Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark

60 reviews

poupimali's review against another edition

funny tense 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

5.0

Sophie Lark did it again. It is my first mafia romance fron her and it was joyfull.
I love the FMC Aida. This character made me laugh so many time with her sassy mouth. She is a hell well written character.
Just for her, you should read this.

It is:
- mafia romance
- enemies to lovers
- strong and skilled FMC 
- arranged marriage 
- forced proximity

It was a perfect reading balancing between the love story and the plots.
This is a good audiobook also (duo POV narrators)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death, Violence, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

yeriwithaj_'s review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

A lot more tamer than what I was anticipating but enjoyable. 

Not very memorable though, can’t really remember what the story is about other than I was expecting a lot more darkness than what I found.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

bookslovereaders's review against another edition

challenging dark funny lighthearted 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

3.75

This is my first Sophie Lark book, and it won’t be my last. 

It’s a Mafia Romance with all the tropes, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, touch her a 💀 vibes. 

It’s not a literary masterpiece but it was fun to read. The characters should not be taken seriously, the story even shouldn’t but it’s a bit of fun escapism where you can giggle and maybe gasp a time or two. It’s quick and easy to read and the characters you can either love or hate and I think that depends on if you like the book or not. 

I liked it purely for the reason it was fun, was there plot holes, yes, do I care not really. It has what I like in this type of book, funny characters, some spice a smidgeon of a plot and it’s a series following the family. 

I will be continuing this series, and I think it will be definitely one I go back to when I’m in a slump as it’s quick and easy to read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

vj_thompson's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

4.5

The writing took some time to get used to, but eventually I didn’t mind all the internal monologuing. It was tough to get through the first part of the book because of the immaturity of the two main characters but once they were together and married, their character development was significant. I surprisingly liked this book. I tend to stay away from mafia type romances because some times they can be a little too dark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Death, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Stalking, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Grief, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Torture, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

siad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent

linnea_tornblom's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Gore, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Blood, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Death, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

saoreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-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

Miscommunication tropes, enemies-to-lovers literal dramatics, and the rough tone of language, considering the age, were quite immature. There's this immediacy that was toxic to a relationship to start off, but it was easily consumed for the most part due to the short chapters. I'm not a big fan of the violence, and the storyline was a bit lackluster; the scenes were short, and if it was fast-paced, it was just that it was detailed on parts I don't like that much. Overall, there were areas that could have been improved and some side characters to be given spotlight. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Stalking, Confinement, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Murder, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

melb_reading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.75

First off: I absolutely adored the illustrations! I wish more authors would do this, as it gave such fun insight into the author’s world-building. 

This book had me hooked from the get-go at the potential for an angsty arranged marriage mafia romance with political intrigue. Aida, the take-no-prisoners daughter of Chicago’s Italian family was a clear match-made-in-hell for the stoic, proper, and politically ambitious Callum, only son of Chicago’s Irish family. 

The pacing felt rushed in their enemies-to-lovers journey, and the angsty push-and-pull that one expects with this trope didn’t have the depth it could have given the characters initial meeting and insta-hate. The tension just seemed to dissipate so easily and quickly. Though this absolutely does not stop the spice from being out of this world. 

Plot-wise, there was a lot going on at once, and some of the conflicts resolved a little too cleanly given the drama of the situations/surrounding circumstances. That said, the supporting characters and overall “gangs of Chicago” story had me going straight to the next book in the series.  

I received an ARC of this book from Bloom Publishing and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping and Torture

Minor: Sexual harassment

The fire and Aida saving Callum was somehow even more far fetched than when she saved them from the Polish mafia and they escaped through the passage into the river, but the ending where they got away and all was hunky dory was simply absurd.

lexi_hexi's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

booksalacarte's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Brutal Prince- 2⭐️ 3.25🌶️

Mafia Romance

Dual POV

Arranged marriage

True Enemies to lovers

Forced proximity

Bully moments

Age gap (10 years)

After a public incident between their children, 2 mafia fathers make a deal to have them marry to unite rival families.

I didn’t love the FMC. She came off as an immature and childish character for most of the book. My biggest issue was the strawberry allergy incident. Having a kid with a food allergy, I am very against allergies being used as a prank. Who the hell doesn’t take food allergies seriously?! The girl would have never been forgiven by me… And it’s on the cover? So is this the big draw to the book? Nope. That’s not tomboy/hellcat behavior. That attempted murder. And she doesn’t even think of the implications her actions would have on her family… ever.

Honestly the MMC wasn’t any better. He came off chauvinistic and depreciated the FMC, and women he dated in general… it was gross. Also, he was a 30 year old, living at home having his every thought taken care of by a housekeeper, chef and his parents.

This book wasn’t very lovey-Dovey. It was more enemies than lovers… well except that there were 4+ spicy scenes. So there was a bunch of lust.

There wasn’t and true character development. Nothing to show any growth. The main characters just stayed pretty flat while the plot raced through a bunch of quickly concluded plot points. 

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks bloom books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Classism, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Classism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Medical content, and Gore