Scan barcode
wardenred's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Well, this was an interesting experience! I really, really loved the romance and the two leads' character arcs. These parts of the books were handled absolutely beautifully. The slow burn? The gradual growth fueled by all the realizations? The way Kadou and Evemer just worked together? The themes of fealty? The way Kadou's anxiety was handled? Evemers entire personality? Aspects of so many of my favorite tropes woven together into one glorious tapestry, from enemies to lovers to bodyguard romance to fake dating? Perfection, really. In terms of all this, the book hit all of my buttons.
Everything around the romance, though... The more I read on and the closer I looked at the other aspects of the novel, the more weirdly artificial everything around the two main characters looked. On the surface, the Ottoman-inspired setting was brimming with detail, from infodumps about currency to the smaller stuff like all the descriptions of food and clothes. But somehow, most of it felt like digging deeper would reveal a glaring void rather than a larger iceberg. And hey, you know what, that is often indeed the case with SFF novels that aren't *about* worldbuilding! Half the magic of writing sometimes is about arranging the stuff you have in a way that makes readers feel that it goes so much deeper than it does. But here, those tricks just felt strangely obvious. Like almost everything about the setting mattered inasmuch as it affected the main characters and their budding relationship.
There were two aspects of the worldbuilding that I found genuinely interesting and thought-provoking. One, in a good way: the way inheritance works, the whole deal with body-fathers, how female rulers don't need to marry because everyone already understands their children are their own/belong to the dynasty, whereas male rulers have to marry to have the legal claim as fathers. This here is a lot of cool stuff. The other aspect, I'm more on the fence about, although I appreciate it: the active inclusion of nonbinary characters, or rather, the way it was handled. On one hand, it was incredibly cool that there were so many, that society is fully accepting of nonbinary characters, that there's an accepted third set of pronouns, etc! I love this! On the other hand, as a nonbinary person I disliked how all of them were basically shoved into the same category. There are men, women, and there's a third gender. Here are three boxes to sort yourselves into instead of two. Um. Call. What if someone doesn't fit into any of the boxes regardless? What about genderfluid people? It's inclusive on one hand, and constraining on another in a way I feel the treatment of nonbinary identities just shouldn't be. Idk. I'd rather stand under an umbrella than live in a box, personally.
Then there's the external plot, and, my. That's the whole reason this could never be more than a four-star read read for me. It was just so utterly shallow and at times silly! Even more so than with the worldbuilding, every bit of it glaringly, obviously, starkly existed to allow for hitting the romance plot beats at the right times. The villain might as well have been walking around with a big neon sign, "HELLO I'M THE BAD GUY," and the fact it took hundreds of pages to uncover the whole mystery/conspiracy says nothing good about plenty of the characters. In fact, it completely ruins the initially strong characterization of the female characters—Zeliha and Eozena—which is a damn shame. With Zeliha in particular, it's just so frustrating. She initially looked like a strong, capable, complex woman juggling a lot of important threads, but apparently, she just needed to listen more to her younger brother early on and the fact she didn't paints her in a rather strange light at the end. I kept waiting for some twist to occur and prove to me that the "big neon sign" was in a fact a red herring, but noooo.
The romance, though. The romance and its development. That sure deserves all the stars, just as the deep delves into both leads' inner worlds (I come from fanfic, okay, I'm a sucker for 500-pages character studies) and Rowland's amazing prose. So all in all, I liked the time I spent with the book—and picking apart all of its element to see the purpose of each was fun and educating in its own way!
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Confinement and Violence
discarded_dust_jacket'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
3.25
This is entirely personal preference, but I would’ve liked if the pacing of the romance was a bit quicker. I understand it’s a slow burn, but this was a SLOOWWWWW burn, lol. Again, totally personal preference. It was still a joy to read.
Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Confinement, Drug use, and Kidnapping
bookishwondergoth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Bullying, and Confinement
bookcaptivated's review
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Minor: Classism, Confinement, Cursing, and Animal death
dododenise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The story is almost entirely character focused and I loved that. The plot, including politics, mysteries, violence and betrayal served only the characters. Because of that the plot itself wasn’t revolutionary. Instead, there was so much care put into the characters.
It was a delicious slow burn, with so much yearning and pining. Getting so close to getting together and then pulling apart again and it just pulled at my heartstrings with them. There were so many tender moments between them. The book took its time on long conversation and really developing the characters and their relationships. This was a slow burn perfectly executed. And added to that, a wonderful cast of side characters that I have also learned to adore, including a nonbinary aro ace character who I obviously was a fan of. But all of them found a place in my heart.
Just give me hundreds of books like this and I will be happy.
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Mental illness, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Animal death
Minor: Pregnancy and Grief
thecatconstellation'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
4.25
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Murder, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Minor: Blood, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, War, and Pregnancy
cait's review
- 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
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Classism, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Death, and Kidnapping
maregred's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
3.0
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cursing
Minor: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Violence
takemetomilos'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
4.25
Graphic: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Confinement
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent
immovabletype's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Sexual content, Confinement, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Torture, Blood, Cursing, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent and Pregnancy