Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

31 reviews

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: Yes

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adventurous mysterious 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

This book was fantastic! It’s fast-paced, the chapters are short and written wonderfully in the different voices of each point-of-view, the action constantly keeps you on your toes, and the characters are incredibly likable despite being desperate liars. I loved every second of it! I need Tiyung protected at all costs! Can’t wait to read the next book! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional mysterious 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: No

Overall, an engaging story. There’s 6 main characters, so you’ll get attached to someone. I particularly fell for Royo, Sora, and Ty. The entire time, you have NO idea who you can trust - everyone has their own agenda, everyone is lying. Everyone has an absolutely horrific past. They’re all similar, but the character building was enough so that by the end, all of their personalities were properly unique. That, plus the multiple romances, made this book a quick & enticing read.  

While the writing style wasn’t my favorite, I quickly got past it. There are a lot of statements of facts, info-dumping, and a lack of poetic prose. The writing felt young & undeveloped. One thing I hated about Euyn: his BLATANT sexism, and the way it’s just tolerated. But I guess Mikail doesn’t care about him enough to change his opinion. The sexism just bothered me while I was reading. 

However, I loved how the queer relationships were normalized as well. 

 I’m not aching for the next book (this ends on a slight cliffhanger), but I will definitely read it when it comes out. 

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

What an incredible first book in the series! This was high stakes, tense, and the world building, characters, romances, and friendships were EVERYTHING. Not to mention the different tropes such as
found family
touch him/her and die
I was sent to kill you but I love you
bodyguard falls in love with person they’re protecting
it was such an incredible book and I can’t wait for the next one! 

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Five Broken Blades is the first book in the Broken Blades trilogy by Mai Corland. This book was so much fun and quite an intense read (check trigger warnings). It’s a fast paced book full of morally grey deadly liars, hilarious banter, action, and plenty of plot twists. I truly came to care about each of the POV’s in this book and can’t wait for the sequel called Four Ruined Realms! 

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adventurous dark mysterious 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: Yes

A jumpscare of a why choose, to wit, “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance (sprayed edges, gorgeous end pages, stamped foil covers), baffle them with bullshit (almost no world building, scant magic system, rampant anachronism, a major twist that isn’t telegraphed really AT ALL despite first person POV, & FADE TO BLACK/OPAQUE SEX SCENES). 

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

Let's just start with this--HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO WAIT FOR BOOK TWO?!
Anyhow, excellent romantasy with a great cast of interesting, flawed, scarred characters gathered together to kill a god emperor. Of course, all does not run smooth, but that just gives the characters time to sprout feelings. Because I'm a dirty old woman, the sex scenes could have been a little less fade to black, but it's not really fair to log that as an actual criticism of the book. Seriously, I'm really looking forward to the next book. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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

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