Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Grief
Minor: Animal death, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, War
Minor: Pregnancy
I thought the plot was interesting, though overwhelming, with too many plotlines being pulled in different directions which made it hard to follow at times. It has A LOT going on. You would think this maybe wouldn't be an issue in a 543 page book but even with all that real estate many of the characters weren't developed enough. It still somehow felt rushed? Really a missed opportunity to make the reader really connect with the characters. I went back and forth on both Raeve and Kaan. Sometimes I liked them and then just as quickly I found them insufferable. It's an enemies-to-lovers/miscommunication combo that was increasingly frustrating.
And then there's the very graphic sex scenes. Personally, they felt unnecessary and uncomfortable and you can't really skip through them because the characters are simultaneously having important conversation that's moving the plot along. I'm not opposed to including romance/spice in stories as a plot point but these felt needlessly graphic and vulgar in my opinion. There's spice that makes you blush and then there's spice that makes you say "ick". This book was the latter.
Finally, the end of the book felt unfinished. I understand it's intended to be part of a series, and at the end it says the second one comes out in Fall 2025, but nothing was actually brought to a close in this book. None of the problems that were introduced were solved. In other words, this book can't really be read as a standalone, which felt odd to me. Generally a story, even if it's part of a series, follows a standard arc, wrapping up at the end, while still leaving room for further exploration of additional plot lines. This just ended on what felt like a regular chapter and then there was just no more. Pretty unsatisfying.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
This is the setup for another epic, but considering that this book still needed 700 pages to get there and the main character doesn't show a single sign of character growth, I do not feel like forgiving the unreasonable length of this book. Perhaps if we mentioned the words pumping or skipping a beat in connotations to heart, plump, sweet tart taste of fruit or pebbling skin a few times less we could have done it in 600 pages.
The style would not have bothered me, quite the opposite, I enjoy lush and flowery prose but the endless alliterations and similes made my skin itch, to say it in her words.
Raeve showed so little character growth and cooperation with the plot that the author had to invent an invisible cat beast called the fate herder to make her comply with the plot. That was the point where they lost me for a long while because it was so ridiculous to me. If this fate cat had literally herded anyone else it might have been cool, but this? It just served to give me justification for my dislike for Rave. I really do not like her because she kept pushing everyone away until the end. 700 pages and she hasn't listened once. At this point I wish the other characters would give up on her because this is exhausting to read.
On the other hand I enjoyed Veya and Pyrok and I have high hopes for Grim. (or whatever their names are, sorry, I listened to the audiobook) The story grew on me over time whenever it moved away and focused on another character for a while because as I said, I don't like or care for Raeve. But the second we turned to someone else? Much more interesting, especially when they weren't entirely focused on Raeve which was rare sadly. I still barely know anything about other characters but the things I heard seem promising!
So yeh, this was solidly "ok" for me and I'll give the next book a chance.
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Vomit, Trafficking, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy
This seems to be the type of book that world work well with a kindle or the like where you can look up the meanings straight away, but as I was reading this on paper I found it confusing at times.
That being said, I'm well looking forward to the next book in this series and where it takes these characters.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Torture, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Eating disorder, Pregnancy, War
- starts with lots of cursing, torture and murder
- hard to understand/get into the world building (you're kinda thrown in without explanations)
- felt like the book was just piled with unnecessary things that get you nowhere until the last couple chapters leaving me with a sense of accomplishing nothing at the end
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cursing
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism