Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

16 reviews

swilliams821's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, and Alcoholism

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug use, Classism, Death, Violence, Alcoholism, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide

basil_touche's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I'll just say right off the bat that I found this book extremely disappointing. 

At first I was really into the victorian style of writing and a story involving magical female bodyguards with a sapphic romance on the side. But then the book dropped the bodyguarding aspect less than 100 pages into it and instead

focuses on the characters starting a drug ring to catch a murderer.

The blurb for this focused solely on the bodyguarding aspect and I wouldn't minded the change had it actually turned out to be anything interesting, but it just wasn't. I was expecting some deep governmental conspiracy that links in with the classism that the book features (I will give the book that it handles that well), not a narrative that doesn't really deliver anything.

Around five chapters focused on just the romance and

the building of the drug producing laboratory, it was a repetitive cycle of working on in the lab, luncheon, flirting and resting.

It was just so dragged out and unnecessary. All this meant that the ending was extremely rushed and we aren't even given a motive for the antagonist. All the characters are rather one dimensional as well, that by the end of it I didn't care about any of them or if the romance between the protagonist and the rich half-troll clanner worked out in the end.

It's a real shame as I love the idea of a fantasy book set in a victorian setting with the period appropriate writing style but this book just did not fullfill anything for me. Waste of time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death, Classism, Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide and Sexual content

mika_ha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging lighthearted medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

When english is not ur nativ langue it's hard to read in the beginning the characters have a heavy accent esp3in the beginning but it adds to there charm. Only thing I didn't like was the end the last chapters seemed rushed could've added a few more pages to keep the pace of the rest of the story. And give It a nice round ending 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Addiction, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Body horror

lbelow's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

4.5

This is one of my favourite books. The prose seems overly flowery at first until you realize that it isn't how everyone talks/thinks, it's how Delly does. By then, you're well and truly hooked into a rollicking ride filled with romance, mystery, a little light crime, a broken mother-daughter relationship not too far to fix, and a whole cast of strong female characters. This is always a fun read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Cursing, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Child death, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual content

the_lesbrarian's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Moderate: Suicide, Death, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Grief

Minor: Classism and Animal death

snickahz's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

This book would have been so much more enjoyable if it didn't have the purity culture stuff. The writing was fun. The story interesting. But the romance was boring and meandering. The main character spends 9/10 beating herself up about the relationship. And her love interest refuses to even kiss without being married. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content

willowd's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

(Note: I haven't read the first book!) 
Is this book amazing? No. But was it fun? Certainly. 
A bit heavy on the accents, so if that bothers you, skip it. I recommend listening over reading this story, due to the accent & grammar. If you're a non-native speaker, some of Delly's made up words might be more challenging. I found the dialogue very enjoyable to listen to. Oh also - the chapter titles are delightful.

I found the second half a bit drawn out - but I truly warmed up to the old lady and her mouse. The pacing of the second half could have been tweaked, or used another twist.

Now, somehow my book club thought this was marketed as sapphic (Idk where, because I didn't see anything like that? I dunno, I didn't look super hard!) and I want to be clear that it's not. The main character is clearly bi/pan. The main couple is two ladies, but there is sexual content that is not sapphic, and there is no wlw sexual content. However, the sexual encounters the MC has before are fairly glossed over, and honestly, as someone who doesn't love romance novels, was fine by me. I've read too many books with sudden love nonsense! With everything else going on, it sounded too exhausting for a romp. 
I think this author has promise, especially in the realm of audiobook. Maybe even a play? I look forward to her next work, and hope that it gets marketed accurately!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Animal death, Murder, and Drug use

Moderate: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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? Yes

3.25

Well, guess this book was okay. The first few chapters I quite liked it, eventually I got a bit bored and started to skim the pages. Also have to say that the english was pretty hard to understand for a non-nativ English speaker. My favorite character was Winn and I also enjoyed reading about Buttons. Also, Delly was an interesting character to read about and I was a fan of the criticism of classisim that was portrayed through the plot and interactions/dialogues. Don't know what to think about the romance plot though, I hoped for a slow burn but it was the total opposite. 
All in all it was an okay read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Alcoholism, and Classism

Moderate: Death and Gun violence

rachellyeah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death, Addiction, Blood, Gore, Drug use, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, Classism, Cursing, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Abandonment, and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content, Body horror, Child abuse, and Kidnapping