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meghansarmiento97's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
cozywithraven's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
4.5
I really enjoyed this book. The plot was fresh and exciting. The reason I didn't go with 5 stars was because I personally felt like some things could have been explained more thoroughly, I struggled to figure out where everyone was positioned during the fight scenes and some of the worldbuilding was so obvious to our MC's POV that they weren't always expanded on.
The world is a really cool concept, I liked most of the magic system, I liked the main character because she didn't feel like a generic stand-in; she was opinionated and skilled appropriately for the journey, and self-aware.
The ending felt jumbled for me, we had been away from the starting point for so long that I couldn't remember any of the opening characters' names or roles.
The world is a really cool concept, I liked most of the magic system, I liked the main character because she didn't feel like a generic stand-in; she was opinionated and skilled appropriately for the journey, and self-aware.
The ending felt jumbled for me, we had been away from the starting point for so long that I couldn't remember any of the opening characters' names or roles.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Death, Fire/Fire injury, War, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Slavery, and Domestic abuse
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
For generations the Montara family has ruled over the archipelago kingdom of Visidia, wielding the soul magic that is their birthright.
But when the young Princess Amora steps up for the crowning test of her soul magic, disaster strikes and Amora is forced to flee her home. Befriending a pirate and sailing amongst the islands of Visidia, can she uncover the curse that plagues her family?
The book was okay. I definitely liked the premise and fantasy aspects, with the chain of magic islands and their magical specialties. The mermaid character was also great and lived up to the fantastical and terrifying legends.
I also felt that the expectations set up at the beginning of the book are satisfactorily addressed by the end. For example, at the beginning of the book when we hear theglorified children's story about the founding of the kingdom , it is obviously false and we expect to see this revealed at some point. This does indeed happen by the end of the novel.
Finally, I thought the way the Big Bad was approached was quite interesting, aseven though his motivations were revealed as good, Amora was still not satisfied with his plans, refused to concede to him, and is determined to lead the kingdom in her own way .
In terms of pacing, it was perfect. I always felt the plot moved at a good speed and that things were happening on time.
Character-wise, I initially liked Amora. She's not a stereotypical delicate waif princess; instead, she is physically strong, brave, and her dedication to saving her kingdom is endearing.
However, I started getting annoyed with her in certain scenes, such aswhen Bastian reveals that Kaven is his brother, and she sanctimoniously tells him "I forgive you". It was Bastian's choice as to whether or not to reveal this - what on earth is she forgiving him for?
Amora was so comfortable pulling rank as princess that she had no qualms about acting coldly towards her subjects, e.g.during her arguments with Ferrick and Bastian . It didn't seem like she grew as a person during the novel; she merely learned more backstory about her kingdom and family. It was the same Amora who took her crowning test at the start of the novel, and who had her coronation at the end of the novel.
I also had trouble with the flowery writing style. There are a lot of protracted internal dialogues and descriptions, most of which I ended up skimming over. Some dialogue is also rather melodramatic and over-the-top, e.g.during Bastian's confession, when he's saying "I don't deserve your forgiveness. I don't deserve anyone's" despite the fact that he did nothing wrong .
Another issue was the way the author continually used the names of gems when referring to colours. This led to misunderstandings where I first thought people were actually bedecked in gems, when they were just wearing coloured clothes. For example:
But when the young Princess Amora steps up for the crowning test of her soul magic, disaster strikes and Amora is forced to flee her home. Befriending a pirate and sailing amongst the islands of Visidia, can she uncover the curse that plagues her family?
The book was okay. I definitely liked the premise and fantasy aspects, with the chain of magic islands and their magical specialties. The mermaid character was also great and lived up to the fantastical and terrifying legends.
I also felt that the expectations set up at the beginning of the book are satisfactorily addressed by the end. For example, at the beginning of the book when we hear the
Finally, I thought the way the Big Bad was approached was quite interesting, as
In terms of pacing, it was perfect. I always felt the plot moved at a good speed and that things were happening on time.
