Reviews with content warning for Blood - Covet

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Covet by Tracy Wolff

28 reviews

sunnymushroom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious slow-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

Covet is the third book of the Crave series, meaning that there are three more books to go in the main series. For this, the plot, that is in some moments quite weird, progresses too slowly and there was more focus on the romance.

A big problem this novel had was the pacing. In the first third of the book, there’s barely any plot and it rather focusses on Grace and her relationship to the Vega boys. After the events of the last book, Grace is now the mate of Hudson and

breaks up with Jaxon. She additionally gets to know that her connection to Jaxon was only orchestrated by Bloodletter and never real in the first place

. To find a solution for this mess and a way to defeat Cyrus, the big evil, they need to find a MacGuffin.

Even though this book had so many pages, this main plot barely progresses because it takes such a long time until they actually start looking for it. This book was definitely too long and at least one fourth could’ve been cut, like the random sightseeing at NYC. Furthermore, some of the conflicts just felt artificial and Grace’s inner monologues repeated themselves from time to time, seemingly just to stretch the book more. In comparison to this, I still really like the high school elements of the story and I’m a bit sad that Grace is already in her graduation year.

When they finally start looking for the crown though, it gets more interesting and exciting. Grace and some of her friends go

to prison to find the blacksmith. I found this whole arc a bit weird since it wasn’t so vividly described, but I still felt the creepy atmosphere there. Luckily, they find the blacksmith and are able to free him, but they’re forced to leave Remy behind

Like with Crush, the ending was so great, dramatic and emotional:

When our squad arrives at the cave, Cyrus and his people are already there and trying to stop them from reaching the beast. In the course of the fight, Luca died for Flint which was so sad. Jaxon almost died as well, but Flint’s mom saved his life. I don’t know about this, and this sounds mean, but I would’ve preferred if he actually died. This would’ve had a greater impact, and I just don’t like this “a character seems to be dead but isn’t actually”-trope. We’re again left with a mean cliffhanger that Cyrus apparently kidnapped all the children at Katmere

. What annoyed me though was that

they only get the key at the end of the book and not even the crown itself, showing how little the plot progressed

I still find the writing of the series okay and I especially enjoy the dialogues that are often funny but still feel like actual people are talking. Sometimes, some phrases are repeating; I didn’t even bother to count how often Hudson’s British accent was mentioned, it was a lot lmao. Another thing that I need to mention specifically concerns the German translation: I felt that this time, the translation was quite clumsy and just too close to the original. Often, English sayings are word for word translated into German, even though the saying doesn’t exist like this in German.

When looking at the characters, I feel a bit ambivalent. I don’t even know why, but I like Grace quite a lot. She feels like a real person as well since her feelings are portrayed so well. Who don’t feel so real are some characters of the main squad who fulfil some clichés and don’t have much more going for them. Additionally, there are barely any interesting female characters which I find a bit sad. The romance was also okay this time; like I’ve mentioned before, I neither like love triangles with brother nor the idea fated love. I honestly don’t care who Grace is dating since both of the boys are okay. I think I prefer Hudson more since he’s much more likable here than in Crush but the conflicts with him and Grace felt so artificial and hence were annoying.

All in all, Covet was in my opinion the weakest book of the Crave series thus far. The plot was all over the place and everything was a bit drawn out. Still, it had some amazingly dramatic moments, and some characters are really great which both keep me interested in the series.

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kassidyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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cady_sass's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

I will start by saying that loved this and cried at the end. If YA can bring tears to my eyes, you know there’s at least something solid going on here. I’ll be reading the next one as soon as I get my hands on it!

That said, I’m now 3 books and approximately 2100 pages into this series and I have QUALMS. Questions. This isn’t a knock on this book in particular but at the fact that having read this much there are some things that should be addressed by this point. Definite spoilers below, but at this point in the series you should already know all these things.

