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crybabybea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I wrote a 3,000 word essay for how much this disappointed me, so here are the bullet points:
- Shallow world-building. There are cool, unique things that happen but they serve no purpose for the world (such as the dragons turning into moons).
- World building is lazy and the author relies on you reading a 20 page glossary to understand rather than fleshing out the world herself
- Dragons are part of the world but don't serve any purpose beyond transportation.
- No political strife, except for the FMC telling you how awful the king in her region is, despite having a crazy cool premise with a dragon mythology-based elemental magic system whose users are denoted by their colorful beaded earrings.
- Nothing happens in the plot except the very slow burn romance which doesn't pay off at the end
- Magic doesn't really serve any purpose except to sound cool
- The conlang is messy and doesn't work well
- The writing itself is clunky, full of heavyhanded metaphors that don't land
- Writing repeats itself multiple times with the same cadence and word usage
- Characters with no real personality beyond the tropes they represent, could be replaced with any other romantasy main characters and it would make no difference
- Poor LGBTQIA+ representation (despite it being praised in multiple reviews)
- Because of all these issues, the book is 250 pages longer than it needs to be.
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Torture
sandyanger's review
- 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
@sarah.a.parker.author
This book is not for everyone. I, however, loved it.
āSadness is like stones that stack inside you, making it harder to move. Ignorance is my self-preservation tonic, and Iāll swear by it until I die.ā
Raeve is a valued Elding Blade for the rebellion group Fiur du Ath. Her job is to kill. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeveās world is turned upside down.
As painful as Raeveās life has been, she loves living. Loves her beautiful world. But she does not allow herself to love, for fear of what she would lose. Of what sheās lost before.
This is book one in an unfinished series, but well worth the pain. I have already read it twice and will read it again right before the next book is released. I loved it that much. The writing is lyrical and can be dense at timesāyou need to be able to focus when reading. But the picture it paints is worth it. Sarah did such a beautiful job of making me feel for her characters. I had tears streaming down my face at points, which is always a reading goal for me š
I found this very heavy on the fantasy and world building in the beginning. It comes with a glossary. For some people this will be a deal breaker. I get it. I started with reading the glossary and honestly couldnāt get through it without the context of the story, but it was helpful at times to refer to.
The spice is not plentiful, but it was spicinā.
SOME FACTS
* Fantasy heavy-there is a glossary
* Beautiful, lyrical writing
* Witty banter
* Multiple POV
* There are dragons
TW
* Graphic violence
* Sexually explicit
* Torture
* Implied threat of sexual assault
* Cruelty towards animals
* Abduction of an adult (implied off page and post-recounting)
* Death in childbirth (implied, off page)
* Abductino/trafficking of minors (implied, off page)
* Miscarriage (implied for a secondary character, off page)
TROPES below, proceed with caution:
* Strong, sassy, stabby FMC
* Emotionally available MMC/emotionally UNavailalbe FMC
* Revenge
* āWho hurt you?ā
* One āhorseā
* Enemies to lovers
* Forced proximity
* Slow burn
* Dark past
* Elemental magic
Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail
elntastic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
One thing I did not really enjoy (hence only 4.5 stars) were the sex scenes between the MC and FC. It was just too physical and there was no kissing or romance in it. Just wasnāt for me. But I do love the story between Kaan and Elluin and I hope that Raeve will go back to him.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Cursing, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, and Torture
manaledi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Confinement, Torture, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, War, and Stalking
heyheyhailey1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I enjoyed the character growth and occasional other POVs to break up the story. Personally, I am always down for a badass FMC with emotional baggage. My only gripe with this book is an overuse of the āforgotten pastā trope. I definitely got lost a few times trying to keep up with what I was supposed to understand already vs. was supposed pick up as I go. You donāt end the book knowing how everything fits together exactly. I found it annoying that Raeve seems to know things that the reader doesnāt get any insight into which is frustrating and strange in a first person POV.
SPOILERS !
I will definitely read book 2 when it comes out, excited to discover more pieces to the puzzle about Raeveās past and their implications on her future.
Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Vomit, Blood, Death, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Misogyny and Animal cruelty
Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
summer_myers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I just happened across this book on Kindle Unlimited and I am glad I did. This book has an interesting world of dragons, magic, other worldly creatures, revenge, and a dose of remembering oneās self. When I first started the book I was a little confused by some of the names for things and what was going on, and how does a brooding king fall into this.* I definitely recommend referencing the first few pages of the book that tells you what/who everything is. It will help you understand better when first starting out in the story.* Once I got a little further into the story it started making more sense as to where all the pieces that I read in the summary fit in. I would say the story starts out at a fast-ish pace. It opens with Raeve going in undercover for her ājobā and snowballs into her being put on trial for death all within the first few chapters. After that the story slows down ever slightly.
Raeveās character was an interesting one. She is shown first as someone that would cut you and not think twice about it, but later showed that she does have some of a soft side. Iām very curious about what happened in her past. We are shown glimpse but never told the whole thing of all the terror she endured. The glimpses are just enough to tease you and have you asking for more.
Kaan was an okay character for me. I know he is suppose to be the male character everyone fawns over, but I was just left with indifference. I wanted more stern, combative personality to him rather than the soft side that was shown. He does have a fierce side to him that we see when he has to be political and comes to protecting his domain, but I would have liked for more āenemy-to-loverā personality I guess with him.
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Death
loudmouthbooklover's review against another edition
Plus I canāt stand insufferable characters and I found Raeve to be that. She had complex moments, but after getting saved by someone she just wants to slit his throat.
It felt very predictable as well, the banter felt recycled and I was like I already know this is heading to yall wanting to sleep together. I get it but you wanna kill the dude.
Graphic: Torture, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Stalking, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief
cactuscloudsreads's review against another edition
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Sexual harassment
spatterson7's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Blood, Grief, Gore, Cursing, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Animal death
jrp618's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Torture, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, and Sexual content