling to survive with her brother Hayden in a desert-set dystopian city. Drawing ire from the Queen, Saeris then finds herself transported to another world of the fae, sharply transitioning into a dark academia style story as she discover the extent of her metal-manipulation related powers along with her dangerous and dark savior Kingfisher. As the story progresses, Saeris and Kingfisher move to the frontlines of inter-kingdom battlefront and the dangerous land nearby that's full of undead "feeders".

Even in my brief, spoiler-free summary, it's impossible to notice where Callie Hart likely drew many of her literary inspirations from. The dystopian colony feels like a callback to the 2010's era where dystopian YA's were everywhere while the dark academia and magic setting is very on-brand at the moment. The undead/evil entity kingdom Saeris finds herself against are the cursed fae that are essentially vampires (with Saeris and Kingfisher's own romance echoing familiar areas loosely connected to Twilight) and for good measure, there's even a shifting labyrinth that is clearly inspired by the Maze Runner. There's lower magical beings, magical swords and relics, vampires, healers, witches, Quicksilver has so much going on. While on one-hand the story certainly will have something for everyone, these elements don't feel like they're properly connected to each other, the story constantly shifting between these inspirations every hundred pages or so. Each section on their own is quite good, but the overall story feels messy. As the story's intensity and stakes start to stack up, the world-building becomes increasingly incoherent, with new magic rules, oaths, or beings unveiled on the fly with zero prior setup (the book doesn't even try to explain all of Kingfisher's random magical powers that seem specific to him and no other fae). While most of these are utilized to explain and justify many of the unexpected plot twists in the back-half of the story, the execution causes the developments to feel utterly chaotic rather than surprising (I'm still not quite sold on the concept of fae being cursed to be vampires and only some being cured of the curse and being described as another type of being...).

While the fantasy side of the romantasy genre has quite a lot going on, the romance side is far more straight-forward and successful. I generally liked the chemistry between the two characters and the spicy scenes were varied and well-done, but I often found myself baffled at the lack of transitions between the romance and fantasy-based chapters. While I haven't read many romantasy novels to compare to (which will be changing soon!), for me Quicksilver often ping-ponged between sex scenes or eye-undressing moments expected for the genre, then have almost no trace of it for multiple chapters. The first sixty pages of the book largely felt like a standard fantasy adventure novel, then without warning it's like a lightbulb went off and Hart remembered it's supposed to be a romantasy book, laying it on thick and abruptly. Additionally, despite how much is going on in the story, the novel somehow still feels quite slow and repetitive. There are brief moments of the book that are exciting and quite compelling, particularly the action and combat scenes at the start in the desert city and near the end of the book. I've read a lot of classic fantasy adventure epics back in the day and at times, Quicksilver reminded me of those favorite reads. Unfortunately they are few and far between surrounded by so much lackluster fluff that neither enhances the romance, nor expands the workings of its world. This story really needs far better development of its multiple fantasy elements or a more consistent romance to justify its unnecessarily long 600 page count.

Another subjective issue I had with Quicksilver is its main character Saeris. Confident, strong-willed, stubborn, and rough around the edges, you can tell that Hart was shooting to make Saeris a feisty female lead meant to go toe-to-toe with the brooding and edgy Kingfisher. While there are moments where Saeris's character gets it right, she spends the rest of the book complaining, grimacing, and throwing child-like tantrums at every new development she encounters. When the story is taking place in the initial desert dystopian city, her character is mildly irritating but at least has moments for her street-smart skills to shine and to justify her cockiness. Once Saeris ends up in the land of the Fae however, it's an endless cycle of bickering with Kingfisher and co. and making a fool of herself through the various rules and customs of the fae. The first few times are fine, but this repetition gets old really quickly and Saeris's narration largely comes off like a moody and volatile child. It's actually quite baffling why Hart wrote the plot and Saeris/Kingfisher's dynamic in this way as it exacerbates the gap in physical age, maturity, both magical and physical power, and their places in the fae society. From the get-go Kingfisher feels considerably more experienced, wise and proficient at everything and Saeris's constant outbursts make the romantic interest from his side seemingly unlikely at best, creepily interested in a teenager (18+ ofc) at worst. The book addresses this by making them pre-destined by fate as per the expected and tired norm for the genre, but it's still weak explanation and there's very few opportunities for Kingfisher to actually fall in love with Saeris from a narrative standpoint.

While there's a lot of good elements included in Quicksilver, the overall execution and story is all over the place and incredibly inconsistent. At first I thought perhaps I was the problem, being a male reader less than experienced with the romantasy genre, being more familiar with standard fantasy or contemporary romance reads. However, it seems other reviewers or other female readers seem to have similar opinions of the novel's notable drawbacks so perhaps my opinion is valid. And that's quite a shame since I fully believe Quicksilver had a great story had it focused on a few chosen fantasy elements rather than its throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach. The last 100 pages in particular have such wild plot twists and connections that truly stretch what's believable (Carrion and Madra in particular), not to mention the villains having completely improbably alliances or a complete lack of compelling motivation (merely wanting pure power is fine for a kids book but this is certainly not that). I think if subsequent books focus more on Saeris and Kingfisher's growing relationship or more of the fantasy action that was quite good in places, this can be an excellent series. Unfortunately I probably won't be sticking around to find out, though I will be picking up Fourth Wing soon to see if my bafflement at Quicksilver is mostly limited to this book or the bigger romantasy genre as a whole.

Content Warnings

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