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reginacattus's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Physical abuse, Colonisation, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, War, Violence, Sexual violence, and Confinement
amsswim's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.5
Thank you, Jen, for the recommendation. I love science fiction, and romance for me is a treat when done the way I like. I'm very picky on romance I read because I really don't love all romance tropes, but this one has some of my favorites. It's about the yearning, we must focus! Combining the perfected use of the romance tropes with a new sci-fi background I really loved. The overall story was interesting and kept me coming back as well. I saw a review saying the romance was a background to the sci-fi plot, but I felt the opposite that the sci-fi was a different setting for romance plot points used before, but maybe that just depends on how much you read each of those genres.
Either way if you're looking for a sweet, lgbt, sci-fi romance, this is it!
Either way if you're looking for a sweet, lgbt, sci-fi romance, this is it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Minor: Death, Sexual harassment, Medical content, and Sexual content
kal517's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse and Torture
thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
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
I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. There are some solid bones here; however, I think the execution was clunky and deeply unsatisfying in a lot of places. This was sold to me as a sci-fi romance, and, while I love speculative romance in general, I find that sometimes authors struggle to balance the speculative plot and the romance, and I think that that was a problem here. Much of the book’s energy is put into the science fiction plot and the romance suffers for it. By the end of the book our two leads are talking about how much they love each other I couldn’t fathom why. A big part of the reason for that is that the entirety of the romance pivots on chronic miscommunication, which I found absolutely infuriating. It feels like they barely know each other because all their conversations are riddled with misunderstanding. They each spend way more time in their own heads when they're talking to each other than they do focused on the other person. So much of the tension between the two leads would be completely gone if they would just behave like adults and talk honestly with each other but they don't do that until over halfway into the book. At the same time, the sci-fi plot wasn't compelling enough to warrant all the focus that was put on it. It's effectively a mystery plot, and I didn't find myself particularly caring who the culprit turned out to be, and in fact struggled through most of the book to even remember who people were because nobody really stood out that much besides our two main characters. Overall, this was just a big letdown for me. It's not a bad book, and I understand why people like it, but I definitely think it's been way overhyped, and this is a story that could have been told much more effectively than it was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual content, War, and Alcohol
frantic_vampire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
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
5.0
This was such a good book! I don’t really have the words for all the feelings that this book gave me. It was comforting, it was adventurous, it was political, and so many other things. I just loved this so, so much.
I loved the dynamic between Kiem and Jainan once they got past all the awkward miscommunications (and lack of communication). I loved that Kiem was so bubbly and talked with literally everyone, and that Jainan was almost the complete opposite. I loved all the political drama, the murder mystery, and everything else that this had going for it! Somehow this world felt familiar and yet not at all, if that makes sense. Winter’s Orbit was just so good and I’m giving it five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Grief, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Car accident, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
All tags are in relation to Taam and Aren and the shitty things they did before/during the story.bennoyb's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Torture
lunarexorcist's review against another edition
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
This book was so obviously written by someone who grew up on AO3. That has so much potential to be an embarrassing mess for everyone involved. But it works, and I want to read more of it yesterday.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Car accident, Xenophobia, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Gun violence and Rape
kanonkita's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The romance plot of the book was some sweet hurt/comfort. I felt that the leads had good chemistry with each other and their relationship had satisfying pacing. The only thing I'd change is that I would have liked a little more complexity in the world building and political situations. There were a lot of times where the ways that things just sort of shook out in the characters' favor because very important people with a lot of responsibility just trusted them without question took me out of the immersion of the story. That's not really the point of the book though, so if you can shut that part of your brain off, you'll probably have a great read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, War, Domestic abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, and Death
twistykris's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.0
Loved Jainan and Kiem as characters, but I struggled to really feel very interested in the political-space plot. The beginning was a bit of a slow start, in terms of world-building. The development between Kiem and Jainan was lovely, even with the miscommunication trope: I feel like it worked because they were both trying to be respectful of each other. I was rooting for them the whole time!
The audiobook is well-narrated but it needs some serious audio-balancing.. it was almost TOO dynamic? I had to keep turning the volume up and down, which is troublesome when listening with headphones. Parts were much too quiet and sometimes the narrator would suddenly speak VERY loudly which was off-putting; you can demonstrate loudness without being LOUD, if that makes sense?
I liked this book, and I will read Ocean's Echo in the future (same universe, different characters), but I don't have an urgent need. This book was sweet, but at times I struggled to keep reading/ listening. Again, the political parts were just kinda.. meh for me? I know it's a ME thing, but I just kept wanting to get to more of the developing relationship. I couldn't help but compare it to one of my favorite reads of last year, The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer.
The audiobook is well-narrated but it needs some serious audio-balancing.. it was almost TOO dynamic? I had to keep turning the volume up and down, which is troublesome when listening with headphones. Parts were much too quiet and sometimes the narrator would suddenly speak VERY loudly which was off-putting; you can demonstrate loudness without being LOUD, if that makes sense?
I liked this book, and I will read Ocean's Echo in the future (same universe, different characters), but I don't have an urgent need. This book was sweet, but at times I struggled to keep reading/ listening. Again, the political parts were just kinda.. meh for me? I know it's a ME thing, but I just kept wanting to get to more of the developing relationship. I couldn't help but compare it to one of my favorite reads of last year, The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Torture and Physical abuse
cantito's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Minor: Physical abuse