Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - A Promise of Fire

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

21 reviews

louisallama's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The book started out fairly strong, and I enjoyed the banter between Cat and Griffin and all the side characters were fun, but that's about it.
Cat is in a constant cycle of 'I feel so drawn to Griffin but I can't trust or love him because of my mysterious (and horrifically obvious) past, but oops I'm telling him things I swore I'd never tell anyone and now I'm kissing him back and then hitting him immediately after'. Seriously, she goes back and forth every other page, it's infuriating, and she's not portrayed as mature or serious enough to pull it off well.
Griffin ends up being pretty abusive towards Cat imo. He never lets her make her own decisions, never trusts her word, is insanely jealous and possessive of her, and there ends up being a lot of dubious consent in the latter half of the book.
Also *spoilers for the ending*

isn't Cat supposed to have magical self healing powers? How come that never comes up at the end of the book when she's stabbed in the gut by Daphne and is bleeding to death? Unless I'm blind, there's not even a throwaway line to hand-wave it away because she's ~too weak~ from using her powers all night. She can get in the way of dragon fire and the arrow that fried her to a crisp and put her arms in a ball of flames and be absolutely dandy, but she can't self heal enough from a knife to the gut to go get help? Correct me if I'm wrong because that's the biggest dumb as shit plot hole.

The plot wasn't strong enough to make up for these overwhelming character flaws, and while the writing was decent, I'm not surprised that this is a debut novel.

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reading_srsly's review against another edition

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adventurous

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? Yes

4.25

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mimi30's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I had hoped for a little more from this book. It has all the necessary things for a great adventure/ fantasy book but some things fell short or hindered it. The romance was one aspect. Griffin doesn't know what the word no means. Cat's lust for Griffin doesn't make sense to me with the amount of hate she has after the kidnapping. So their relationship, to me, needed more buildup? And more character development.
I'm going to read the next one purely for Cat's secrets and to find out more about the gods. Hopefully the romance is better than the 1st book.

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annabelle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

This was a fun read with an interesting world. Unfortunately, the relationship development was a bit clunky to me and I didn’t love the writing style.

Also, I don’t think there was enough plot payoff at the end of this book… the book just kinda ended without any big reveals or conclusions. I enjoyed it enough to continue the series and I’m interested to see what happens next but I definitely didn’t love this.

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r1vana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Happiness is a strange, frightening, fragile feeling when you're not used to it.

This series may become one of my favourite fantasy romance I’ve read so far. I’ve had this on my kindle for a while and decided to give it a try.

This story has a mix of romance, action and magic. I enjoyed every moment!

This story is from Cat’s pov, our strong, fierce, sarcastic heroine.

She is part of a circus, with people who she consider family. Something she never knew what it was due to growing up in an abusing household aka F-up mother…

We get to see how feisty she becomes when she meets the Ml, Griffin and his three right hands. Like Cat legit says ew after G kisses her internally knowing that was the best kiss she ever had.

Griffin has been on a journey to find the Kingmaker for his kingdom’s protection and future. So, when he sees Cat with her thousand pound makeup, he knew that she was the one. So, he kidnaps her and brings her to his home. Over half of the book, it’s all about their journey to his home. And also, we get to see the sexual tension between G and C.

And it is piping hot.

I love how the author uses of mythology and the Gods with her own touches. I love how we get to see from Cat’s pov on how power and hierarchy is used and how strict and F-up it can be and should be. Which makes the world building more interesting.

The way she interpreted in her story was not confusing.

Beside the world building, the characters were definitely the highlights.

cat is a strong women who has never known kindness until her circus family and G and his friends and family. We see how she is pushing G back because she knows that the more she is with him, the more he will be in danger: “This is madness. How can madness feel so good?" . Again her potty mouth and sarcastic persona is hilarious: “Have I cheated death again? Hades must be allergic to me.”
Griffin I was sceptical of him at first. He sometimes sounded like a douche. But he definitely grew on me. I love how he is verbally and physically protective over Cat. That girl needs it for all the years… and he has ways with words… honestly…: "You're bright like a star. You shine for me now, but the sky turns. Where will you shine tomorrow? Or the day after? I won't let you go, not without a fight that would make Gods tremble."
Carver, Flynn and Kato. Griffin’s close armoured friends/allies/ right hands… I love their dynamics with Cat and how protective they were especially Flynn and Kato, whenever Cat has nightmares and they are there to comfort when she didn’t ask them to.
When Cat met Griffin’s family, I was skeptical because I taught they were gonna be a-hole like any other books. But they were warm and welcoming to her and were also pushing her to accept Griffin’s feelings for her.

One of the funniest thing I’ve read is how “Griffin’s liquid warmth” healed her. The cringe I made when I read that line…. But o’well at first Cat knows how to heal herself…

—

What to expect for the next book maybe?:

her blood connections with her mother.( she needs to dilute her blood so her mother can’t track her)
How will Griffin will react to Cat’s actual identity
How or will Cat become more powerful?
What will happen within the kingdom

W: blood; violence; child abuse; animal cruelty/death; attempt of murder; owd that is tolerable; sexual content

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katkfern's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

3.75

I haven’t immediately been sucked into a book in a while, but this one had me wanting to do nothing but read as soon as I picked it up. Yes, Cat is kind of immature (though I’m hoping that’s starting to change), and yes, certain things seem kind of predictable and obvious

(hi, there’s a lost princess and an angry Andr(M)omeda),

but still. I’ve been needing a book like this one.

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