Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Road of Bones

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Road of Bones by Demi Winters

13 reviews

yavneeka's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book could use another round of editing. It gets a bit repetitive and there’s a loss of focus on the bloodaxe crew’s quest in favor of getting Silla to Kopa. I also wasn’t a fan of how easily Skaedra was able to find Silla - at some point i had to suspend disbelief that Silla wasn’t purposefully leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. There is also a lack of explanation of the magic system and the worldbuilding i had was confined to meadhouses and bedrolls. With almost 600 pages here i expected a lot more in terms of immersion into the world. I did enjoy the found family vibes, but felt the characters all blended a bit with so many supporting members. This unfortunately meant I didn’t feel the emotional hit when Jacob’s brother died or really with any of the battles outside of the first with her father… There were also soo many moments when Silla could have come clean, but her not telling the truth seemed to be needed to advance the plot (which seemed a bit lazy to me) The last 200 pages were probably the most exciting and I didn’t see the final twist coming. I’ll most likely finish the series, but I don’t think this’ll be a reread.

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madison_rose89's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I wouldn’t call this a slow burn, and I’m not exactly happy with the way the romance turned out. It’s confusing to follow all of the names and get the lore straight. There was so little development of the magical system that I’m still somewhat confused.

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cscottrun's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Repetitive and slow because of it, but the story itself was interesting. I wanted a little more of the Bloodaxe Crew member's backstories, but maybe that will happen in book 2. Silla is so frustrating, but that gives the reader the same feeling that many of the Crew feel about her. Honestly, I was most interested in Skraeda than anyone else until the very end.

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dblue236's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Trigger warnings: Violence, death of parent, graphic sexual content, sexual assault.

I've been really interested in Norse mythology and folklore since playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla a few years ago, so that drew me to this book. I am *not* a big fan of romantasy in general, so some of those themes were a bit lost on me, but overall I enjoyed the book despite its relatively slow pace. I liked the characters and the buildup of the relationships among them as a group, and the epilogue left me wanting to continue with the series. This was not necessarily something I'd make a habit of reading, but I did enjoy it for what it was.

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sarrie's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

TL;DR: After a few days away from this I think this is a hard pass for me.
Source: Netgalley, thank you so much to the publisher!

Plot: Silla has to run to a far off town for safety after her father is killed and of course she makes all the mistakes you’d expect. And shocker - two hot dudes appear!
Characters: Unfortunately… none of these characters worked for me, especially the main character.
Setting: I did really like the setting here. The Viking Vibes are very strong and the creatures are super fun.
Fantasy: It definitely felt very fantastical with hints of a strong magic but I didn’t absolutely love it.

Thoughts:

Unfortunately this was just… not a great one for me. In fact I finished this just a few days ago and I have already forgotten most of these character’s names. I had high hopes after the initial chapters but it was quickly dashed and trampled into bland disappointment.

Silla is on the run. The Queen wants her, she has no idea why, and her father was recently killed by her men. He tells her to run to a town quite a distance away and seek safety so off she goes. That setup, not super original but the gore and the brutality that we get in those chapters - it was great! But then we fall into the trap, the miscommunication. The flat out lies. Listen, if I’m on the run for a reason I don’t understand but I see the guy I’m lying to for a ride cut off a guys fingers and slit his throat in cold blood for lying? I think I’m going to find a way to fess up the truth. Silla not only lied once and got caught! But lied AGAIN and doubled down.

I dragged myself through this but honestly after that very… unfortunate choice I couldn’t connect or seem to care very much. I had high hopes and initially I was intrigued enough to perhaps finished but with more days it’s soured. This one wasn’t for me, and I likely won’t continue. But a lot of folks have loved it so give it a try if you’re super interested, it could work for you!

2 stars

OMG and I almost forgot her casual drug use? What was up with that? I have no issue with drugs or drug use in books but this was... not well done.

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seasonedreadings's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

3.5

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alliesbooks's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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ladybug12793's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

The best romantasy I’ve read in a while

I don’t know why it took me this long to read this. To be honest, I’ve been disappointed with the romance and fantasy books I’ve been reading lately. Thanks booktok for most of those poor recommendations. This was a pleasant surprise. While I can’t say this is the best fantasy I’ve read, I was entertained the entire time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The romance is slow burn, which is my favorite. I think there is one or two mild spicy scenes but even then the plot is good enough on its own without it. I can’t say that that’s the case for a majority of the books that I’ve read recently, unfortunately. So, again, this book was a pleasant surprise.

This book definitely needs more hype. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

1 🌶️

* please disregard grammatical errors due to voice texting

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kimwritesstuff's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

3.0

I already bought the second book, so I mean the story hooked me. Even though I was invested, I thought there were a few plot points and characterizations that could have been better done. The central story is about a young woman who discovers her whole life has been a lie. There's magical prosecution of Galdra and running from assassins. Silla spent her whole life believing she wasn't special, but now she's learning there is so much more to her past.

When Silla joins the Bloodaxe Crew to travel north to a safe haven, she hides who she is and the trouble she may be in. The Bloodaxe Crew had the chance to be really interesting, but this is where I had some issues with the book. Jonas, Hekla, and Ray are all very well fleshed out. But the rest of the crew are very one dimensional. It was kind of strange to have well developed characters and then just super thin barely named characters in the same crew. I thought there could have been an opportunity to beef up the story, but it was just kind of meh.

Overall I thought this was a fun fantasy novel, though it could have used some more development.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Delacorte Press for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

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dr_steph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.5

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