Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

22 reviews

offbrandclubsoda's review

adventurous hopeful 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? No

4.75

Excellent end to an excellent trilogy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault

blewballoon's review

adventurous tense 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

4.0

A strong conclusion to this series, I think. I was a little disappointed by the 2nd book in the series, but I enjoyed this one much more. My favorite element was the found family aspect, I was really happy to have the whole gang working together and seeing how the romances from the previous books were still thriving. Jack and Alan are fine, but I wasn't as captivated by their romance and character arcs as I was by Edwin and Robin. Edwin and Robin are hard to beat, though. I will say I didn't really care for the type of spicy scenes we had with Jack and Alan, so I zoned out for those. All of the books in the series were great as audiobooks, so I do recommend reading the series that way if you're interested.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Blood

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide

cardanrry's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Sexual assault and Pregnancy

r0secaptain's review against another edition

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

The main characters felt like they were there to just watch the story/plot happen, they didn't contribute much which is unfortunate. Really felt like the author didn't know what to do with non-magical characters. But the romance plot between Jack and Alan was amazing even given the relatively little time they had together; it swept me away and I think they've got to be my favorite match up in the series. It's only a shame they didn't get to spend more time together. Overall a good resolution to the trilogy though I think this book had more untapped potential. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Alcohol

cleot's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

sexual content involves consensual kink and mild consensual nonconsent but characters establish healthy limits before situation escalates

mallorypen's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

This was a fine end to this trilogy! Though this didn’t have the white-hot thrill of the first novel, I thoroughly enjoyed the two main protagonists and their story arc, and the last half of the book was full of wrapped loose ends, fraught emotional moments and nefarious plots.

The elements that brought this down from a 5 star read were mostly to do with the sprawling cast of characters. I did appreciate that Robin and Edwin played such a large role, and having met Maud and Violet in the last novel it did feel like the whole Scooby gang was finally together. That said, Jack was almost a little hard to follow from book to book, and that made his being one of the protagonists a little challenging at the get go. Similarly, Alan going from a C character to the other main protagonist further complicated my comprehension as a (admittedly) distracted reader. 

Much like the second novel, I think reading this series back to back would greatly improve my enjoyment. But, even with gaps between novels and a bit of a slow start, I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death

Minor: Sexual assault

aileron's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Gore, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

potatogrr's review against another edition

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault and Suicide

displacedcactus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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? Yes

Ok, so I really liked how this book wrapped up the meta story of the trilogy. The epilogue is downright cozy, y'all. Very satisfying.

Unfortunately, to get there, we have to have Jack and Alan as our narrators, and their relationship and sex life was just not to my taste. I wouldn't have picked this up as a stand-alone or start of a series, and while I wouldn't say their sexual exploits ruined the book for me, they were just less enjoyable for me than the relationships in the previous two books.

If you enjoy a lot of power dynamics, roleplay, and SA-adjacent fantasies, you'll probably enjoy this. Like Jack and Alan are clearly having a great time and being imaginative. The dirty talk is very banter-forward and very spicy. I'll also give Marske points for coming up with a way for them to establish consent and a sort of safe word which felt natural for the characters and the time period, while still letting modern readers feel comfortable that it was all in good fun.

Even though this book wasn't my favorite, I enjoyed the trilogy as a whole enough that I'll keep an eye out for future work from Marske.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Racism and Sexism

ramakn22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Pregnancy