Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Iron Heart by Nina Varela

22 reviews

katte's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was so. good. I read it in two sittings only because I needed to sleep and work. Excellent adventure. After getting to know the protagonists in the last book, we get introduced to more characters in this one and it is not overwhelming, which is nice. I also love the fact that even though we follow two storylines for a while, I never feel like there’s a character I’d prefer to be following over the other. Each story feels like as important, just as intense, and I wanted to absorb them both at the same time! 

From book one I found the dynamic between Crier and Ayla to be problematic with the lady-handmaiden thing. But in this book they are equals, which makes their interactions and relationship so much more fun. It was genuinely funny in many places! It almost makes their relationship dynamic from the first book better - if it hadn’t been so tense and weird, would it have been so good in this book?

The ending was very satisfying in several different ways. I feel the characters stayed true to themselves, and a plot point I’d been hoping for from book 1 happened! It felt good and satisfying instead of cheap and predictable. Fabulous read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Torture, War, Grief, and Confinement

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Drug abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Body horror

Minor: Death of parent

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense

• 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

really great ending, loved how much more adventure this book had and both the romance and the characters were just as amazing as the previous book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Cursing, and War

Minor: Murder, Alcohol, and Death of parent

averyrembish's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gore, Murder, Police brutality, Addiction, Confinement, Physical abuse, Death, Body horror, Medical content, and Torture

Minor: Alcohol, Self harm, and Death of parent

catmac15's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad 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

I think that Iron Heart was a beautiful completion to the Crier’s War Duology, I love Crier and Ayla’s relationship development as well as their own individual development! I specifically enjoyed the second half of the book the most; I feel like most of the action happen there! My one point of criticism is that the book is a bit slow in the first 200 (out of a 400 page book.

Crier’s War ends with Crier and Ayla separated from each other and even though i expected them to reunite at some point in the second book (not a bad thing) I didn’t expect it to take 200 pages. I can’t tell if I liked that or not because on one hand it did create a lot of anticipation for when they do see each other again but i feel like half the book of them being apart was maybe a little much

Overall I really loved this series and I think it’s 100% worth the read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Misogyny

caseythereader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and War

philmarie321's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, and War

offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Similar to the first book in this series, I found the Iron Heart to be an enjoyable sapphic YA fantasy. It was light-hearted and pleasant. I found the writing to be somewhat weak, and the pacing to be odd (slow then rushed). There wasn’t enough spice for my taste (only a couple kisses), but I suppose that goes with the YA territory.

Spice level: 🌶/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Kidnapping, Racism, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

Minor: War

sandy_21's review

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent, Murder, and Emotional abuse

kahleesi14's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and War