Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner

23 reviews

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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

5.0

WOW! Like, this was actually so amazing.

The writing style reminded me of older books while still suiting the modern reader. It was charming and enchanting and really stands out against the other books I’ve read. It really leant to the feel of the book and was just detailed enough to paint a picture while clearly showing off all the character’s emotions.

All the characters also felt so alive and complex. They were well rounded and had flaws, but were still likeable despite them. You could really tell WHY they were the way they were and could really see how they grew and influenced each other. This also REALLY helped the main romance. There’s something so endearing and sweet and cute about watching two well rounded characters try to navigate their flaws and awkwardness and miscommunications to come together. And it takes a lot of skill to not make the miscommunication obnoxious.

The world building was also WILDLY fascinating. It left me really looking forward to reading book two with the world this book established. It felt real and you could see where the real world influenced some of the culture. I would happily sit and read a book sharing all sorts of facts on the world building. It always felt like it was delivered naturally and didn’t info dump or become annoying to hear about.

Honestly with a bit more work on the foreshadowing and a better handling of some of the more questionable thoughts/opinions had in the main romance I’d call it near perfect.

Overall a great read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Chronic illness, Homophobia, and Infertility

ruth_a's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcohol, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexism, Child abuse, Infertility, Violence, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Misogyny

craftysnailtail's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I found this book easy and rather relaxing to read, even though it was decently violent at parts. The world and characters were fun and interesting, but I'm not sure if it's the sort of book I would recommend, especially with such a predictable ending. I found the sexual tension entirely over the top and thus mildly hilarious, but I'm sure that's partially due to my own orientation. Overall, I'm not upset I read it, but I also wasn't blown away. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Xenophobia, Chronic illness, Death of parent, War, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Infertility, and Sexism

Minor: Hate crime, Alcohol, and Pregnancy

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Sexual content, Violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Grief, Blood, Death of parent, Sexism, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Medical content, Suicide, Drug use, Vomit, Gun violence, and War

lira_the_recluse's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.5

I don't know what to feel. The book had a compelling world, and some interesting characters. The mystery spanned several areas and characters across long distances. It seemed like two of the characters main reason for being there was to have sex and lose family members. Despite being POV characters for every other chapter or so, I did not feel like they really joined the plot until one of their mother's were killed by the murderer. 

The last quarter of the book felt rushed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Medical content, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual content

averi's review

The first excessive curing didn’t match with the world building 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Sexual content

wilybooklover's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

4.0

This was a really fun mashup of genres — part fantasy, part murder mystery, part romance, part coming-of-age. I really enjoyed the complex worldbuilding in this and how naturally it was incorporated into the story; no info-dumping or clumsy expositional dialogue here. It's a queernorm world which has some very interesting exploration of gender, sexuality, privilege, and cultural conflicts. I loved that the magical system was based on maths and all about creating logical formulae and definitions. I also enjoyed that it was a racially diverse world; Onna, one of the POV protagonists, seemed to be Black-coded, another main character was coded as East Asian, and several secondary characters were also POC/mixed race. 

There were a few plotting issues. The two main plotlines were a little too disparate through most of the book and felt like they were kind of forced together towards the end rather than naturally converging. It was a bit jarring jumping straight from Onna's POV into Tsira's or Jeckran's. Some of the subplots seemed a bit pointless or didn't really make sense

(e.g. Tsira's boxing matches, or the part where Mon Del Ras is killed off and an entire brothel was infiltrated, which didn't quite seem to jive with the killer's motives and methods).

The villain was very predictable and easy to guess. 

Overall though, this was great fun and very entertaining. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Drug abuse, Animal death, Drug use, Suicide, War, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

helloitskel's review

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

I went into this book thinking that it would give me a cozy fantasy vibe. And it kind of did.. in that it was pretty slow paced and character focused. The characters are what made the book for me, I liked all of them and just wanted everyone to be happy. I was definitely interested in the mystery plot but I think it fell flat, it very much seemed like everything came together in like the last 20 pages of the book.  I will definitely be reading the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Sexual content

ladythana's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Hate crime, Death of parent, Violence, Sexism, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Infertility and Pregnancy

charlieeee's review

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Vomit, Sexism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Xenophobia