Reviews with content warning for Grief - Kings Cage

man do I enjoy seeing a bunch of fucked up insane and incredibly mentally ill teenagers and young adults make a bunch of incredibly problematic and questionable choices repeatedly like their lives depended on it for a whole series straight!!
5 stars cause everyone ate and slayed and delivered and served cunt. also relate to some of these characters on a spiritual level. they are just like me fr. also YASS

evil queer villains/spoiler> we love to see it!!
The character developments and arcs and overall construction of the characters is also incredible. Go read it right now!!!

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

4.0

The only thing I love about these books is Maven. He is such a complicated character and I love him dearly.

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victoria_elaine's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

I was gonna give this a 3.75, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I really love these books, but the sections where Evangeline or cam were narrator if three me off and felt slow at some parts. The ending threw me for A LOOP btw ❤️💔 (major rant in the spoiler)

The story between Cam and her brother was really touching and I loved that they saved him. Evangeline just was not doing it for me. I loved her and Cal training together because just💕💕💕 and also they got a little 🥵🥵 but there’s no details so don’t think that’s gonna happen or nun’. ALSO CAL AND MARE TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER WHEN REUNITED BECAUSE OF MERANDUS ALMOST DESTROYED ME but I’m so happy they were baes again😌 UNTIL THEY FREAKING WERENT?!?!!! Still emotionally recovering, might not ever get there

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readwithde's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed this book. Having the characters split gave them some extra time for progression (both character and plot).

While I get why Mare would be kept prisoner for so long, I would have preferred more interactions with the court, if not with Maven.

Even bringing in Evangeline's POV chapters earlier would have helped that section fill out a bit more, even if it tipped her family's hand a bit.

Cameron was an interesting POV for the Scarlet Guard/red side of things, which again left much of the political machinations off the page, but at least gave the basics. Even Kilorn would have been a better choice, in my opinion.

I feel like the final third of the book dragged a bit, at least up until the climax,

the second battle at Corvium.

It just felt like the pacing was off after

Mare was rescued by the Scarlet Guard.

I think there was too much build up in the beginning that didn't leave enough room for the three bigger battles.

Finally,

I know we should want Cal to choose Mare, but I don't think he's wrong to ask Mare to choose him instead. I'm hoping there is a way for compromise in the final book, but I'm happy that each of them are actually dealing with what they want instead of throwing away their convictions, training, or lives.

Overall, this was a strong sequel, and I was surprised by a few things; I'm very excited to read the final book and the short stories.

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readwithzoe_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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llsugarspicell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.25

I really loved this book, it’s better than the previous one.

⛔️ Spoilers ahead ⛔️

I loved Cameron and Evangeline POVs and enjoyed being in their heads for a change. Mare is good but she can’t pick aside just like Cal, she’s desperate and in love-hate relationship with Maven … yes she hates him but at the same time he’s all she can think about and want his attention and get jealous and want to convince herself she doesn’t care about him all the time.

Maven’s back story just broke me, i mean i guessed before his mother did something with his brain but I didn’t imagine it to be that bad, she converted him into a sociopath and i just hated her more.
and can we talk about how the bath tub scene is THE BEST .. I don’t know why but my heart broke into millions and millions pieces after reading that chapter it was so great i felt every emotion … I’m not ready to read how my mavey baby gonna die 😢😭💔

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escapismforlife's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

If I'm being nice about it I would have to say Mare Barrow is not the brightest main character. She is flawed but knows it and even with a cool power that makes her different gets captured somehow.

That said I think I'm done with this series because both her and Evangeline are getting railroaded over. And I don't care enough to read War Storm for now to see how everything ends for them.

But I did enjoy the megatrons, and differen new characters who had the same power as Mare. Not to mention howsilver Evangelin mperspective. It made this book more interesting and brought a lot more complexity to see the bad peoples side.

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