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Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Colonisation
I really enjoyed this especially at first! I felt like it was a bit slow with the some info dump but enough interesting things to keep me guessing. Full disclosure that I did not read the first half but rather listened to the Graphic Audio version and wanted to know the rest so badly I bought the book.
Will we ever get fantasy creatures that can’t smell arousal lol and then towards the end it just felt like she was analyzing the same things ad nauseam.
It was also really predictable. As soon as Hawke is introduced to the guard, I knew who he was. And the frustrating part is seeing how dumb Poppy is since it takes her forever to get to her conclusion. Also the whole fucking in the snow thing was an interesting choice. Also weird thing to not talk about getting married?
I still really liked the world building and generally like Poppy even though she got really whiny by the end. Def planning on reading the next.
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Murder
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Death of parent
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Sexual harassment
Minor: Torture
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence
Moderate: Child death, War
Minor: Death of parent
- The MMC; wanting to know what happens next with him is the main thing convincing me to read the next book.
What I don't like:
- The intense focus on the FMC being THE Maiden and most of the book being her introspection. I'm okay with introspection, but there was more of it than of action. The most interesting parts of the book were when we got to see the "consequences" of being The Maiden in action. I wish we would have been shown more rather than just being told all of her thoughts. Thoughts are so boring.
- Many things were predictable
- Mentioning her brother a lot but never meeting him and it not being clear if we will ever meet him. I'm sure we will since there are multiple books in this series, but it's really frustrating to have to hear about characters we've never met and having to take the main character's word that not only do they exist, but that they are at all the way they're being described. (I'm like, 20 minutes away from actually being done with this book as I'm writing my review so I'm gonna be mad if we meet him at the end lol)
- Idk how the term is spelled in the book or how it's supposed to be pronounced, but in the audiobook, the narrator is saying "vamprees" instead of "vampires." I'm not saying this is wrong or anything since I don't know what the author intended, I just really don't like it. It's grating to my ears and brain.
- Atlantia is starting to seem very Velaris-esque. If the parallels continue, I'm going to be disappointed. Not because I think there's any copying going on, I don't think that at all, I just don't love SJM books and I don't want this series to end up being as big of a let down as those were.
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood
Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent
Graphic: Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting
Minor: Pedophilia, Death of parent