Character-wise, I initially liked Amora. She's not a stereotypical delicate waif princess; instead, she is physically strong, brave, and her dedication to saving her kingdom is endearing.
However, I started getting annoyed with her in certain scenes, such as
Amora was so comfortable pulling rank as princess that she had no qualms about acting coldly towards her subjects, e.g.
I also had trouble with the flowery writing style. There are a lot of protracted internal dialogues and descriptions, most of which I ended up skimming over. Some dialogue is also rather melodramatic and over-the-top, e.g.
Another issue was the way the author continually used the names of gems when referring to colours. This led to misunderstandings where I first thought people were actually bedecked in gems, when they were just wearing coloured clothes. For example:
A man in amethyst lunges for us ...
a time-wielding Ker in deep amethyst
When something is "in [gem]" (like "in amber"), it means it is physically embedded in a chunk of the gem. But the author only meant that these people are wearing purple clothes. And again, later:
The crowd before us is a shifting wave of black, pinks and reds, greens and blues--and even white--that stills as we approach. But there's no amethyst.
The word is "purple". But the same problem occurs with other colours, too:
A woman ... dons a Suntosan emerald cape
The word is "green" - the cape was not emerald, or it would be heavy and would be crunching as it moved. (An alternate wording that fixes the problem would be a Suntosan cape of emerald cloth.)
A little blond girl ... singes the edge of her ruby shawl.
The word is "red". The shawl is not ruby, or it would have been impossible to singe it. (Alternate wording: ruby-coloured shawl.)
If the author simply wanted to use some more interesting words for these colours, some alternate options are charcoal, slate-grey, crimson, vermillion, golden, verdigris-green, sky-blue, lavender, periwinkle, azure, bone-white, cerise, nut-brown, etc.
If the author simply wanted to use some more interesting words for these colours, some alternate options are charcoal, slate-grey, crimson, vermillion, golden, verdigris-green, sky-blue, lavender, periwinkle, azure, bone-white, cerise, nut-brown, etc.
The conclusion of the book was rather jarring since it ends in a series of sudden twists, reveals, and changes. We're talking 10+ twists, e.g.
Despite my complaints, the overall aesthetic of the book is very Young Adult, it's a decent YA setup, and YA fans will probably enjoy it regardless. At times it feels like a dozen YA tropes blended into one novel, but if you enjoy YA tropes, that's not a bad thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Trafficking, and Blood
Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol
Violence, Death, Gore: Appears occasionally, including dismemberment of limbs.Trafficking: A mythical creature is being kept as a trafficked slave.
Blood: A character's menstruation ruins her trousers.
Alcohol: The main characters get drunk.
Sexual content: Fade-to-black between the main character and another character.
midnacine's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
4.5
"The world doesn't work with only your eyes, Princess. There's truth in more than what you can see."
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!
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!
Content Warnings
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
kshertz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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
3.75
This was an adventure to follow the princess. I like the fantasy elements and that there’s some romance though that’s not the focus. I enjoyed it and hope that the nation will come together to be the best nation it can be. But I was not invested enough to continue with the series. Sometimes I got confused with what was real and what was a curse that was making the narrator unreliable. But for the most part, it’s an engaging read that keeps you guessing to the end!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
planetshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
4.0
This story felt like every other YA fantasy. I was told this is contains a unique magic system, but the basic ideas of it are common, and blood magic is nothing new.
However, it isn’t bad, and the audiobook was very well done.
However, it isn’t bad, and the audiobook was very well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
angstifies's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
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
3.75
i had a fun time with this book, didn’t connect much with the characters and i’ll admit i wasn’t interested in the romance at all, those two characters together didn’t make sense to me and i found some things very predictable. the magic and the world were really cool i wish we got even more of that!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Confinement
jojo_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
eve_o's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and War
Moderate: Death of parent and Grief
Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Child death
offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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
This was a decent fantasy romance book. I didn’t absolutely love it, but I will probably read the sequel.
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).
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).
Content Warnings
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