Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

13 reviews

abicaro17's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This book starts off so strong. Alessandra is the second daughter of an earl looking to gain power and acknowledgement by marrying the Shadow King, Kallias. The problem? She plans to kill him right after. Alessandra is cunning, vicious, manipulative, and talented in many ways. I think the general plot was so fun! I love a good murderess and mystery. Alessandra is fun to read as well with all her inner monologue and complex feelings about people. My issues with this book stem from development (or lack thereof). To me, Alessandra and the world building feel underdeveloped. Alessandra is supposed to be this devious murderess with this plot, but her idea is quite literally just to poison him and hope the blame gets placed on a neighboring kingdom. Also past the first few chapters she doesn't seem very murder prone. I think her initial characterization was much more interesting than what we were left with. My other issue stems from world building. In terms of kingdoms and the country laws we are never given any explanations. This leaves me at a loss at times for why things are the way they are politically. I think this book could definitely benefit from some elaboration and possibly a different ending? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexism, Violence, War, Alcohol, Gun violence, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Toxic friendship

baksaydora's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It was a bit slow for me at the beginning, but then the pace picked up and I really enjoyed it. I love the characters and their relationsips, the plot wasn't too complicated, but the twist at the end had me shooked. The audiobook was phenomenal, I really enjoyed the narrator's voice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Misogyny, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

vjlp22_reader's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and Grief

babwans's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Grief, Murder, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Child abuse

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Violence, Gaslighting, Slavery, Child death, Gun violence, Drug abuse, and Sexism

extrafolklore's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, and Grief

headinthepages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-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

4.5

I so enjoyed reading about Allessandra - a fiery independent murdress, and a shadow king brought together.

I loved the story and loved the romance and could happily read an entire series about these characters!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Infidelity, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Body horror, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

twiglt's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, and Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: War

brookey8888's review

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this! I really love the main characters she was probably my favorite part of the book. She was just so strong and unapologetic which I just loved. The romance was cute. I also really enjoyed the friendship aspect of this. The plot was interesting but wasn’t my favorite I just really like the characters and the relationships. I also liked the feminist tones of this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

rensreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

by chapter 2, i was seriously considering DNFing this book but i carried on because the synopsis promised me a love interest that hadn’t been introduced yet and i wanted a glimpse of him before i DNFed.

i’m so glad i waited for him. he carried this novel on his back, his poor shoulders must be breaking under the strain of all that success. kallias is my everything. he was the only reason i started liking alessandra. and by the time he learns of what she did to her first lover (though his age is never brought up, i’m still of the opinion that hektor groomed her) then laughs about it, i realized they really deserved each other.

(in reality, i started liking alessandra when she schemed her friend out of a marriage he would have hated and solved her own problem of unwanted suitors with it. how could i not adore a girlboss?)

the political intrigue and the plot were absolutely marvelous. i started suspecting the assassin by the time that he confessed to alessandra while kallias was listening. i kept wondering why alessandra didn’t see it until it was almost too late but i am glad that his sexism was what caused his demise. a man like him truly assumed that alessandra was nothing less than a noblewoman newly scorned by her ex-lover. what a mistake!

kallias was down bad for alessandra and i loved that fact by the end too lol definitely a 5 stars read for me (:

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror and Alcohol

Minor: Classism, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

Slut shaming happens a lot as well.