Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Awakening

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

38 reviews

maladaptivedaydreams's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This is so close to being 4 stars from me but it was missing some stuff for me. I wish we could have dived deeper into the magic system, the sister's training together and a bit more of their lives as mortals compared to now.

I usually don't really like Fae stories but this one was interesting enough. I loved the bond between Darcy and Tory, that no one could come between that. I adore family bonds and I think it benefitted the story more than if their had only been one character. Darcy and Tory actually felt fleshed out with their own flaws and desires, so all their decisions (for good or bad) felt justified.

This was a great introduction to the series and I do actually plan to read the second book. I can't wait until they're able to hold their own against the Heirs for all they've done.

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lifeonasofa's review

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

2.75

The Awakening Zodiac Academy ♍️ Review

“Tears never did anyone any favours, but sometimes they just needed to fall” 😭 - Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti

⭐️⭐️💫 2.75 Stars

It only took me 2 weeks, but I got there. Shout out to @buddy for keeping me going. The hype surrounding this series is pretty intense and I didn’t realise quite how many HUGE books there were already! The first book was sat on my kindle for a while so I thought why not. 🤷🏻‍♀️

First of all, I know I went in blind but I heard NOTHING about the sheer amount of bullying in this book. Wow. The WHOLE plot…bullying. I’ll be honest, a good 65% of this book was slow and painful. Very little happened, also everyone is so GROSS. 🙈

I was/still am intrigued by the school, the world and everything the Vega twins have yet to explore. The whole zodiac thing was pretty cool, but we really didn’t get a whole lot of info tbh. I have more questions than answers. 🤔

I like the twins, they both have likeable personalities, lots of strength. They both however, lost themselves around boys. Said boys (and teachers) are so awful they don’t deserve a paragraph, they will never redeem themselves. 👎🏻

The last 35% was full of friendship, lust and action which I actually read in one sitting. So I don’t know what the authors were playing at with the first 300 pages! The ending made me so uncomfortable, but I’ll hand it to them…I’m intrigued. Darn it! 🙃

Overall, I do not understand the hype. But I do want to read book 2. Please check TWs before reading as this whole bullying thing seems wildly unnecessary to me. 👀

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bites_of_books's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Well that was.... something. I had never read this type of "romance" and in the traditional sense there is no romance here. This is described as a "supernatural bully romance" and if you take out the romance that's absolutely it. Bullies who are fae but also vampires and werewolves and sirens etc. We follow twins who are enrolled in this academy and basically go through hazing and bullying of all kinds. Tory and Darcy are not ones to back down though, they are not damsels in distress and they show up to learn all they can about their magic in order to one day be able to defend themselves. Of course, to keep with the "romance" the bullies are all super attractive and there seems to be more going on there than just plain bullying. In a way the character mystery and the actual mystery of what's going to happen with the twins is what kept me reading. The world building and magic system were slightly predictable but scratched an itch I didn't know I had. I hate to say it but I'm hooked! It's entertaining in a way I very much needed

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zabeishumanish's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.5

I totally understand why this series is so popular. Tory and Darcy are super compelling characters and the world-building here is insanely complex yet still comprehensible. Bully romances are really not my thing and all of the magical aspects incorporated into the bullying made the story a bit too intense for my taste. If you're a fan of bully romance though this probably won't bother you.

The story isn't a romance, despite romantic elements (bully romance specifically), the book ends on a cliffhanger with no happy relationships in the book.

There are a ton of consent issues in this book. While none of those issues are around sex, the twins have no bodily autonomy whenever a vampire decides to feed on them and no mental autonomy in terms of the coercion magic, and emotional manipulation from the sirens. These consent issues being brushed off as part of the fae power structure makes sense in the world-building but has the potential to be more triggering than direct violation of sexual consent.

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bre_hoeppner's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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arys_library's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I really really loved this book! A great introduction to this giant series. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on it and I agree with a small part of all of them.

Someone said the first book is like a really long first chapter of a book. And while I agree, it’s a damn good first chapter. It’s an introduction to this fantasy world, but was so easy to understand, there was very little info dumping.

I absolutely loved how all of the characters were built and their development. Their personalities, even the bad annoying characters, were so prominent it made the book so lovable and entertaining. Certain times when a character would appear I would get so excited to read their parts, no matter how small. And for a book that is mainly an introduction have that much character impact shows how great the character building and storytelling is.

I will say I wish there was more internal turmoil between the two main characters Tori and Darcy. Their whole lives have been turned upside down and everything they’ve ever known is taken from them. And we don’t get to see much into their minds on how they are processing so much new information. It really lacked depth in that area. It was like after something incredibly strange happened, the girls thought about how weird and crazy this event was, and then just went along with it 2 minutes later.

I loved the double povs between the twin mcs. But it would sometimes be confusing. I got a good grasp around 3/4 of the way into the book but before that I was having trouble deciphering between the two. There were many times where I was questioning which girl lived where, who has which power, etc.

Also super random but the artwork on the beginning of each chapter was so beautiful but there were times where it wood cover up the words and I couldn’t understand what was happening. It didn’t happen every chapter but it happened enough for me to be annoyed by.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, I’m so excited for the rest of the series so I could see more of each of the characters!

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maddisaysmeow's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.5

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kellicat94's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

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mybookishdelights's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I'm not really a fan of bully romances, but I actually like the two main characters in this and the premise of the story is interesting enough that I'm going to continue on. Not sure if I'll be able to do a 7 book series if these guys stay assholes the entire time.

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