Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

"Slippery Creatures (The Will Darling Adventures, #1)" by KJ Charles

2 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

SLIPPERY CREATURES is a dynamic story with vivid characters and intimate stakes for a former soldier come bookshop owner who keeps having his calm interrupted.

Normally I cannot stand books where one of the main characters is lying to the other, especially in the context of a relationship. I think what makes the difference is that Will figures out quickly that Kim is lying to him about some pretty important things, even if he doesn't know the precise shape of it for a while. Kim is fascinating as a character, but I would not want to hang around him in person. Will and Kim have a very nice time at their first meeting, but Kim keeps lying to him because he has priorities other than Will and it takes most of the book book to get to a point where Will might be more important to him than his prior commitments. Will for his part wants to know where he stands and wants everyone to stop messing up his life for the sake of something he originally didn’t know it was in his possession and has no desire to hold. 

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, I will keep reading the series because I want to know what happens next. Future books seem likely to deal more with Zodiac and the relationship between Kim and Will.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Confinement, Torture, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War, Grief, Death, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ateanalenn's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I have very rarely read books set in the twenties, so the whole world setting/worldbuilding was fascinating (and easy enough to follow).
The plot is fascinating and I barely could set the book down because I Needed To Know what was going to happen to Darling/what the mystery they were looking for was (and where it was). 
Secretan is the kind of second protagonist/love interest that you quite want to give a good kick to, but knowing the author, this whole business will be resolved with the next books. They did warn that the full HEA would only be resolved with the third book, so I knew what to expect when I saw how the relationship was turning. 
Darling made it really easy to relate to and I probably got too involved at some point lol. I started the second book right after finishing the first during my lunch break. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent and Terminal illness

The main character gets lied to repetitively by the new romantic partner who works with the authorities and manipulates him to get the info they're all looking for (and that the main character doesn't know where to find either). So the relationship is a whole "lust at first sight, sex, lie and deception, sex, lie and disappointment, sex, ..." But it might seem like a bad pattern (I think the cycle happens three times? something like that), but knowing the author (who did warn that the real HEA will not happen before book three of the series), I don't expect them to stand for such a lopsided relationship and the whole lying was offset by the fact that the main chara is too stubborn for his own good and the thing they were all looking for was really dangerous, and the other did try to not include sex in his manipulation).