Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

38 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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echolliot's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 74%

Just too painful to keep going - cliche, trite, and honestly just really badly written. I couldn't plough through with this garbage Beauty and the Beast reimagining. And the horrible, abusive "romance" stuff made me want to throw my phone away. Don't bother.

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book could have been better, not in terms of plot, that I was fine with, but in terms of character actions, and the author desperately needing a GOOD editor.

If I have to read the phrase "lazy smile" again in this series, I'm likely to throw myself into the abyss. A thesaurus would be a very advantageous resource for this author and an editor willing to point out the gross overuse of certain phrases.

Outside of the complaints about unfortuately typical YA romantic toxic relationships, and lack of character diversity, it does have a feeling of being a reimagined Beauty & the Beast but in a Fae world to explain the magic. Unlike Beauty & the Beast, our main character has a stubborn streak that is spiteful to the point of self sabotage.

She does have character growth with her stubborness and her "oh woe is me" attitude does improve. She begins to take time to understand those around her, especially of her dysfunctional family.

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adventurous tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Many plot holes, character development was next to none except for the main female character, the author has over described and under described parts, all characters seem to be white so there's no diversity at all. 

The author hasnt learned about any of the hobbies of the main character; the mc is a painter and hunter; yet the mc will often say to herself: "i dont know the name of the colour, so i will keep it for later", while it is true that not everyone knows the names of colours, SJM could still have described them better.

SPOILERS:
The MC's family starts off as having lost lots of wealth and were living in a shack having forced the MC to hunt for food, and the family (except MC) was in denial of it, even after 8 years and expected the MC to care for them. However, while MC was under the "care" of her kidnapper, the kidnapper gave the mc's family more wealth that they had before, thus the family learned nothing.
 

Adittionally
One of the characters towards the end while shown that he could torture the minds of fae and humans, sexually assulted the MC, however this was thrown in at the END of the book, thus seeming to have not been thought out at all.
 

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adventurous mysterious 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: No

Is all of media conspiring to groom its young femme readers?
Yet another teen girl manipulated into a romantic relationship with an immortal 500 year old man.
. Ick. 

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

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adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a very mixed review - I started it as a hate read, so I could properly roast it. But I wound up devouring the book, really. It is essentially beauty and the beast meets twilight, with a double scoop of toxic relationships on top. 

The MC is incredibly bland and at first none of the plot or relationships made any sense. I had a LOT of eye rolling and it wasn't until the end that I realized that MC is bland for a REASON. Having  a blank canvas character allows the reader to project themselves into the story more easily...which is probably why people like it so much. Yearning, romance, sex - its all much more fun when you can imagine your self as the recipient. 

And for that the book did its job. Its a wonderful YA y/n self insert self indulgent book. The spice level is pretty low - the 1.5 scenes were short, laced with metaphors and not particularly racy. But I come from the land AO3. 

The plot was kind of weird, especially the last third with the trials. It seems the second and third books are better BUT i will not be reading them because there are more compelling love stories with muh better sex, slow burn and enemies to lovers. 

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adventurous medium-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

A beauty and the beast retelling, with problematic romantic relationships and clunky writing and pacing. Consits of domineering men constantly taking away the female protagonist's agency, overly simplistic villans, overbearing "chosen one" narrative, and an inconsistent main character. Only positive is unique and creative world building. Mild spicy 

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adventurous dark mysterious sad 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: Yes

Loved this book. Intro to fantasy. VERY violent. I’d prefer less violence and no more torture please. 

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Got this book on a whim bc I heard so many great things and wanted to see what the hype was about, After 14 chapters of slow, boring, world-building content, I put the book down and planned to DNF. I recently read Fourth Wing (which is incredible from start to finish), and wanted another fantasy read when I saw this book unfinished on my shelf. I think another fantasy book needed to come along to show me why it takes so long to build the world and why it's important to explain in such long detail. Second go-around, I finished ACOTAR in less than 24 hours. Spoilers ahead: 

Pros: Lucien is a ride-or-die fav, he's so witty and reminds me of that enemies to best friends vibe so few characters have with one another. Rhys, while being a tad toxic, was a unpredictable character that added a thrill to under the mountain. The villain was interesting and I enjoyed learning about the lore and other good or evil characters for the worlds. 

Cons: Not a fan that most of the romance was borderline abusive or straight up harassment (Rhys LICKING her tears?? Tamlin BITING her neck?? no thanks), Tamlin was the most disinteresting love interest, Feyre was difficult to get behind for the first half of the book, and turning her into High Fae reminded me of Twilight, but instead of waiting 4 books and having arguments with her partner about it, she was just turned without her knowledge or consent. Also not a fan that the plot was kinda giving "can't live without my guy/romantic interest" vibes. Lastly, idk what kinda writing style this was, but it was very repetitive and redundant - if you highlighted your book when the phrases "he (Tamlin) growled", "he (Tamlin or Rhys) gave a lazy smile", Feyre mentioned her newfound love of painting (we get it, you don't hunt so you paint - cool!), random fire being mentioned, or eyes as green as (the forest, grass, emerald jewels, shrek at this point, you name it) - you'd have a very colorful book cause you had to use so many highlighters. 

Would recommend to fantasy lovers who know how to get into world building. 

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