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ginamiya's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Trafficking, and Torture
Moderate: Torture, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, and Sexual violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia
_forestofpages's review against another edition
The main character, Damen becomes enslaved sexually to the love interest, Prince Laurent who, in the first few chapters, drugs Damen and nearly has him publicly sexually violated. He would have succeded if Damen didnt manage to beat the other guy. And this is THE ROMANCE I am supposed to root for??
To say I am not interested in watching these two people fall in love is a massive understatement.
To say I am not interested in watching these two people fall in love is a massive understatement.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Sexual violence
theangrystackrat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Damen is a prisoner taken to a hostile country as a slave to a prince who hates his people. But Damen has a secret - he's the rival country's prince, thrown over in a coup by his half brother. The man he is gifted to is cold, calculating, and viscous. Yet they'll need each other if they are to survive. This was an intriguing first novel in a series. Be warned this has HEAVY elements of slavery, abuse, rape, and death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence
poisonviolet's review against another edition
DNF 60%
MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING
what the actual f$ck...
There is two reasons I made it to 60%... 1. I don't want to be a quitter, I have 100 books to read this year and I have started off the year strong. and 2. I was waiting for the cliche moment when the main character awoke and realized this was all a deranged dream and promptly checked himself into a mental institution.
Thank lord I am reading Iron Flame right now, because I feel like I would never touch a book again for months based on what this book did. I literally did not touch my Kindle for a few days even to read Iron Flame because I knew this madness was on the Kindle. I feel so terrible for my poor Kindle who I will have to cleanse thoroughly with incense.
I went into this book completely blind, which I presume is the only reason why anyone ever picked up this book because if I had read what it was about I would have never gone close to it. All I knew about it was that it was gay. Of course, thats all I would need to pick up a book, but no longer will I ever be so naive.
I should've known I'd be in for it when the first page of the book is just a list that tells you who the characters are in the world and their ranks in the kingdom or whatever you want to call it. Cool. It was a pain in the butt having to refer to it constantly to try and have any idea who was saying anything and who they were. Like sure, maybe that's useful but try and write this in the story, it felt like a fanfiction with all the character tags (nothing against fanfiction). It just felt like such lazy writing to me. Not saying I could do any better, but come on...
Then I trudge along and get a sense of where we are going with the plot. I wanted to projectile vomit. Let me tell you I was shaking and near a freaking panic attack reading this. I have never read a book that made me feel so sick and filthy for even looking at it. I hate even writing this review and having my name attached to it because I want no association with this book. But alas, I have to yap and I have never in my life deeply hated a book so much.
I don't understand the appeal. This is literally a book about horrible people doing horrible things. Not in a cute and quirky or morally grey way, just flat-out being the most disgusting and ruthless human beings. I have since read reviews after deleting this from my Kindle and people are gushing about these characters... talking about how they are "the cutest" and their favorite book characters of all time.... THE CHARACTERS WHO LITERALLY R@PE PEOPLE AND HAVE NO SHAME IN IT WHATSOEVER!
I am not one to judge, but you have to be joking right? The main character literally admitted to r@ping his own personal pleasure sl@ve (which right there... why the hell do you have one of those?! Who is this author and are they either in jail or far removed from society because I am honestly scared for humanity) while another man r@pes him.
I seriously don't understand how people are into this kind of thing. I tried to finish it, I really did. If only so I could rant and not have people fact-checking me. But I'm disgusted with myself that I got this far through it. When will I learn that some things just really don't get any better? or for that matter, some things just aren't good AT ALL!
I thought I was going to get a emotion-filled story of a prince who was captured (I was getting this from the title) and who was then rescued by another prince and they fell in love. But NOOOOOO.
UGH, I swear if someone tells me this gets better and that I should have just finished it I will scream. I don't understand how these characters can be even close to redeemable even if they did change. Sorry, but I have no desire to read any more about filthy human beings that are doing the bs done in the book.
Okay, I'm finishing this rant here because I'm going to throw up thinking about this horror for too long.
Save yourselves and don't pick up this sh$t show.
MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING
what the actual f$ck...
There is two reasons I made it to 60%... 1. I don't want to be a quitter, I have 100 books to read this year and I have started off the year strong. and 2. I was waiting for the cliche moment when the main character awoke and realized this was all a deranged dream and promptly checked himself into a mental institution.
Thank lord I am reading Iron Flame right now, because I feel like I would never touch a book again for months based on what this book did. I literally did not touch my Kindle for a few days even to read Iron Flame because I knew this madness was on the Kindle. I feel so terrible for my poor Kindle who I will have to cleanse thoroughly with incense.
