Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Name-Bearer by Natalia Hernandez

20 reviews

mandareads222's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional 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

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jenny_bean_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging funny inspiring 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

4.5

Wonderful world building, excellent character depictions and growth, and an epic tale. I did not see one of the twists at the end, but it makes so much sense! I knocked a half star off for a grammatical error and a spelling error, but I really enjoyed this book. It sucks you in and doesn't let go. 

I loved the blend of English and Spanish, and the use of magic in this world. I know the second book is out now, and I am very excited to read it!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ladymickbeth's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Plot: 4.5/5
World building: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Writing: 3.75/5 
Grammar/editing: 2/5

In general, I enjoyed this book and the unique premise. Unfortunately, I don’t think this book was edited at all. There was some expositional elements repeated when they didn’t need to be, and there were a ridiculous amount of typos and missing or incorrect punctuation marks. There were also quite a few run-on sentences. The obvious lack of editing took me out of the story often.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

avacadosocks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ourxstorybegins's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

4.5

Okay okay so the only reason that this didn’t get 5 stars from me is because it had a really slow start and was hard to get into. But once I was in, I was IN. This is book one in a series about a girl who was chosen to be the royal Name-Bearer but when it’s time for her to do said bearing, things do not go well and she ends up having to run away, change her identity, etc. etc. for a variety of reasons. From there, this book really focuses on the friendships she makes (and after 10 years of living in basically seclusion where she isn’t allowed to HAVE an identity of any sort, that’s huge) and her starting to figure out who she is when she can’t be the Name Bearer. I finished this and IMMEDIATELY started book 2 because I simply must know more.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

chrisb913's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Please read trigger warnings.

I absolutely adored this book. As the debut novel for Natalia Hernandez, she sold me as a must buy author. The characters had so much personality, the world building and magic system were interconnected and intriguing, and the plot has me craving to find out what happens next. I will say, based on the blurb on the back of the book, the story I thought I would be reading about was not the story I was told in this book, but I still loved it.

We start out with The Name Bearer getting ready for The Naming Ceremony after the current Queen has had her child. She must appease the Flowers of Prophecy for them to name the new born child and future ruler of the kingdom. They unfortunately refuse to name the new born claiming another child has been born that will usher in a time of peace from the never ending war the kingdom has been fighting with their neighbors to the north. Confused and dismayed The Name Bearer is then thrust into an adventure that she was neither wanting nor adequately prepared for. What follows is a tale of a young girl being forced out of the palace and future she so desperately wanted, into a world of monsters,  wars, and vile human beings. Along the way she makes enemies, friends, and even possibly love.

The story ends in the middle of an adventure. If you do not like a sprawling tale that spans a trilogy and leaves you with the "to be continued" at the end of the first two books, this may not be a story for you. If this does not deter you and you enjoy stories about strong warriors women, found families, the normalcy of lgbtq in stories, and a rich world steeped in both indigenous and latinx culture and mythology, then definitely give this book a shot.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

charliebites's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

gossamer_lens's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.25

This book has an odd writing style. It is written like a prologue. With the amount of summary and covering a span of 10 years, it feels like a reader should have both gotten more detail and less detail in the reading process. I feel like I should know the characters infinitely better but also I feel like I have a quite solid understanding of our main character. A very odd thing to feel. But with that said, it isn't a bad feeling.

Throughout the book, I was very easily pulled along to see what was going to happen next. I enjoyed the world-building and clear inclusion of Latin-American culture and the seamless inclusion of LGBTQ+ people into the world. I am excited to see where things go in the sequel and I already placed the book on hold at my library. I hit about halfway through this book and knew I just needed to keep going with these characters. Hernandez did a very solid job of keeping me invested and waiting to see where we would go. Very fun!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mj_86's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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? No

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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

4.0

Found family, and sapphic love, in a beautiful Latinx-inspired world that is very queer-normative, as well as
a bully getting to face consequences,
nearly all my boxes were checked with this book. It was such a lovely story, and I loved the prose, cementing in my heart that you don't need to be traditionally published to actually be considered a worthy read. The ending's cliffhanger felt a little jarring because of the way it was written but besides that, I would absolutely give the next book a read and continue to reading anything that Natalia Hernandez puts out in this world.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings