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alexijai98's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I had high expectations so I’m honestly a bit disappointed. i really enjoyed the first third or so, but after that I felt like I was just desperately trying to be done with this book.
I found Raeve grating and incredibly predictable after a while, and almost more like a YA character than an adult. She’s incredibly one dimensional - all she does is wallow in misery. There’s only so much suffering a woe I can take!
Also, this book could’ve done without maybe 200ish pages, and the decision to have multiple POVs in the last fourth or so was simply distracting. I skimmed chapters with POVs I didn’t care about lol.The whole middle section where Raeve finds herself among the warriors and Kaan has to fight to save her? Waste of time and the brain power it took to read about it.
And the use of “male/female” got really old really fast, and just felt weird throughout. Is the author doing weird gender politics or is it meant to remind readers about the “old-fashioned-ness” of the world?
Despite my overall disappointment I will attempt to read the rest of this series when more books come out. I’ll just keep my expectations lower.
I found Raeve grating and incredibly predictable after a while, and almost more like a YA character than an adult. She’s incredibly one dimensional - all she does is wallow in misery. There’s only so much suffering a woe I can take!
Also, this book could’ve done without maybe 200ish pages, and the decision to have multiple POVs in the last fourth or so was simply distracting. I skimmed chapters with POVs I didn’t care about lol.
And the use of “male/female” got really old really fast, and just felt weird throughout. Is the author doing weird gender politics or is it meant to remind readers about the “old-fashioned-ness” of the world?
Despite my overall disappointment I will attempt to read the rest of this series when more books come out. I’ll just keep my expectations lower.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
art_books_chemistry's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
5.0
I absolutely loved every word of this book. Even though it's over 700 pages, there was no point where I wanted to stop reading and I definitely shorted myself on sleep a couple of nights when I lost myself in it.
Parker's world-building is exquisite. The world she crafted is deep and thorough as are her characters. I honestly cannot decide which of them I love more. There's a strong but flawed FMC, a giant teddy bear MMC plus beautiful, unique dragons. Plus even the side characters are equally as developed, even the ones we barely get to know in this book, clearly have fully developed back stories. I can't wait for the next installment to flesh them out further as well as the next phase of the plot. I guessed a couple of the twists right before we found out about them but they were very well done.
Highly recommend to any lover of high fantasy.
Parker's world-building is exquisite. The world she crafted is deep and thorough as are her characters. I honestly cannot decide which of them I love more. There's a strong but flawed FMC, a giant teddy bear MMC plus beautiful, unique dragons. Plus even the side characters are equally as developed, even the ones we barely get to know in this book, clearly have fully developed back stories. I can't wait for the next installment to flesh them out further as well as the next phase of the plot. I guessed a couple of the twists right before we found out about them but they were very well done.
Highly recommend to any lover of high fantasy.
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Slavery, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Abandonment