Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan

10 reviews

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This book might actually be the worst book I've ever read. It took me a whole week to read (and I read Priory of the Orange Tree in less time). The absolute lack of a plot until like 300 pages in was honestly painful. The first 300 pages was like every "male" (🤢) telling Brie that she was so gorgeous and that they wanted to kiss her or have sex with her. The lack of consent in this book is outrageous considering that this is a YA romantasy, what is this teaching young people? All the male love interests were just vile. Sebastian being a manipulative gaslighter, Misha being a player, and Finn giving mixed signals all the time. Story literally could have been like 200 pages shorter if you took out all of Brie's internal conflicts and monologues.

Then there was the "oh my god, the children are in danger. Quick, let's participate in a fertility festival and let me gift you a house on the way to see a Priestess who can fix all this". Full offence, but where was the urgency? Then a plot twist finally springs up on around the 300th page, and it finally got interesting. But by this point, I was so sick of every character, and reading Brie's perspective that I just wanted to set fire to the book itself. I persevered and it got me absolute nothing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, and Torture

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Blood, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

Minor: Sexual content

rinku's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content

Moderate: War, Slavery, and Gore

Minor: Death of parent

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

I love it, I love it, I love it. I feel so rejuvenated! I couldn’t put this down, I was reading it every second I could and just… freaking loved it. So fun, sexy, magical, enchanting. I think the only thing I’m upset about is that it seems wrapped up lol I want more! I’m feeling a sense of loss that I don’t have more story surroundings these characters! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Torture, Toxic friendship, Classism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, War, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, and Miscarriage

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Death, Confinement, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent and Slavery

cady_sass's review

adventurous challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Very pleasantly surprised. Same as the first it’s a tad repetitive to the point where it’s almost offensive to the reader but ultimately a fun time. Fun duology, no regrets. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Confinement, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Body horror

katvou'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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: War, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol and Fire/Fire injury

haley49's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

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

4.5

Compared to the last book this one was super slow. I took week’s getting through that first third of it. It was a lot of build up; however, when it got going it was amazing. The world building, the character relationships, the plot was all so good and worked as an excellent sequel. The twists were even better than the last book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, War, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, and Genocide

louisa_pennyfeather2021's review

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I only read this book because Book 1's ending had me thinking there would be an epic female lead with an antivillain arc. I couldn't have been more wrong. To me, this felt like a Wattpad Y/N crossover fanfic of Mortal Instruments, ACOTAR, and The Vampire Diaries. This book almost mad me dislike reading again. I didn't enjoy the undertones perpetuated through the elements of goblins and slave camps. I couldn't figure out how Brie is supposed to be, but I'm hoping she was 18 because if she wasn't, certain scenes of this book shouldn't exist. 

I hated both love interests, but the main character made me unreasonably angry. The entire time, it felt like watching The Vampire Diaries. Both Brie and Elena Gilbert had the constant narrative of "I don't want this power, but I want these two brothers and I don't want to choose." Maybe I just prefer sound decisions, but her constant back and forth and emotional manipulation of both love interests was infuriating. 

The book was definitely romance heavy because certain aspects of violence and war weren't as detailed as the other Fantasy books I've read since first reading These Hollow Vows. 

Overall, I did not enjoy this book. Both books made me so angry. I had high hopes for it as this duology was my first time reading Fantasy ever. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, War, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Classism, Death of parent, and Deportation

clairew97's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, War, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

jmacminn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

First and foremost thank you to Clarion Books and Netgalley for providing me with the arc in exchange for my honest review.

These Twisted Bonds is the sequel to These Hollow Vows, the debut fantasty novel by Lexi Ryan and one of my favorite books of last year.

As Abriella comes to terms with her transition into Fae, her magic, and the bond, she is also dealing with the conflicts between the Seelie and Unseelie courts and her role in the war to come. We lose absolutely no time between THV and TTB as we join Abriella post bond with Bash,  she struggles to understand the full implications of what that bond means. Very quickly in the book we meet one of my new favorite characters, Misha, who is a breath of fresh air between all the longing and suffering in the main love triangle (He actually reminds me a lot of Ash from the Shadowlands books by Stacey Marie Brown). Misha provides both a sense of humor as well as some just plain fun flirtation, as opposed to all of the heavy implications and emotions tied to Finn and Bash.

Now I loved both of these books, but there were definitely some points where I felt like Brie was being purposefully oblivious, which took me out of the story a bit. It makes sense with everything she's been through that she is hesitant to trust people, but for me it was definitely frustrating watching her try to push away her feelings and everyone else's to stick with the "they're just using me" narrative. I also found that the ending of the book was a bit rushed as there were still a lot of loose ends when I was 90% done the book. I had a moment where I thought maybe this had been turned into a trilogy and I had missed the memo.

Overall I loved these books, the love interests were fantastic foils of each other, light and dark, old and young, devotion and possession. The obstacles they faced kept the pace moving quickly while allowing the characters to develop. Just a delightful read and a fantastic final installment of this duology (although I certainly wouldn't mind visiting this world again if the author decides to come back to it!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Sexual content