Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Court This Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark

22 reviews

maggies's review

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Entertaining, steady pace, spice that doesn’t overpower the plot, interesting enough world-building and system of magic without being overwhelming. A bit twisty, with a good setup for book #2. All in all, enjoyable and easy to get through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Child death, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

screenqueen24's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I can see why a lot of people who love the ACOTAR books are fans. It's a great enemies-to-lovers story and the magic system at play in this world is rather unique and probably my favourite part.

It's been quite predictable, the foreshadowing is a bit too blatant at times but with that cliffhanger ending, I'm already ready to press play on the 2nd in this series. Hoping for more danger, less obvious reveals and some more badass moments for our FMC.

Prisca is a bad-ass delight though...she's smart, devious, calculating, brave and she's clearly more than she seems. She's sassy, full of banter (especially with Lorian😂) and someone you don't want to cross!

Very intrigued to see what she does, who she allies with and how as the series progresses. 4 books and the 3rd to be published later in Jan!


It's got some spice, but it's slow burn.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Death of parent, and Violence

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

Fantasy romance with forced proximity (one horse trope), found family and enemies to lovers / forbidden romance. Revenge, bargains & betrayal. Interesting and unique magic system.

Mostly I really liked the book and the FMC. The pace was a bit slow to my taste in the middle of the book and it felt like there wasn’t really anything interesting going on but I liked both the beginning and end. End had some nice twist, some I was able to guess beforehand but some were a surprise.

Definitely going to read the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Medical content, Rape, Body horror, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

jaedee09's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this book. It's a fun adventure, but reminded me of other stories as well. I found the world and magic structure unique with humans also having magic. The pacing felt weird at times, such as when

three major moments happen in the span of about an hour/a walk down a hallway.

Spice was good, and the slow burn was burning. Heart fluttered several times. Some plot twists were predictable, but others weren't. I'll continue listening/reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Cursing, Child death, Gaslighting, Confinement, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit

daisy2050's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to love this book. I read it because a friend recommended it for her Fourth Wing book hangover. The actual plot was ok. I felt like this had good bones but poor execution. The connection between the main male character and the main female character is not fleshed out at all and made the romance a bit off putting if I'm being honest. The main female character seems cool AF and I would've liked this book better if the main male character just wasn't in it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Police brutality, Medical content, Sexual content, Murder, and Violence

readingisfun14's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Loved this book! I felt like there was always something happening for good reason. I really love the concept and story, just want to be a bit more invested in the MMC. He lacked some character development to give the book a bit more depth. Love the FMC so much - strong, independent take over the world type with some imposter syndrome, gotta love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Violence

cassandramt17's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Classism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Sexism

Minor: Vomit, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, War, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

mossbelle's review

adventurous medium-paced

3.75

🌶.5
I hated 70% of this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

So many tropes were checked off in this book.

The world building is interesting and mysterious enough that I will probably eventually continue, if only because it's an easy read with low personal stakes since I didn't really care about the characters.  The banter was amusing and the plotting was fun.  There were some pacing issues, but it was kind of necessary plot-wise so I'm not bothered by it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Classism, Slavery, Violence, Alcohol, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Body shaming, Genocide, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body horror, Confinement, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Stalking, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Outing, Police brutality, Sexism, Self harm, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

unicornofthesea's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Slavery