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helpme71's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cursing, Child death, Death of parent, War, Trafficking, and Kidnapping
mortonsspoon's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- 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
This book is drastically underrated, especially for Kindle Unlimited (which usually hosts poorly-edited, sappy fantasy--not that I don't read it anyway).
The main characters were interesting and likeable. They were also complex and had conflicting motivations and needs, which is refreshing. I thought the romance progressed a little fast, but not unbelievably so. I despise love triangles, so I was glad the "love triangle" in this book isn't really a love triangle at all.
I only have a few complaints: there are only two female main characters and one of them (spoilers) spend all but the very end of the book locked up and tortured. Her parts of the plot were...mediocre at best, since they generally amounted to three or four pages about how she is still locked up and tortured. I also think this book could probably have been a bit streamlined with more thorough editing, but it's not super distracting as-is. I just skimmed some parts when it got repetitive. However, it didn't need to clock in at ~700 pages and I think the length is to its detriment at times.
Honestly, the length didn't bother me while I was reading it, but the lack of women did...not that that's unusual in fantasy as a whole. Still, when almost all the significant characters *and* side characters are men (with the exception of the cool assassin lady we barely see, two villains, and the MC's grandma, only present for a few chapters), it stands out in kind of a weird way. Same goes for people of color (only the guy who betrays her, really--and he's treated like crap for being a "foreigner" throughout the whole book), lgbtq+ folks (with the exception of a throwaway line at the end), etc. It was just kind of glaringly not diverse in any way, especially given the otherwise interesting worldbuilding and large cast of characters.
That said, I did enjoy it and intend to read the rest of the series.
The main characters were interesting and likeable. They were also complex and had conflicting motivations and needs, which is refreshing. I thought the romance progressed a little fast, but not unbelievably so. I despise love triangles, so I was glad the "love triangle" in this book isn't really a love triangle at all.
I only have a few complaints: there are only two female main characters and one of them (spoilers) spend all but the very end of the book locked up and tortured. Her parts of the plot were...mediocre at best, since they generally amounted to three or four pages about how she is still locked up and tortured. I also think this book could probably have been a bit streamlined with more thorough editing, but it's not super distracting as-is. I just skimmed some parts when it got repetitive. However, it didn't need to clock in at ~700 pages and I think the length is to its detriment at times.
Honestly, the length didn't bother me while I was reading it, but the lack of women did...not that that's unusual in fantasy as a whole. Still, when almost all the significant characters *and* side characters are men (with the exception of the cool assassin lady we barely see, two villains, and the MC's grandma, only present for a few chapters), it stands out in kind of a weird way. Same goes for people of color (only the guy who betrays her, really--and he's treated like crap for being a "foreigner" throughout the whole book), lgbtq+ folks (with the exception of a throwaway line at the end), etc. It was just kind of glaringly not diverse in any way, especially given the otherwise interesting worldbuilding and large cast of characters.
That said, I did enjoy it and intend to read the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture
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