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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition
3.5
I thought the characters were interesting along with the world. It was a little slow in some places for me, but I enjoyed it regardless.
Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Blood, and Death
midnacine'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
I had a hard time getting into this at first, which was really surprising to me cuz pirates are like... my thing. Around 80 pages, while I loved the characters introduced, I found myself just not clicking with the book as much as I wanted to. It could very well just be me taking time to warm to a new series, because I consider myself notorious on that front. It could have also just been that I was trying desperately to not pick up a new book as soon as it released (I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague). But I think the main culprit is just there's a ton of exposition that's not extremely necessary to the plot of the book- maybe it could have been saved for later, even for book two. But once we were introduced to Vataea, that something clicked.
I'm not sure if I just sensed the missing dynamic when Vataea wasn't there or what, because it wasn't her character itself that made the book hard to put down, just the fact that she kind of pulled everything together. All of the sudden, I could actually read 20-40 pages at a time without even realizing it. And the little bit of romance between Amora and Bastian coming to fruition didn't hurt, either.
To me, the best part about this book were the last 150 pages. Riding the emotional journey of discovering the Montara family's secret with Amora was incredibly satisfying, as well were all of the battle scenes we get to experience from her perspective. And the internal struggle she faces in the final act? It was the nail in the coffin that got me to connect with Amora on a deeper level.
Overall, I really enjoy Adalyn Grace's writing style and I look forward to reading the second! Maybe I'll even add Belladonna to my TBR soon!
Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and War
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Rape
jojo_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Grief, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Sexual content, and War
Minor: Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Confinement
offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The world building was decent, though the explanation of soul magic was a bit confusing and hard to follow. There was some info-dumping at the beginning which always turns me off a bit, but it wasn’t unforgivable.
I thought the plot was somewhat rushed, and I especially thought the romance was built up too quickly and didn’t feel real to me. I like when the author makes me work for it haha
I was disappointed that mermaids weren’t more involved in the plot.
In one sentence, I would say the book has a similar vibe to a Court of Thorns and Roses, but not as good.
Spice level: 🌶🌶/5
Specific to the audiobook:
I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely love audiobooks, so a negative review is rare from me. Unfortunately, I strongly disliked the narration of this book and would recommend skipping the audiobook. The narrator seemed too focused on creating different voices for each character, and ended up making most of them sounds incredibly annoying…I also noticed some weird editing where it was obvious that different takes had been spliced together. Finally, the narrator’s constant pronunciation of silent G’s grated my nerves the entire book. (“ding-Guh-y”, “sing-Guh-ing”, etc).
Graphic: Blood and Torture
Moderate: Violence, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Slavery, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, War, Death of parent, Death, Trafficking, Medical content, and Alcohol
brookey8888's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence
nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
3.0
I did enjoy this book but it was kind of slowed paced in regards that it took literally the whole book to get to where they were going and the defeat of the “bad guy” was wrapped up in like 3 chapters. Things were a bit too convenient.
I really did love Bastian. He’s your typical bad boy with a heart of gold. He’s honestly the only character I truly cared about lol
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Self harm
Minor: Sexual assault and Toxic relationship