Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

31 reviews

folkofthebook's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

“I have known many human beings with a full soul to their name who do not have half so much compassion or practicality as you.”

oh this was a DELIGHT to read. the regency setting, a unique plot, the pacing, the banter, and the buildup of the romance... *chef's kiss* i'm really loving historical fantasy these days and this is easily one of my favorite reads this year so far, all genres included.

“Pleasant-mannered people are simply the worst sort of people. Decent people become properly angry when presented with miserable injustice, but pleasant-mannered people never do.”

“But sometimes, when you cannot force the world to come to its senses, you must settle only for wiping away some of the small evils in front of you.”

i loved elias. i will admit i was even put off a bit by his introduction bc of his attitude, but we learn about him quickly and it's impossible to not warm up to him. he is angry at the injustices of the world and wants to make it all better, but feels powerless to fix it all. dora is the perfect balance to him; she is calm and collected, but unintimidated to return his banter. watching this romance blossom had me kicking my feet and giggling in bed. très romantique!

side note, i did also adore albert. i'm happy he got his own happiness as well.

i will definitely be reading more of atwater's books, i can't wait to see what else is in store in this world!

“Was there anything else you were curious about, while we’re at it? Shall I take off my trousers and let you take my measure?”

“I did not come here only to dance. I came here only to dance with you. It is quite a different thing.”

“I think I am happy. What a lovely feeling. I am dreaming, and I don’t want to wake up.”
“I don’t want to wake up either,” he whispered.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, War, Gun violence, Violence, Child abuse, and Child death

chichisode's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

if Pride and Prejudice had a baby with Howl's Moving Castle. finished this in half a day, best decision of my life. cured my reading slump.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Medical content, Trafficking, Death, and War

Moderate: Trafficking, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, and Child abuse

day23dreamer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Ableism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, and Child abuse

kbairbooks's review

challenging dark emotional relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was cute! I read this for my Bookclubs April pic and I really enjoyed it! I will say that I struggled with the split soul concept because if you replace that with autism you can see how poorly people with differences are treated. But I liked this book and how advocate-y it was for the oppressed and underprivileged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, War, Blood, Classism, Ableism, Violence, Bullying, Body horror, Slavery, Child death, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

ourhandsfull's review against another edition

medium-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

4.5

This Regency fantasy romance is perfect for fans of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries who wanted a little more romance and love Jane Austen. We have another intelligent FMC, who reads on the spectrum, a lovable eccentric MMC and their adventures with faeries and meddling mothers. I do not typically enjoy historical or regency era fiction, beyond Austen of course, nor do I typically like romance with no spice. However, this story drew me in and stole my heart. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was perfect, with good voices for every character that kept me in the story. I absolutely loved the whole experience. 

I would like to caution sensitive readers about the bonus short story at the end, The Lord Sorcier. It does not have the same cozy tone as the book and centers around a war battles, including severe injuries, combat surgery and loss of limb. It’s graphic without sufficient story payoff. I wish I had skipped it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Classism

micheala's review against another edition

5.0

This was such a cute romance. Like there was nothing ground breaking about it, but I'm such a sucker for a low angst romance. 

It was a particularly pleasant surprise as I had previously picked up Ten Thousand Stitches by the same author and read the first chapter and didn't really enjoy it. So I was a little nervous that this was going to be the same and it was just not going to be for me. However, once I picked it up I ended up really enjoying Dora. 

I loved that this looked like it was going to be an enemies to lovers situation, but Dora just refused to give Elias that energy back. It took a little while for me to like Elias, but as the story progresses he stops feeling like an ass and just starts feeling like a grump. 

I was also a big fan of how the ending was handled, I can't be anymore specific without spoiling it, but it was exactly what I was hoping for. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Slavery, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and War

shadereads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Child death

valpuri's review

dark funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Blood, War, Violence, Sexism, Physical abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Child death

a_libra_library's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Death, Classism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Trafficking, Blood, Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, and Cursing

mmefish's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I've been enjoying "Half A Soul" up until the very end—even with all its  plotholes, somehow repetitive writing, at times wonky dialogues and a caricatorius villian—but the last sentence spoiled the effect. If I'm not mistaken, This MC's "condition" is an allegory to autism, and if so, then the whole message about being accepted as you are, deserving love even if you're different etc. gets destroyed by the end of the novel.

In the epilogue, after the story already came to it's natural—and satisfying—conclusion, the MC, apparently, somehow gets her soul restored. It's a terrible decision that erases all the character growth and quite literally the whole point of the story.

 
It could be a nice, heart-warming fantasy romance but ended up being an OK-written underbaked Disney-like adventure with a shaky background instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child death and Murder