Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Iron Widow - Seele in Ketten by Xiran Jay Zhao

151 reviews

adventurous challenging hopeful 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

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I found Zheng and Zetian's relationship and the class war to be the most stable portions of the book. Anything that involved the Court of Heaven felt like it was either unsteady or falling apart at the seams at the end.

I really enjoyed watching Zheng's rule and how Zetian not only learned from it, but created her own group within it. Book 3 will likely still have some remnants of these factions and I'm curious to see how they're put to use.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

What is there to say but stellar. 
Lives up to the excellence of the book before. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have so many thoughts that I don’t even know where to start. There’s a lot of twists and betrayals, but also redemption arcs for several characters. The worldbuilding was really cool here, but there could have been more about the “heavenly court” and the lore there, but I assume there will be more in the next book. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was hoping this would carry the energy of the predecessor novel but it needed to do a lot more set up. I do appreciate how our leading lady is still just as complicated and playing 4d chess while basically hopelessly outmatched by all the men around her.
It is set up to be at least a trilogy by the ending. I hope that the third book can regain the drive of Iron Widow while carrying any loose strings from Heavenly Tyrant. This IS a political intrigue novel- with exactly zero characters being wholly innocent. This is something some readers will find tiring.
I wish we had been able to spend more time with The Iron Widows, because the men were so ugh, ya know? But in a realistic 'yeah this is how a man grabbing for power is' way. 
I read this a chapter at a time over a long span and I recommend that or perhaps an audiobook edition. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings