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challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Complex world building, enemies to lovers, incredible action scenes.
My only gripe is that a lot of the characters talked with the exact same snark, making some of the dialogue feel repetitive.
My only gripe is that a lot of the characters talked with the exact same snark, making some of the dialogue feel repetitive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book definitely kept me going but I did end up skimming through some of the more detailed, repetitive sections. I loved the world building and the magic system, and obviously love a good dragon tale. But some of the sex and torture scenes felt LONG and the plot moved slower than I had hoped. Might keep reading because I do want to know what happens, but I’m hoping the next book is a bit more condensed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
funny
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm not sure what I just read - it's not a complete story, for one thing. I was very surprised when 'Epilogue' appeared on the page.
After an exciting opener, it all slowed down ... FMC being just extremely angry and quite immature ... It picked up when she ran away in the Plains and the story was generally good after that. Interesting dragon stuff and a bit of cross border tension between three kingdoms ruled by brothers. The creators and the magic are also quite well done.
BUT this book keeps secrets.
I was so confused at all the secrets being kept from us - who is Fallon? What does Raeve owe to Sereme?! How did she get into assassinating for Fiur du Ath? Why did Veya throw her bangle in the rubbish dump?! Why does the Fade Queen react like she does at the coliseum? Why didKaan overthrow the king his father ? How did Raeve escape from the fighting pits ?
Why are all these things kept from us?
Some things I can guess, and some things maybe there's a point to the secret, but other items really don't need to have the air of mystery. This book constantly doesn't give us the full story.
I recently read The Locked Tomb series so maybe I have no leg to stand on accusing writers of not telling us everything. However, here there could be less on the burning anger and revenge, more explaining the back story.
Crucially though, what does the MMC see in the FMC? She's not a nice person and I didn't get his attraction to her. This is despite there being chapters from his point of view (I liked there being multiple POVs).
Redeemed to a 4 because the MMC is a pretty good one, otherwise.
EDIT: nope, back to 3.75
I will read the sequel 🙄🤦🏻♀️
After an exciting opener, it all slowed down ... FMC being just extremely angry and quite immature ... It picked up when she ran away in the Plains and the story was generally good after that. Interesting dragon stuff and a bit of cross border tension between three kingdoms ruled by brothers. The creators and the magic are also quite well done.
BUT this book keeps secrets.
I was so confused at all the secrets being kept from us - who is Fallon? What does Raeve owe to Sereme?! How did she get into assassinating for Fiur du Ath? Why did Veya throw her bangle in the rubbish dump?! Why does the Fade Queen react like she does at the coliseum? Why did
Why are all these things kept from us?
Some things I can guess, and some things maybe there's a point to the secret, but other items really don't need to have the air of mystery. This book constantly doesn't give us the full story.
I recently read The Locked Tomb series so maybe I have no leg to stand on accusing writers of not telling us everything. However, here there could be less on the burning anger and revenge, more explaining the back story.
Crucially though, what does the MMC see in the FMC? She's not a nice person and I didn't get his attraction to her. This is despite there being chapters from his point of view (I liked there being multiple POVs).
Redeemed to a 4 because the MMC is a pretty good one, otherwise.
EDIT: nope, back to 3.75
I will read the sequel 🙄🤦🏻♀️
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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
(not one to read if gore/violence/memory loss bother you)
the world-building and story itself are super compelling, especially as the structure unfolds and you understand the multiple timelines at play. really fun magic/dragons/lore!
there are a LOT of characters and terms to learn (it's like 700 pages), but the glossary is helpful. I hope more of the backstory this book relies on by implication is more flushed out in the next book, since there are definitely a lot of details that are left unclear by the end of book 1.
also, honestly not too spicy! there are a few scenes that are pretty explicit, but most of the romance is yearning and ~LOOKING~ there's something a little off-putting about the way the main character's body is described (a little "I boobed boobily down the stairs"), but overall her girlbossing was fun and satisfying
the world-building and story itself are super compelling, especially as the structure unfolds and you understand the multiple timelines at play. really fun magic/dragons/lore!
there are a LOT of characters and terms to learn (it's like 700 pages), but the glossary is helpful. I hope more of the backstory this book relies on by implication is more flushed out in the next book, since there are definitely a lot of details that are left unclear by the end of book 1.
also, honestly not too spicy! there are a few scenes that are pretty explicit, but most of the romance is yearning and ~LOOKING~ there's something a little off-putting about the way the main character's body is described (a little "I boobed boobily down the stairs"), but overall her girlbossing was fun and satisfying
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-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
Another romantasy book that started out good then went downhill. I loved the world-building but then the romance took over and ruined it. Also, this book was so long yet had zero plot or character development.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Grief
Minor: Animal death, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The author does an amazing job of dropping you into this unique fae world and the beginning grips you easily. Once you get to the middle though, you're having to take more on faith in the author (there's a creature literally called a Fate Herder that seemed strategically placed) and the story.
What is delightfully unique about this story is how the reader is not watching the beginning of a romance, but the complicated and beautiful aftermath. Have faith and if you're hooked in the beginning, be sure to read to the very last page.
What is delightfully unique about this story is how the reader is not watching the beginning of a romance, but the complicated and beautiful aftermath. Have faith and if you're hooked in the beginning, be sure to read to the very last page.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy
Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, War
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I can’t lie, this book was a slog to get through. I read the first 150 pages and had to put it down for a good long while. The language felt unnecessarily flowery just for the sake of being “poetic” and the hefty glossary at the beginning is a bit of turn-off for me as a reader.
Because I’m incapable of DNFing, I did pick it back up and I’ll admit things got almost immediately more interesting (or maybe I was just in a more amenable mindset). I got used to the over-abundant adjectives and modifiers and the actual reading experience started to flow a bit better once I had more context for the magic system. I enjoyed the middle of the book the most, specifically the dynamics between Raeve and Kaan. Other readers have commented on Raeve being annoying or emotionally immature, but I chuckled often at her internal dialogue. She makes questionable decisions, sure, but she’s actually relatively self-aware about it. Kaan I imagined as feminist Khal Drogo but with his own dragon and a gigantic bleeding heart.
- SPOILERS FROM HERE -
Maybe it was because I was still struggling to grasp wtf was going on, but the character death at the outset of the of the book did not have much of an impact. We get really only one scene with said character, and instead a whole lot of Raeve just talking about how important they are to her.
Since their death becomes
Raeve’s main driving force throughout the book, I felt the lack of connection cheapened the whole quest for vengeance trope. When everything comes full circle at the end, I was still left feeling like this character death was a pretty shallow plot tactic devised to justify having a rage-filled assassin FMC. Raeve’s revenge-parade is also obviously a mechanism for introducing “The Other” which I HOPE will be important in later books, but maybe this could have been revealed a different way? Given the little hints sprinkled throughout, my money is on “The Other” actually being the spirit (or consciousness? soul?) of Slátra.
- END SPOILERS -
Overall takeaways—Did I enjoy the book? Ultimately, yes. Did I think it could have been about 300 pages shorter? Yeah. Will I keep reading the series? Also, probably yes.
Because I’m incapable of DNFing, I did pick it back up and I’ll admit things got almost immediately more interesting (or maybe I was just in a more amenable mindset). I got used to the over-abundant adjectives and modifiers and the actual reading experience started to flow a bit better once I had more context for the magic system. I enjoyed the middle of the book the most, specifically the dynamics between Raeve and Kaan. Other readers have commented on Raeve being annoying or emotionally immature, but I chuckled often at her internal dialogue. She makes questionable decisions, sure, but she’s actually relatively self-aware about it. Kaan I imagined as feminist Khal Drogo but with his own dragon and a gigantic bleeding heart.
- SPOILERS FROM HERE -
Maybe it was because I was still struggling to grasp wtf was going on, but the character death at the outset of the of the book did not have much of an impact. We get really only one scene with said character, and instead a whole lot of Raeve just talking about how important they are to her.
Since their death becomes
Raeve’s main driving force throughout the book, I felt the lack of connection cheapened the whole quest for vengeance trope. When everything comes full circle at the end, I was still left feeling like this character death was a pretty shallow plot tactic devised to justify having a rage-filled assassin FMC. Raeve’s revenge-parade is also obviously a mechanism for introducing “The Other” which I HOPE will be important in later books, but maybe this could have been revealed a different way? Given the little hints sprinkled throughout, my money is on “The Other” actually being the spirit (or consciousness? soul?) of Slátra.
- END SPOILERS -
Overall takeaways—Did I enjoy the book? Ultimately, yes. Did I think it could have been about 300 pages shorter? Yeah. Will I keep reading the series? Also, probably yes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Grief
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Fire/Fire injury