Reviews with content warning for Self harm - A Broken Blade (The Halfling Saga Book 1)

Tropey, poorly executed insta love, poorly written addiction, poorly written dialogue, poorly written action scenes (I did this, I swung, I crouched, I did this).
Made it about halfway nothing interesting happened.
Main character was insufferably bland and riddled with contradictions. She is the best assassin ever but the only two examples I saw were her killing two unarmed civilians. But don’t worry she feels so bad about she cuts their names into her skin even though the writing doesn’t let the readers feel any of her remorse. She’s the best assassin but not really because she’s struggling with alcoholism until oh wait no she’s not anymore with very little thought.
Overall extremely flat characters and writing.

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cryosphinx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

I did go into this not knowing much about it other than it was a debut from a First Nation author. When I started this, I wasn't sure if it was going to grab me. It took about around 100 pages for things to really start flowing but once it did, I started to really, REALLY enjoy this. The foreshadow was a bit too 'hey, look at this twist that's coming' so it was predictable. Keera is definitely the highlight of this book, being a bad ass but flawed FMC who has multiple struggles to work through and the back and forth with Riven is a delight. And there are parts that are so heart wrenching that i had to sit the book down and process it (Looking at you Ch. 25).

I can see why some people may not like this since it's a fairly trope heavy book. The author thanks BookTok and it does gear it towards that type of 'tell me the tropes' writing. My biggest complaint was about half way through the book I was over being reminded that Halfings had their ears altered. Very repetitive reminder to the readers to see it mentioned over and over. While there was a lot more political intrigue than I anticipated which I love as a trope, I feel like the colonialism could have been a bigger aspect. I hope the next books continue to talk about it but bring in more to the forefront.

But when I hit the 75% mark I immediately ordered the next one and pre-ordered 3 so I clearly enjoyed it. Give me tropey fantasy and I will devour it.

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elizatron's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I loved every minute of this book!

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readbynany's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This the kind of book that white straight people would complain about on booktok 😭😭. The writing and story was impeccable and captivating, only thing I had trouble following was fight or action scenes.
The fmc is bi and the mmc is a moc!

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whatkireads's review against another edition

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adventurous relaxing fast-paced

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

3.5

3.5⭐️
I don't know how to feel about this book because in the beginning, the main character threw me off.

I didn't really like that she was wallowing so much, like girl how are you an assassin an also a drunkard at the same time?? but maybe I just haven't wrapped my head around flawed fmcs just yet. It was slow, and then suddenly I find myself staying up late to read and picking this up first thing in the morning to read for 3 hours straight. The "romance" here feels a bit rushed, it went from him hating her guts and barely trusting her to oh she broke her bones so I love her now, like the shift was a bit drastic. I didn't like how she just caved into it either, would have been nice to see more tension developed. The ending was...a little unexpected I can't say I saw that coming but it's also somewhat of a rushed ending too? It's a trilogy that has time to be adapted so it's fine but I did enjoy the book at the end of the day so can't wait to read the next few ones 🫶

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ljp817's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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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ddog8's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.25

Updated review

I took a better look at reviews and spoilers for the second book.

There are unfortunately love triangle vibes. Two tropes I will not read are love triangles and surprise pregnancy.
Suuuuuuch a pity 😞😞😞😞

Regardless, the first book was great! Highly recommend if you can deal with the above for the second book.

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Initial Review

I randomly picked this up at an airport waiting to fetch my mom and it's been on my bookshelf for a month. I picked it up last night as I felt like reading something romantasy.

I am so glad that I did.
While I am a sucker for Fae/Elves, assassins, strong FMCs, found family and enemies to lovers; I am not a fan of politically driven, deception focused, series of books.
Having said that, this book kept my attention the whole way. I am sure that the second book will contain more politics, deception betrayals and misdirection (which I will suffer through 😃) but I am excited to follow the band of friends.

I love Keera (FMC), she is a flawed character but her growth is fantastic to watch. Plus, she is just really bad-***
I feel that Riven (MMC) pales in comparison. I hope we get to know him more in the following books.

Spice level🌶 1/5 but much tension

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