Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

Dark Night Golden Dawn by Allison Carr Waechter

6 reviews

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

1.5

For a book that I thought started pretty strong, rating it so low is such a disappointment.

I LOVED how casually queer it was. I loved the setup of immortals and immortal adjacent being high society and needing to navigate that. I love how the MC’s history was hinted at and implied and it gave us a sense of the dynamics between her and the other characters and how fragile they were. And I LOVED how much it reminded me of Pride & Prejudice and Bridgerton.

HOWEVER I felt like it fell off at the middle. The MC and LI had a conflict from their past and it would take a lot to work through and resolve. And while the book handled recovering from an unhealthy relationship fairly well, this conflict was just brushed over. This was an early sign for the rest of the plot where issues and plot points were rushed through, information was dumped onto the audience, and the romance was FLOWN through and felt rushed.

My only other notable issues were how easy it was to get lost while magic was being practiced. Everything was described in a really loose way, which can work to emphasise how other worldly it is, but if it’s to the detriment of the reader understanding what’s happening in the scene it ought to be reworked. Finally, as always, these characters were REALLY horny at REALLY weird times. Like y’all should not be thinking about hooking up in the remains of your ex, just saying.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexism, Addiction, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Fatphobia, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Medical content, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, and Grief

anka_al's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

I love the world building, the writing style, the characters. This book felt deeply personal to me. I especially love the little sci-fi touch in the world building. I also love the seemless integration of technology. It doesn't feel alien or misplaced. As this is the book is the first in a series I still have some questions but it doesn't feel like plot holes. The characters are multifaceted, well thought out and rounded.

I also love how the lgbtqia reps are woven into the story. I especially love Larkin and the maters. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Classism, Alcoholism, Lesbophobia, Biphobia, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

wordrevel's review

dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

The world building, plot and strong familial relationships were so well crafted, I wish I could’ve enjoyed Dark Night Golden Dawn a great deal more. There were so many elements that impressed me with the nuance that they were woven into the storytelling.

The list of CWs turned out to be longer than my weekly grocery list though, which I didn’t know when the ebook caught my eye on Libby. The

violent sex involving biting

between

Finn and Harlow

made me extremely uncomfortable as well. I don’t see how any of that is romantic. Perhaps I would’ve loved it if the “romantic” aspects had been dialled down but maybe that’s the point of romantic fantasy and I was caught off-guard because I don’t read a lot of it.

Then there was a scene towards the end where

Harlow and Fin were sucking blood from each other in the hopes of saving themselves

, which again made my stomach churn.

If you are looking for a very diverse cast and want to read romantasy, you’ll likely enjoy this book, should your threshold for graphic scenes be moderate to high. Mine’s comparably on the lower end, so I unfortunately won’t have the mettle to continue the series, regardless of how badly I want to know the resolutions to the conflicts.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Violence, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Kidnapping, Stalking, Blood, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicide attempt, Torture, Animal cruelty, Outing, Bullying, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Drug use, Alcohol, and Lesbophobia

mads_reads_books's review

slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Self harm, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Murder, Kidnapping, and Homophobia

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Stalking, Torture, Colonisation, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Classism, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Body shaming, Homophobia, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

supergirled's review

emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: War and Classism

Minor: Lesbophobia

steffandbooks's review

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

One of my favorites reads this year, for sure!
I have been searching for a good adult fantasy romance for so long, I was already telling myself that the stuff I am looking for apparently only exists in FBAA and ACOTAR/Cresent City. I don't need constant spice, but one or two really good scenes I do appreciate and I got this here.

However, the romance is solely a sub plot here, so if you're looking to read a smutty book, this is not the one for you. The actual plot however, dang... it feels like this is a mix of Bridgerton, Cresent City and A Discovery of Witches. And I love all of these, so, naturally, I devoured this book. Never seen any of the plot twists coming and it was so interesting to see how the immortals and the magic in this world is displayed.

And, obviously, I got a new book boyfriend. Finn McKay. Boy, don't get me started. Him and the FMC were childhood friends to lovers to enemies to lovers again. Do I need to say more? Okay, if the second chance romance didn't convince you... HE KNEELS IN FRONT OF HER, in order not to scare her away and let her know that he is not mad at her but the situation in general. He falls first, or should I say, he never fell out of love with her? And he has FANGS (no, he's not a vampire)!

The FMC struggled with a really toxic relationship in the past and has many issues to work through throughout the whole book and her healing process takes a lot of time. Do check trigger warnings because there are some heavy topics being discussed. The author even has content warning in her book herself.

And lastly, what I really liked here as well was the LGBTQ+ content. It felt so natural in this books, FMC is bi, her best friend is bi and reminds me so much of Cinna (The Hunger Games), the FMCs parents are both mothers and the youngest sister is asexual. All of this felt just natural, flawless mentioned within the story without delving into too much detail because in this world, this is all natural. of course, there was the occasional mentioning of homophobia, but it's not a main part of a book. It's hard to explain, I guess, but I just liked it the way it was written, because it didn't feel forced.

I read this on my KU, but, naturally, I am going to order my print copy for this now and also pre-order the second one in this series.

5/5 stars
2/5 spice rating

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Homophobia

Minor: Vomit, Blood, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Torture, and Violence