Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

14 reviews

ashleynp24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

It was a nice and quick read that I did enjoy. I do think it started a little fast and there wasn’t a ton of buildup to the school. 

The main characters are lovable, but they need to stop being as gullible. That made parts of it hard to get through. Overall, a fun read and the ending murder did surprise me.

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cait's review

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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lovelymisanthrope's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.5

I picked this up because everyone seems to be raving about this series, and I was curious.
"The Awakening" follows twin sisters: Tory and Darcy. Tory and Darcy have been in the foster care system since they were orphaned as babies. Now, 18, and kicked out of the system, they are just trying to make enough money to cover rent. But all of those worries seem inconsequential when they find out they are actually the daughters of the Savage King, and they are the rightful descendants of the fae crown. Now they must go through Zodiac Academy to learn about their true home and fight for their birthright.
This book was very fine. There is a lot of violence, nonconsensual acts, and ALOT of bullying, which I had a pretty good idea about before I started reading this. I found the hazing that the other students put Tory and Darcy through to be really off-putting, and the fact that none of the teachers did anything to remotely stop it was disheartening.
This book is definitely HEAVILY influenced by other popular stories, which is fine, but it made the book feel unoriginal.
I do not know if I will continue in this series, but I can now appreciate why everyone seems so enamored with this series. 

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milla_b's review

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This is my first proper adventure into bully romance (The cruel prince was a toe in the water) and parts were a bit tough to swallow. I am curious to see how the relationships play out and how they move on especially after the the events book 1 left off from. 

Things I liked: 
• the storyline- really want to know more. And there’s a huge world that you’re being introduced to and I can’t help but want to know more about it beyond the Acadamy. 
• I like the characters and especially the twins 
• I’m on the fence about the Heirs, but not in the way that I don’t want to read about them, because I clearly have a thing for morally questionable characters….. 

Things that bugged me (but not enough to put me off):
• some of the writing, past and present tense. Some minor grammar errors and I think American idioms…..  idioms are not deal breakers but some are just personally a tad annoying for me. 

Overall I enjoyed it and will continue the series. Read it yourself and make up your own mind. 

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unicornofthesea's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.0


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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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lestie4short's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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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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sophiepeach's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0


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