Reviews with content warning for Death - Two Twisted Crowns

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig

231 reviews

plainromance's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

caitsreadingcorner's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

This is a phenomenal sequel, the right way to close out a duology.

The budding romance between Elm and Ione is so beautiful. I absolutely adore Elm. He is witty, cunning, clever and just plain good. The scene of him screaming into the void in the woods and mentally breaking free of the chains of his past and the torture he endured at the hands of Hauth? My heart swelled. He is so considerate of Ione’s feelings, understands what it feels like to bend to someone else’s will and when he discovers the cruel truth of how she was treated by Hauth, it only fuels his fire more to make things right, to undo the crooked, twisted reign of his family. Ione is so strong willed and brave in this book and I love that for her.

Hauth made me so irrationally angry. He might be the most cruel, vile and disgusting villain ever. As much as I disliked the king, my disdain for Hauth was far greater. I wanted nothing more than to jump into the pages and get rid of him myself. That is good, compelling writing and I applaud Gillig for that.

I very much liked the transformation the Nightmare went through. Though I wasn’t as interested in Elspeth’s scenes of being trapped in his mind, the weaving together of the story of the Shepherd King and his hubris was very well written. It not only cleared up a lot of questions, it really hammered out the relationship between the Yews and the Rowans. The lust, the greed for more power (even if intentions start out good), can so quickly distort a man. The Shepherd King sacrificed so much, you start to really feel sadness for him and understand why he (in his own strange way) cares so much about Elspeth. Him wanting to rewrite his story and restore balance is heartwarming even though he is a bit irritating between his riddles and sharp tongue.

When

Elm was parted from Ione and Hauth used the Maiden card to restore his health, it took everything in me not to sob. Seeing the Scythe card used on him again, him being helpless as Hauth made Ione bleed….Elm is so precious, I was shattering. Also, I was so distraught when he stabbed Ravyn. He didn’t deserve that sense of satisfaction. He got what he deserved and I am so glad that Elm and Ione were the ones to reunite the deck and lift the mist.

. All the happy endings in this book were well deserved, especially for Emory.

My only qualm with this book was that Elspeth and Ravyn wanted so badly to be together again, for her to be free of the Nightmare’s grip. I ached for them to touch, to kiss, to yearn for one another and make up for lost time but their reunion fell flat. I understand wanting the focus to be on Ione and Elm in this book but that is the main reason I knocked the rating for this book.

Cannot recommend this duology enough.

Be wary. Be clever. Be good.

Content Warnings

roobeer's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark tense

Definitely different from the first book as it goes more into the lore and explanations and focuses on the other characters beyond Elspeth. Slow start, but picks up later. Really liked the Elm and Ione storyline and it had me hooked. My main gripe is that you lose so much of Elspeth in this book when she was the main character in the first one. And you end book 1 rooting for her and Ravyn, but you barely see their connection in this one and their reunion fell flat. The ending felt a little rushed.

Content Warnings