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siglerbooknook'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? It's complicated
5.0
Katria is an immediately loveable leading lady with a Cinderella feel. Davien is the perfect balance of brooding, powerful, and genuinely good. It was so nice to read a romance with a leading man who is actually romantic and not morally gray and dangerous all the time.
The side characters in this book are absolutely adorable and loveable. Kova perfectly captures the quippy comic relief, the beauty of inner strength, and perseverance despite fear.
I adored that this story didn't rely on miscommunication or selfishness to create conflict. Davien and Katria spend so much of the book truly learning and growing together that it was refreshing to read. Even the spicy scenes weren't over the top. They fit the story and didn't take away from the plot.
Kova did an amazing job keeping her character growth believable. I enjoyed that Davien had been training as a warrior his whole life and Shaye was a trained warrior. I also truly appreciated that Katria didn't lose all of her feminity to find her strength. Her strength enhanced her character.
There are some grammar and spelling errors throughout the book. The plot twists are definitely easy to spot, but the way Kova handled them was incredibly enjoyable. I didn't have it in me to rate this anything less than 5 stars. I haven't loved a new book this much since childhood.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Bullying, and Abandonment
Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Sexual content
Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Sexual content, Body horror, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Gaslighting, and Violence
itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Turns out this book was not what I expected it to be, both for good and bad reasons.
Things I liked about this book:
- I take back what I said about feeling elf and fae magic were the wrong way around because I liked the execution of rituals (especially coming off the back of watching a playthrough of Alan Wake 2 where rituals are a big deal in that game). I still think they could have gone into more depth in places but it was an interesting magic system.
- All of the side characters in Midscape were interesting and I was really invested in their relationships.
Things I felt neutral on:
Katria being not only fae but the lost heiress to the throne gave me mixed feelings. I think Kova definitely played her hand on the big twist a bit too early in the story and it kept being foreshadowed in ways a bit too obvious for my liking. I don't mind the twist itself, I just think it could have been better executed, maybe with her finding out she's fae and THEN much later that she's the heiress and not both reveals so closely back to back. - I have mixed opinions on Katria as an abuse victim and her recovery leading onto self-actualisation. I like that her trauma wasn't immediately healed by love, and she had to unpack what she went through. That said I had two issues that bothered me:
I don't like the fact that the romance itself in the end is what "healed" her. Yes you can learn to love through a romantic partner, and yes Davien did stress that love comes in many non-romantic forms. I understand I'm coming across as a bit stupid for complaining about this in a romance book, but I feel Katria could have bonded more with the side characters if familial love/the love of friendship was as important as romantic love. - I want to preface this by saying that I have no issue with Katria acting out despite being told various times not to do this. It's a realistic thing for some abuse victims to lash out against people trying to help them or completely uninvolved parties. My problem comes from the fact that it felt like the same thing over and over again for the sake of conflict, rather than Katria acting out in various ways which would be more realistic, in my opinion. It was always "someone tells her not to do x and makes her promise not to" > "she promises" > "she ends up breaking the promise and things go to shit" > "the other person is mad at her but they shrug it off instead of discussing in depth" (the incident with the old crone near the start is a notable exception).
Things I didn't like/felt could have been improved:
- The plot felt like Kova was initially going for one thing and then swerved into another the moment Katria interrupted the ritual and everyone had to flee into Midscape; as if she combined two different drafts together a bit haphazardly. Once they reached Dreamsong it felt a lot more cohesive but getting there was a bit of a slog.
- The dynamic of the romance didn't hit for me like it did with Elf King. I understand that Davien was supposed to be torn between his duty as an heir apparent and being in an arranged marriage to a wife he is slowly falling for. The problem was that the transition between being duty bound and following his heart felt too sudden. Also I feel like the dynamic at the beginning where Katria wasn't allowed to look at him was filled with wasted potential.
- Note for all aspiring writers: Can we PLEASE stop trying to insert omegaverse themes into faerie smut, subtly or not. Faeries are creatures different from humans and should not be subject to our constructs of gender, so why are we so hellbent on shoving cisheteronormative gender essentialism into our smut when it has no place being there (or anywhere for that matter, it's 2023 for god's sake). What the fuck do you mean by "a way a man and woman could fit together conceptually"?
- The ending was super rushed and had so much lost potential that I would have liked to have seen.
I wanted to see the visit of Eldas and Luella. I wanted to see Katria's magic lessons. There was just so much that happened and we get the sparknotes version.
I think I'm going to wait until Wolf Knight comes out because I'm not a fan of vampires and I've heard Kova shot herself in the foot a bit with the handling of themes in Siren Duke. And maybe because I'm a furry.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Blood, Sexual content, Body horror, Death of parent, and Violence
Minor: Animal death
bookhoarderbea's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse
selestre's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, and War
mari_library's review
The romance is very underdeveloped and the love interest just feels problematic. His constant disregard to her while still admitting he loves her does not give what its supposed to.
The way the love interest just pulled a Tamlin and changed completely when the heroine entered the fae realm was very off putting. But I was willing to go for a bully romance. But this is not a bullying, this is gaslighting. Every time she tries to tell her his suspicion or tell him she's uncomfortable with having a romance, he disregards her as being dramatic and human. Like the whole scene in the cabin is horrendous because she clearly wasn't comfortable being intimate with him and he's like "you're just thinking too much". Or when she tells him she's suspicious of a very suspicious character, he's like "well you're human, you wouldn't understand". I can't express how NOT OKAY this is.
So I'm just gonna put it down, I'm not going to force myself to read this if I'm not enjoying it. It might be for some people but definitely not for me.
Graphic: Gaslighting, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
deardarlingreader's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Child abuse and Gaslighting
abrich's review
3.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Murder, and Sexual content
bailey1196's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Minor: Violence and Child abuse