Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Bloodmarked: The Legendborn Cycle, Book 2

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Bloodmarked: The Legendborn Cycle, Book 2 by Tracy Deonn

128 reviews

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional mysterious 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

anjasshelf's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-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

Content Warnings

sephiefoxx's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous 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

“You brought honour to your Line, and I don’t mean Arthur’s. You don’t need the sword, Bree. You are the sword. Their sword. Our sword”

First and foremost, Selwyn Kane, I adore you. You can do no wrong (this is an active lie, he can and will do wrong). Secondly, William, you are perfect and you also can do no wrong (this is true).

This series continues to astound. Truly an example of just how good YA can be. Once again I must echo how good of a character and protagonist Bree is. She is a perfect blend of powerful and complex, while still having space to learn and grow throughout the narrative. And boy does this sequel give her space and motivation to grow.

While it may not be the perfect masterpiece that I believe the first book to be, this is pretty darn close and one phenomenal sequel. I love these characters and the lore of this world so much, I found the new characters interesting, and the stakes were really raised tenfold.

This continues to be a masterful series and a powerful story of grief, oppression, rage, and power. And I for one am glad that I have the ability to read a series as good as this. I will echo what I said about Legendborn, the schools should be studying it and anyone remotely interested in the genre should be reading it

Content Warnings

coolfoolmoon's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Now, I could rave about the details, the writing, the plot, the blah blah blah whatever, but the thing that made me scream and go oh hell yeah this is getting five stars is them running into dead ends looking through her ancestry because all they bothered to record were first names. It's such a good touch, an issue I personally kept running into, and it's so nice to see it used as an aha gotcha bitch moment. Tracy Deonn you will always be famous.

Page 481 is the greatest page of literature ever to be paged. Everyone say thank you Tracy Deonn. You will ALWAYS be famous, sister!!!

Content Warnings

showlade's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny 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

Content Warnings

louiepotterbook's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

bookshelfoverload's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

wardenred's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous 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

There is a cost to being a legend.

It has taken me a weirdly long time to read the book, mostly due to all the numerous breaks I took. The weird part is that every time I sat down to read, I was quite engrossed, but then I was never in a hurry to return to reading it. I’ll have to think more about the reasons behind it, but I guess maybe it’s a case of setting my expectations incorrectly? The last part of Legendborn along with the beginning of this installment kind of made me think there would be a lot of focus on the Order, with other facets of this multilayered world getting explored on the side. Instead, without giving too much away, the balance was pretty much the opposite. I did love all the inventive worldbuilding, don’t get me wrong, especially exploring new places like the Crossroads Lounge and the Volition. But maybe the narrative pivoted a bit too much here and there for my taste, or that the plot overall is a bit clunkier than the intricately put together first novel led me to expect. Or maybe it’s just that middle book syndrome where a lot is happening, but even the payoffs are actually a actually just set-ups for what’s to come.

Much as I enjoyed the worldbuilding, the characters were the real highlight of the journey for me. It was great to see Alice gain more personality and agenda of her own. William is a sweetheart. I wish the story had more Lark, I liked him while he was there. I’ve also come to enjoy Valec’s presence, although I have so many suspicions about his motives. Sel continues to get all the best dialogue lines and I continue to favor his side of the love triangle based on 50% that and 50% on the fact that he actually spends enough time with Bree for me to buy the attraction developing.

Although, there were a few moments there where I felt like the author might be at least flirting with the idea of a poly solution to the triangular problem 👀 If so, I kind of support it on principle while also being vaguely against it on the grounds of not being a big fan of Nick/his dynamic with Sel.

Bree herself remains complex, relatable, and interesting all through the story. She does make her share of dumb mistakes and impulsive decisions that backfire, but they always make perfect sense within the narrative. Like, yeah, maybe an actual adult with a support network consisting of other actual adults, great emotional regulation and considerable life experiences would have done better, but alas, what we have is a teen who’s really going through it, and that’s one really well-written teen.

I guess there are a couple of things I low-key want to judge her for, such as

pulling Nick into those Arthurian memories so many times without knowing what’s happening to him in real life—like come on, what if you do that while he’s in the middle of a conversation, or a fight, or any situation that requires his utmost attention? If you’re so worried about him all the time, why not worry about that?

But I also can easily understand why she does that—she’s a grieving, confused, angry emotional teen living from trauma to trauma, this is her way of checking in with the boy she loves, and everything she’s dealing with is so big and low-key derealization-inducing, of course she can’t stop and focus on concerns about something that may or may not be happening elsewhere. And then there’s also the Really Big Life-Altering Choice she makes at the end of the book that had me wanting to scream at her not to do it all the while, but also, she’s making it right in the wake of another Really Big Life-Altering Choice while being really traumatized. And she’s impulsive, that’s one of her most notable traits. And also, I feel like the narrative itself does a good job framing this as a bad choice that seemsx like a good idea at the time. I’m definitely excited to learn what comes from it in the next book, though I’ll do my best to form fewer expectations this time!

Content Warnings

neleusb's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

woah. once again blown away by the depth of the world and the magic systems. i was giggling and kicking my feet at some points, screaming at characters to punch racists in some, and giving a full standing ovation in others. i also did NOT see the twist coming

erebus being the big bad demon king? i shouldnt be surprised i guess but WHAT.

i love my bi boy sel, would kill and die for him. no notes tracy keep goin

Content Warnings

aurora4847's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny 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

FINALLY finished my reread of this! It did not disappoint, just hit me right before a big reading slump. I forgot how crazy the ending gets, thankfully I have Oathbound ready to go! I adored Sel and Bree's dynamic, it's by far my favorite part of the book. And Alice being more and more involved! While reading, I went to see Sinners twice. A very different vibe of racism and black culture in the South, but it helped me get back into the mindset to finish the book after weeks of reading maybe a chapter or two a week!

Content Warnings

More...