Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

18 reviews

novel_nibbles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

As a long term fan of Jensen’s work I knew I was going to be in for a treat and I’m so glad that this book met my high expectations. I consumed A fate Inked in Bood in one day and loved every moment of it. The slow burn romance was delicious and the Norse inspired world building was new to me. I can’t wait to continue this series!
5/5 my favourite read so far this year

Content Warnings

chloecarr's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional 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

Content Warnings

bookishkale's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really wanted to love this book, I wanted to be swept away by a Norse inspired romantasy and have so much fun. Sigh… this book just has a lot of problems and the bad things that outweigh the good.

First of all - the pacing doesn’t work for this kind of book. I needed like two full chapters of Freya in her hometown to establish some things. It just felt very rushed into the story, and even if that’s the point, it doesn’t work. How am I supposed to want to follow these characters when I know barely anything about them? It reflects in the romance as well. It’s quite literally instalust and it’s exhausting by the time feelings get revealed. The tension feels half baked when the main characters both seem half a second from jumping each other’s bones for most of the book. Yes, the spice was good but almost not worth it , since it doesn’t happened until the last bit of the book. Also, there is so much movement in the book, like I don’t think they stay in the same place until 75% for more than a week, and we don’t even see that time on page before they’re off again.

Additionally - the characterization was so rough. Everyone felt flat, even Freya. She spends the whole book getting carted around, almost whining that this is happening. She ‘shows’ agency but it’s so minimal and gets shut down so quick that it’s almost not worth it. I felt like the author banked on misogyny and threats to be the reason Freya wasn’t a strong character, when she just didn’t develop her enough. Bjorn was just a hot dude (literally) and is really just there to give Freya something to lust over. He could have been interesting too! I really dislike when a main character’s family or the secondary characters in their life are just horrid people to make the main character look better. It’s exhausting! Those characters can have development too! They can grow too!! Making other characters shitty does not make your main character more interesting! It’s so unfortunate because I wanted to like Freya and Bjorn! I wanted to root for them!

The prose is the better part of this book, same with the plot concept. When the plot was happening, and at a reasonable pace, it was engaging! I really think this book just needed to settle, find some footing in a place and give us the feel of the world. It’s just a romance with some fantasy sprinkled in if you don’t actually develop the world around you. I’m hoping that the author takes more time in the next book to give this world some depth because I think it had so much potentially to be a great romantasy in all aspects of the terms.

There’s a reason I didn’t rate this much lower than a 3, because I think with some editing and some expansion in some ways, with some cuts in others, this book could have been a solid 4+ read. I am not sure I’ll pick up the other book whenever it comes out, but we’ll see!

Content Warnings

jasper_is_atypical's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.25

I'm just tired of people calling an FMC strong or badass and then the MMC does all the fighting and planning and hard work and hero stuff. She literally sits around at points while he does all of the work, although she does try at points, overall she get's used and abused and just sits and takes it and then lashes out at the only people who actually care about her. She's not badass (when she is she's killing innocent civilians mostly) and every decision she makes for herself is a bad one. It was super disappointing thinking she would be this badass in control of her fate while she just let's herself get tossed around like a toy the entire book.

Content Warnings

booksalacarte's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

A Fate Inked in Blood

4.75⭐️ 3.25🌶️

Fantasy Romance

Viking Fantasy

Forbidden Romance

Gods

Magic

Secrets

War

Slow burn

Forced proximity

I really enjoyed this book so much! You could really tell that DLJ has grown as an author since her Bridge Kingdom series started. I am so excited to see where this series goes, I still have so many questions!

The magic system was interesting and the idea that everyone is fated, except the children of gods is an interesting way to approach the system.

The FMC was torn between her selfish nature and wanting to protect others. It’s such a real struggle that I was rooting for her and frustrated by her at the same time.

The plot was fairly steady. I didn’t feel like there were many lulls in the action, even when there was a break from fighting. The twists and turns were foreshadowed well and left just enough for me to still be surprised by the nature of the ending.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for a eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Content Warnings

bookameme's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

Intense and Heartbreaking with all the Viking Battles You Could Ask For

“I am yours and you are mine, even if we’re the only ones that know it.”