1. Hudson and Jackson (and presumably others???? Again, no idea) are centuries old. Why are they NOW, at 200+ years old, graduating high school? Surely there is a plot device that could explain this but it hasn’t been written. Normally it’s a high-school-forever plot line, due to being immortal and never aging and moving around forever etc, but this is a school for paranormal that they haven’t been attending for 200 years. WHY????
2. We are dangerously close to being “no plot, just vibes”. You might say “but so much is happening!” and you would be correct, but when it comes to fantasy some of the pillars of the genre are world building and magic systems and we get NONE of either. Some people are fine with this, I get it! But I want to understand this universe, I want to understand the factions, I want to understand the magic. 2100 pages of content and you can’t throw us a bone? :(
3. The spell/ritual that Lia tried to perform in Crave (yes I realize that was 1400 pages ago) still has not been explained. What exactly was she doing and why was it going to work? How did she find Grace at all let alone kill her parents? What about Grace is it that was the ONLY thing that would make it work, the gargoyle thing, the mate thing, something else? It does stand to reason that this could still be explained, but I the fact that everyone just accepted (seemingly) that Lia could and would bring Hudson back and never asked “how” is baffling to me. You can just bring people back from the dead? They should be more concerned about this.
3. The writing is just… not great. Has this stopped me from reading? Absolutely not. But it needs to be addressed. Just because a book is deemed YA doesn’t mean you have to write it like one. This HAS gotten marginally better with each book but it’s still very elementary.
4. This will be an unpopular opinion (probably) - I find myself questioning both the spice level and the violence/gore detail and the appropriateness for a young audience. As an adult, I read this and want more spice. The scenes are so unsatisfying in the way they are written, but they are written that way because it’s not adult fiction. The violence is vivid and grotesque, you feel those visuals deeply. So I find myself wondering if, even as it’s currently written, if it’s a little too much for a tween reader? Maybe not. But there’s a difference between 12 and 17, and my mom certainly wouldn’t have let 13 year old me read this.

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honeybunchesofoats06's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional 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

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haleybre's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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ashleyvharris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I don’t know why I keep reading this series other than the fact that I’ve committed to it. The writing is so cringey and feels very much like a parody of how adults think teenagers talk and think.

There are many inconsistencies and instances where Wolff contradicts herself and the details of the story. The magic system in this world conveniently works or fails based on the outcome needed for the scene.

Every book so far in this series had the potential to be a really great fantasy book, but Wolff continually tries to pack in way too much. Too many tropes, storylines, and token representation. It’s almost exhausting trying to keep up with what’s going on.

Wolff tries to include more serious themes and intense emotional moments when grappling with topics of war, death, and loss but it’s always Grace’s internal dialogue. The book is so overstuffed with plot devices that there’s no room for quiet moments of emotion and grief. The few moments that have this potential are cut off by some random occurrence that thrusts the characters into some new deadly situation.

I really appreciate the few times we get to see Jaxon’s fast-deteriorating state. I wish we had seen more of his struggles in this book.

The most under explored and compelling part of this book were the moments where we learn more about Grace, her origin, and the history of this supernatural world. I sincerely hope the 4th book builds on this!

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dkgreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? No

5.0

Holy cow, THE FEELS! So much happened in such rapid succession that it was hard to catch my breath. The last part of this book was so intense it had me all twisted up inside and bawling my eyes out. I’m almost scared to move on to Book 4—with that set up, I’m not sure I have the emotional capacity to survive any more hits with the way they keep coming…

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brooklynncm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

Alright, SO, if you've read my reviews for the first two books in the series, you'll know that I've been thoroughly enjoying my time reading this. It's fluffy, trope-y, and just pure entertainment. I've loved learning about all of the different creatures and I definitely want to take a trip to Katmere Academy.

BUT...

This book left me in the dust. I think maybe it just needed to be two separate books? Like pre-prison and getting out of prison? Because so much happened before Hudson and Grace were locked up, but even more happened while they were in there and I got super lost. Like really super lost. I had absolutely no clue what was going on and had the toughest time following as they tried to get out.

Also, what was with the number of betrayals in this one? I literally never learned who I could trust. Even by the end there were people I was still confused about.

And the end... I genuinely shed tears towards the end. Losing characters is never fun but this one stung more than I anticipated. Maybe because I didn't see it coming like I had for the character death in Crave. However, the resurrections for other characters drove me a little batty. Like yes, we get it, they can't die yet, but also... it could've been good if they had?

This is such a rambly review and I feel like that happens after a few books in a series. I get less structured with my thoughts because it's all just how the book makes me feel.

This one made me feel confused and I wanted more from it. Hoping Court brings the good stuff.

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