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tinysierra's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
-Enemies to Lovers (knife to throat!!)
-Forced Proximity
-Reluctant Allies
-Fake Dating (kinda?)
Based on the TikTok hype and the sypnosis, I assumed that this would be a high stakes, fast paced adventure similar to Six of Crows and Guilded Wolves. While there was a bit of an adventure in the first few chapters, the book overall was slow paced, focused on characters, family, romance and politics. It was more akin to Graceling.
The title was fitting. It felt like a dance or a game being played between the main characters. We get both Kazi and Jase’s POVs, which was a nice setup for the story.
I have a soft spot for thieves with angsty backstories so I loved Kazi. I liked the way that she came up with riddles.
The romance was well done. It felt like it developed a bit fast but it made sense considering the forced proximity, and they continue to develop their feelings over the rest of the book.
The fatal flaw of the book for me was the amount of telling instead of showing.
It ends on a cliffhanger but I personally will be ignoring the last chapter and will not be reading the next book.
Graphic: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Death, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Grief, Classism, Trafficking, and Torture
Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Miscarriage
bluebell4's review
- 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
Graphic: Death
Moderate: War, Cursing, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Torture, Slavery, and Trafficking
veni_vidi_legi's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Gore, Slavery, Grief, Child abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Kidnapping, and Blood
hales_1243's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Medical content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Slavery, and Trafficking
aklovekorn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, and Kidnapping
annsfictworld's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Murder, Violence, Abandonment, and Death
victoria_elaine's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Graphic: Terminal illness, Grief, Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: War and Death of parent
Minor: Abandonment and Trafficking
mrsalexisrjones's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Miscarriage, Trafficking, War, Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder, Blood, and Death
moanareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, and Slavery
Moderate: Death, War, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence
pageafter_paige's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It was definitely a slow burn romance wise. I think the book had a pretty good pace, maybe a little slow at some parts but not too bad.
Honestly the thing that annoyed me the most was how the FMM being constantly described as an untouchable warrior but like we see she makes mistakes that seem a little obvious… maybe she blinded by love though so who am I to judge.
Overall I liked Jase’s character a lot and hearing the history of his family was VERY interesting I almost wish there was a book on that! Kazi was also likable and gave me Inej vibes form Six of Crows (except Inej is actually untouchable lmao). I’ll be interested to see what happens with them in the second book.
Moderate: Stalking, War, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Trafficking, Abandonment, Classism, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence