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oliverreeds's review
i got bored; the characters are repetitive and the sequence of events wasn't enticing enough. it was a lot of straight people doing straight people things and having straight people arguments.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, War, and Kidnapping
kinsportch's review
adventurous
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Trafficking, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Death of parent, and Confinement
Minor: Torture, Miscarriage, and Child death
lainiereads's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i took too long to write a review and now i’ve lost all my thoughts! I remember that I absolutely love Kazi, she is the best and deserves the world. Her character is the perfect combination of tough and angry, but also extremely kind and compassionate. She is also very strategic and determined, which I appreciate in fantasy heroines.
I like Jase, but mostly because he likes Kazi and we have that in common. To be fair, he is also great and he’s also great at being both tough and kind, so I do love him for that. I don’t love him as much as Kazi though. She is just better! He also screwed up a whole bunch and made me angry a lot, but he always had good intentions and tried to make up for his mistakes, so I can’t hate him for it.
Besides the characters though, this book is still great from the writing alone. The story was so good that I was never bored, even though I took a long time to read it. Mary E Pearson was able to express the emotions of her characters in such beautiful ways that you can’t help but connect with them. For example, there’s a scene where Kazi hits her breaking point with her anger, and the way Pearson wrote it just felt like she took it straight out of my brain. I am an absolute sucker for angry women in books, and that scene alone made me love her 1000x more. I highly suggest everyone reads this book for that scene alone, I loved it so much!!
anyways, love this book, Kazi is a queen <3
I like Jase, but mostly because he likes Kazi and we have that in common. To be fair, he is also great and he’s also great at being both tough and kind, so I do love him for that. I don’t love him as much as Kazi though. She is just better! He also screwed up a whole bunch and made me angry a lot, but he always had good intentions and tried to make up for his mistakes, so I can’t hate him for it.
Besides the characters though, this book is still great from the writing alone. The story was so good that I was never bored, even though I took a long time to read it. Mary E Pearson was able to express the emotions of her characters in such beautiful ways that you can’t help but connect with them. For example, there’s a scene where Kazi hits her breaking point with her anger, and the way Pearson wrote it just felt like she took it straight out of my brain. I am an absolute sucker for angry women in books, and that scene alone made me love her 1000x more. I highly suggest everyone reads this book for that scene alone, I loved it so much!!
anyways, love this book, Kazi is a queen <3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Kidnapping, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Violence, Murder, and Grief
Minor: Child death
psydneigh's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. I think it was even stronger than The Kiss of Deception (1st book in this world) and I am super excited to read the next one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, and Miscarriage
lusouto'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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Kidnapping, and Trafficking
Minor: Child death
princesssdiaries's review
adventurous
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? No
4.0
i took a huge brake while reading this book and it wasn’t the most thrilling fantasy i’ve read mainly focusing on politics trauma and kazi and jases love but then the ending confused me like wtf is going on with the bird? and who promised jalaine something? are they in trouble? wtf bruh idk
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Kidnapping
allyh's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
It’s literally one of my favorite books i love it so much. The first 40-50ish pages are slow but once you get pasted that it picks up pretty fast. Jase and Kazi own my heart they are so cute and there are so many different fun tropes like enemy’s to lovers and forced close proximity. The side characters are great. It’s a lot of fun to learn about both Kazi’s friends as well as Jases family.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
nicole_m's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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? Yes
4.75
I loved this book. The adventure and romance was great. It was a bit repetitive but overall good with a 4.75/5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and War
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Outing
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Vomit
If the trigger warnings above trigger you then I don’t recommend. If not give it a try if you like and enjoy!saoreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is 70% romance and 30% plot. I have a thing for subplot romances when it comes to fantasy books and slow burn ones. The story flows in a fast paced motion and world building is easy to follow actually though for the first half of reading, I had to get used with the terminologies, after, I still do. There isn't much suspense surrounding it as plot twists can be identified at ease. One thing I really love about the book are the riddles Kazi and Jase engage in, like its so enchanting. The theme focuses on love and betrayals which I think is good enough since it mostly consists of romantic events and scenes but somewhat on the vague side. The Ballenger history took up a big percentage on the book and that should've been Book 1 so Dance of Thieves would've been a trilogy, to be honest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War
luckykosmos's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
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? No
4.5
Waffling between 4.5 and 4.75 but rounding down in the hopes that book 2 truly shines. I LOVED this book, especially the opening 200 pages - setting the stage for their dynamics with one another before rocketing them back to the 'real world', which here means deceitful politics and family histories, sets up an intricate board of characters. The prose was wonderful, I adored all of the characters, and the plot felt like it had hundreds of moving pieces, each subtly planted until the right moment. And-- what on earth does that ending mean? As someone who hasn't read another Pearson book, consider me deeply intrigued. My biggest qualm was a lack of textual diversity - in my mind, certain characters are certain ethnicities, but nothing is ever more than hinted at. There are no visible LGBTQ+ characters, and the only fat or disabled characters are shown to be greedy or unfit leader. In text, these examples are minor and date the book (oh, how strange it is for a book from 2016 to be dated!) but it would overjoy me to see this hole patched up in the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Trafficking