Thoughts:💡

Children of the Gods are unfated, yet it doesn’t seem like they get to make many choices. Freya least of all. Her love for her family and clan are continually used against her. She’s furious, bold, and occasionally brash, but still young enough to be manipulated while being a true warrior at heart.

Vikings are notoriously violent and bloodthirsty, especially in this book, which is why it’s no surprise the entire plot is built around that idea. Even the magic system, which was admittedly unique and interesting, was based on the premise of helping the characters achieve glory and spread their fame with acts of violence or response to it.

Dreams of battle glory and Valhalla are utmost on most of the characters' minds, even after their stomachs turn from the effects of war. It’s a main focus of the book from start to finish. The characters' fervor for it irked me at times just as Freya’s naïveté and soft heart frustrated me. Overall, I genuinely liked her character and Bjorn’s, especially their relationship. However, their characters have a lot of room to develop in the next volume, and I for one can’t wait for it.

Audio & Narrator:🎧

The audiobook for this added a fun and immersive feel to the story. The narrator had a norse accent that sounded believable and interesting. The volume and pace remained steady and easy to follow along with, and the perfect amount of excitement and inflection was used for each scene.

Fun Bits:

⚜️ Action packed and full of adventure

⚜️ Really cool magic system

⚜️ Lots of Norse Mythology

⚜️ An interesting romance

⚜️ Extremely fierce FMC

✨Beware the cliffy

⚠️: Violence, Death, Blood, Gore, War, Graphic Injuries, Slavery

Stats:📊

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Characters: 💙💙💙💙

Audio: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Narrators: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️

Historical Fantasy: Vikings, Norse Legends, Magic, Fighting Fate, Warring Clans, Hidden Secrets📘

First Person, Past Tense, Single POV

Content Warnings

sarrie's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

TL;DR: If you enjoy Romantasy you’ll probably enjoy this, if you want nuance or depth maybe go elsewhere.

A Fate Inked in Blood is the newest Romantasy release from Danielle L Jenson, whose Bridge Kingdom is one of the most recommended in the genre. This one is Norse in inspiration about a young woman with the power to make a King after a spoken prophecy.

I can see this doing fantastic - I really can. This is going to be a hit for a lot of readers, especially of Romantasy. Unfortunately for me this was just okay? I found the writing easy, bingable, and quick. And there were moments that I really enjoyed! However I had a huge issue with the characters and what I felt like was very lazy writing in the characterization.

For the most part these characters filled roles, 2 dimensions at most. Our main character is treated as and used as a tool which led to my biggest issue in this. The only characters that weren’t outright sexist for most, if not all of the book, were… well all of them. Even our main love interest in this cracks sexist jokes constantly. Our primary ‘villain’ of the piece is interesting until he starts talking to or about our main character then he looses everything and it’s just sexism and neglect. Most the women in this were cold, or outright bad to our main character, an annoying trope in a lot of romance. All of this could be used well, but it felt like it wasn’t nuanced in any way or had a purpose besides riling up the reader.

As I stated, I enjoyed parts of this, but lack of depth and nuance to these characters just left me annoyed. As an aside, I also felt like the amount of work done to actual capture anything besides the ‘vibe’ of a Norse series was lacking as well. If you’re going in for the ‘fantasy’ or actual character depth, perhaps this is a skip. But if you want just a fast and emotional read, this could be a winner.

3 out of 5 flaming axes

Content Warnings

thecanadianbookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Thank you so much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book early.

Right off the bat: wow. I was so taken in by this world and these characters. Such a strong start, and the momentum keeps up!

Freya has spent her life longing for the glory of battle, while being forced to hide her God given magic. But, of course, nothing can stay hidden forever.

After her magic is forcefully revealed, she is whisked away from her small fishing village to join the side of Snorri, the Jarl who believes he is to control Freya's fate.

Children with God's blood are believed to create their own fate, free of the threads that bind mortals. But Freya finds herself bound by a Seer's visions of her rise to glory, and her own desperation to save her family from the Jarl's wrath.

Honestly, I thought I knew where this book was headed.. and many times I was wrong. Which is truly the best part!

I have also come to *love* Jensen's ability to write a slow burn. *THE TENSION* 👌👌

I cannot wait to see where this series goes!

Content Warnings

More...