I went into this book completely blind, which I presume is the only reason why anyone ever picked up this book because if I had read what it was about I would have never gone close to it. All I knew about it was that it was gay. Of course, thats all I would need to pick up a book, but no longer will I ever be so naive.
I should've known I'd be in for it when the first page of the book is just a list that tells you who the characters are in the world and their ranks in the kingdom or whatever you want to call it. Cool. It was a pain in the butt having to refer to it constantly to try and have any idea who was saying anything and who they were. Like sure, maybe that's useful but try and write this in the story, it felt like a fanfiction with all the character tags (nothing against fanfiction). It just felt like such lazy writing to me. Not saying I could do any better, but come on...
Then I trudge along and get a sense of where we are going with the plot. I wanted to projectile vomit. Let me tell you I was shaking and near a freaking panic attack reading this. I have never read a book that made me feel so sick and filthy for even looking at it. I hate even writing this review and having my name attached to it because I want no association with this book. But alas, I have to yap and I have never in my life deeply hated a book so much.
I don't understand the appeal. This is literally a book about horrible people doing horrible things. Not in a cute and quirky or morally grey way, just flat-out being the most disgusting and ruthless human beings. I have since read reviews after deleting this from my Kindle and people are gushing about these characters... talking about how they are "the cutest" and their favorite book characters of all time.... THE CHARACTERS WHO LITERALLY R@PE PEOPLE AND HAVE NO SHAME IN IT WHATSOEVER!
I am not one to judge, but you have to be joking right? The main character literally admitted to r@ping his own personal pleasure sl@ve (which right there... why the hell do you have one of those?! Who is this author and are they either in jail or far removed from society because I am honestly scared for humanity) while another man r@pes him.
I seriously don't understand how people are into this kind of thing. I tried to finish it, I really did. If only so I could rant and not have people fact-checking me. But I'm disgusted with myself that I got this far through it. When will I learn that some things just really don't get any better? or for that matter, some things just aren't good AT ALL!
I thought I was going to get a emotion-filled story of a prince who was captured (I was getting this from the title) and who was then rescued by another prince and they fell in love. But NOOOOOO.
UGH, I swear if someone tells me this gets better and that I should have just finished it I will scream. I don't understand how these characters can be even close to redeemable even if they did change. Sorry, but I have no desire to read any more about filthy human beings that are doing the bs done in the book.
Okay, I'm finishing this rant here because I'm going to throw up thinking about this horror for too long.
Save yourselves and don't pick up this sh$t show.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Torture, Rape, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
meganemarshall's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
3.5 rating. The first half is not great. I knew what I was getting into with the MC being sold as a sex slave, but it still made me very uncomfortable the entire time. Very big trigger warnings for the first part of this book. Be warned.
However, as the political intrigue started to pick up, I started to get more and more into the story. That is definitely a reason I am planning on picking up book 2. I'm not really sold on any of the characters yet, besides one of the MCs. Damon is a cinnamon roll, and I love him. We get most of the book from his POV. I can't bring myself to like Laurent yet. He described perfectly as being very cunning but stupid in his arrogance and his pride. Most of the side characters also suck. The whole court of Vere is just awful and gross. Very Game of Throne with the plots and backstabbing and lying in court.
This does seem like a true enemies to lovers. They do not like each other. So I'm excited to read books 2 and 3 and watch the romance blossom.
However, as the political intrigue started to pick up, I started to get more and more into the story. That is definitely a reason I am planning on picking up book 2. I'm not really sold on any of the characters yet, besides one of the MCs. Damon is a cinnamon roll, and I love him. We get most of the book from his POV. I can't bring myself to like Laurent yet. He described perfectly as being very cunning but stupid in his arrogance and his pride. Most of the side characters also suck. The whole court of Vere is just awful and gross. Very Game of Throne with the plots and backstabbing and lying in court.
This does seem like a true enemies to lovers. They do not like each other. So I'm excited to read books 2 and 3 and watch the romance blossom.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Slavery, and Rape
Moderate: Violence
megmei's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
God I wish I had read the content warnings for this.
And yet, even with all of that, this managed to be a very boring 300 pages. If I wasn’t stuck at home with Covid, I probably would have DNF’d this.
And yet, even with all of that, this managed to be a very boring 300 pages. If I wasn’t stuck at home with Covid, I probably would have DNF’d this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Sexual violence, War, Xenophobia, and Violence
vera02ena's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Torture, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Confinement, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Child abuse and Abortion
aaabeegui's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, War, Trafficking, Rape, Torture, Sexual assault, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship
coxsarah24's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Slavery
milfmarner's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
i definitely realized a little way through the book, this is definitely not for me. to an extent, i understand why people enjoy the series, but many of the developments towards the end felt very... sudden? i will not be finishing the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: War and Kidnapping
Minor: Animal death, Pedophilia, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent