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Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent

124 reviews

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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: No

Rating: 5/5 stars

Oraya and Raihn’s story continues in the sequel to THE SERPENT AND THE WINGS OF NIGHT.

I loved this one and was entertained the entire way through! I feel like I can’t say a ton about the plot without spoilers, but RAIHN, my HEART. He was such a standout here, and getting a dual POV kept me so invested. I also loved the glimpses of Vale and Lilith after being introduced to them in SIX SCORCHED ROSES.

Overall, I really like this duology and the world Carissa Broadbent has created—it has romance, action, and political intrigue, and I was super invested by the end. I’m intrigued by what with come next with book three (which starts off the Shadowborn Duet) and I’m excited to read that one in November!

CW: Violence; blood/injury; death of parent

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

Loved it! Better than book 1.

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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: Complicated

This book was so beautiful 🥹

Carissa said she wanted to bring the main story to a satisfying & emotional close and she DID THAT 😫👏🏽. Character development was top notch, the emotions were emotioning. I cried..mutiple times.. happy tears + sad ones. There were some bffr moments, but honestly overall it was a vibe. 10/10.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional mysterious 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

I really liked it! Not as much as the first, but I’ll definitely read more of the books in the series/world. It was much slower than the first one. It wasn’t slow paced by any means but it was much slower than the first. It was a lot easier for me to put down than the first one. Which for me wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I could see it turning people off a bit. My favorite thing about it was once again her relationship with her father and the journey she goes on to accept who he was and the things he did while trying to pair that with the man she loved and looked up to. Watching her take off the rose tinted glasses and go through the different stages of grief was well done. 

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

Continuing from the first book in this duology, I am again conflicted in my review. I did get more about the gods and Vincent/Oraya's past, which is what I was looking for, but... this dragged. I just never felt the chemistry between Raihn & Oraya and so when they were fighting over what Raihn did (which - valid, girl, I don't know if I could be in the same room with him after that in the beginning) I wasn't super rooting for them to get back together. I found myself skimming pages to get to the good parts. The ending was, in some ways, expected and, in others, unsatisfying. Now the question becomes - do I do what I did to myself with the Hades/Persephone series and push to read the rest in this world to see if it gets better or do I cut my losses on this series? Time will tell. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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: Complicated

This book is just a great as the first. I will say that it is a little slower than Serpent and the Wings of Night as we are dealing with the consequences of the characters actions in the first book. There is political challenges, emotional struggles, depression, as well as hope. We recognize that the world is not black and white but many shades of grey. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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