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stormeno's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Transphobia, Alcohol, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexism, Violence, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Death of parent
booksalacarte's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
3.75
River of golden bones- 3.75⭐️ 3🌶️
New Adult
Fantasy romance
Coming of age
Wolf shifters
Princess Warrior
Fated mates
🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ characters
He fell first
Slow burn
Open door spice
Twin princesses, hidden away until one is to marry a prince. This was an interesting reimagining of sleeping beauty’s children dealing with what happens when you don’t chase down the villain.
The main characters were fine, but the main character read very YA. I wonder if that was intentional with them being raised in a secluded cabin mansion… but I still wanted them to grow up and have the energy/mentality to match their badass fighting skills. It got better as the book moved on, but I didn’t like not enjoying them for the first half of the book.
The MMC was the broody manly man. Standard for the genre. I like that he fell first and harder and that he loved the main character through everything. His devotion was very well done.
A big hangup is the pack mentality, but the twins never lived in a pack, so I found it a little asinine that they cared so much about something they never experienced. I would have liked to have seen a little more friction in that space. Having the twins live in a wolf centric world for more than 24 hours and truly experience the hierarchy they never had… then break away from it. It would have been so much more satisfying.
Another complaint that I had was that for pivotal statement moments, the pacing came to an unrealistic complete halt. It was like the opposite of the jokes about the typical villain monologuing. I kept thinking “well villan, you could have killed them 10 different ways during all that.” Add a forced outing (that should have been revealed WAY before in order to lean into it) to the mix… nope.
Also, the way the story was wrapped up for this book made it feel like a standalone, not a series opener. I very well could walk away now and not feel as though I have missed anything by not reading further in this series, which is an unfortunate feeling to have when I enjoyed the book so much.
Thank you NetGalley andHarper Collins for providing and Advanced eReader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Misogyny, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Outing, Cursing, Murder, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
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