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chrisb913's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
Please read the trigger warnings.
This was an absolute fantastic read from start to finish. Everything from the character growth and the world building was on point.
We start off the story with Keera, the Blade to the King and leader of his Arsenal. As the story progresses we see Keera struggle not only with her personal flaws but her commitment to the King. The character development of Keera through out the book had me desperate to continue the story.
This story has a little bit of everything. Lots of action, a mystery surrounding what is truly happening in the kingdom, a fantastic slow burn enemies to lovers subplot, and an absolute badass master assassin that is not ONLY a FMC but truly feels as though they have earned that title. Melissa writes Keera in such a way that truly outshines many other popular female lead assassin books out on the market today.
This is the first of the four book saga and i will absolutely be continuing on with this story. The first three books are out now and I HIGHLY recommend you pick this up and give it a try.
This was an absolute fantastic read from start to finish. Everything from the character growth and the world building was on point.
We start off the story with Keera, the Blade to the King and leader of his Arsenal. As the story progresses we see Keera struggle not only with her personal flaws but her commitment to the King. The character development of Keera through out the book had me desperate to continue the story.
This story has a little bit of everything. Lots of action, a mystery surrounding what is truly happening in the kingdom, a fantastic slow burn enemies to lovers subplot, and an absolute badass master assassin that is not ONLY a FMC but truly feels as though they have earned that title. Melissa writes Keera in such a way that truly outshines many other popular female lead assassin books out on the market today.
This is the first of the four book saga and i will absolutely be continuing on with this story. The first three books are out now and I HIGHLY recommend you pick this up and give it a try.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Alcoholism, Racism, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Self harm, and Xenophobia
bergha1998's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
3.75
I was not expecting this book to be so unique, I thought it would just be a Romantasy. But it’s so much more dialogues about racism, addiction, slavery. Very well done and interesting. I’m excited to read the second book.
Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, Character Development, 2 🔥
“And still he found beauty in the darkness of it, in my light and my shadows.”
Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, Character Development, 2 🔥
“And still he found beauty in the darkness of it, in my light and my shadows.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Genocide, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Grief, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Addiction, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual assault
ruthannejoy's review against another edition
The violence just was too much for me. Torturing and killing good people is not something I'm down to read about right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Torture, Xenophobia, and Murder
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Child death
elskede's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Vomit, Racism, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Death
anntharai's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
I do wonder if this book is a victim of its own hype. I was hesitant to read at first due to the hype around itd then when it came up available on my library app I thought it had been long enough but I still found myself with expectations. It was fine. I'm not sure if it felt like a cliff hanger, Straight up sequel bait, or like they wanted to write a longer book but split it in two...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Violence, Racism, Murder, Classism, Death, Blood, and Colonisation
Moderate: Torture
lamyamy's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, and Murder
cryosphinx's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Violence, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and War
Moderate: Alcohol and Colonisation
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Torture
whatkireads's review against another edition
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 🫶
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 🫶
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Alcohol, Self harm, Sexism, and Physical abuse
ljp817's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Sexual content, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Trafficking and Sexual harassment
molls's review against another edition
Bog standard tiktok fantasy. Not written in a way that kept me wanting to get through it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Blood, Slavery, Racism, and Murder