Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Cursed Fates by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

4 reviews

nineinchnails's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

these books are not good for my blood sugar at ALL i can't remember the last time i've felt so anxious and excited reading a book: or spent so long continuously reading a book that i missed breakfast, lunch, and dinner. the writing (specifically the prose) has improved quite a bit imo but even if it hadn't the plot manages to capture my attention so entirely that it doesn't really matter. i love angst and most of the characters were suffering so even though it's a lot of pining (i usually am not a big fan) i was obsessed!! the first half-ish was probably too slow paced but i really enjoyed it because there was a lot of character development (and suffering) and relationship development.

i think this is the first time i've felt them make progress with each other without them completely backtracking afterwards even if it is tentative and fragile progress. i am pretty much a tory girl now i think; she's so stubborn and prideful and argumentative and moody and insecure and vulnerable and loyal i would die for her!!! she feels very real and i feel more connected to her than i expected to at the start of the series. i think it might have been another case of me finding a character (ever so slightly) irritating because they remind me so much of myself that it's painful. some of her decisions and actions are questionable to say the least but it's more and more understandable the more we see of her chapters.

that goes for all the main characters if i'm honest since they get even more development + growth and even the ones i was iffy about i've kind of softened to. i'm still not obsessed with darcy and orion together (torydarius clear them any day) but i think i've come out the end of this book not hating them together so much... whatever makes darcy happy i guess! i do think the gap between them in terms of power imbalance/their dynamics is starting to close so it feels like they're closer to an even playing ground, if that makes sense, which is making me less icked out over them now. torydarius had so much development in this book and i was almost glad for the reason that they were suffering in this book because i don't think we could have got so much good without all that bad (in this context at least) but i'm hoping they get some sort of reprieve from the turmoil in the next book cause i don't know how much more i can take of it. ALSO torydarius felt very buffy x spike coded here like specifically season 6 the episode where the house falls down i'm obsessed with them.

the last half of the book made me feel sick because i was cycling through ITS JOEVER💔 and WE ARE SO BACK🥳 every 5 pages. honestly i don't even know what to say about the ending because it feels like there's so much going on but things just seem insanely grim. the only thing comforting me is the fact that i've finished 2 series by this duo now and if history (and the steadily increasing page count of ZA books) is reliable then i'm sure we will have a novella-sized epilogue by the time the final book comes out. i usually hate epilogues that long because they feel pointless and needlessly excessive but i think after all this suffering i will probably need it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Sexual content, Body horror, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Grief, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcoholism

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death of parent, War, Infidelity, and Police brutality

student/teacher relationship, incarceration

_savannahreads_'s review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Torture, and War

katvou's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

swimming_ducks's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

The excitement and tension all through the book kills me. My favorite one of the series BY FAR.

Loved the evolution between the Heirs and the twins, enemies to allies is always great. But even greater is enemies to lovers. Im obviously taking about Tory and Darius. Even though Tory denied their connection when they had their Divine moment they decided to defy the stars, and I’m obsessed with it. Hopefully they achieve it, even with Orions help. Who, btw, annoys the hell out of me. I understand he wanted to protect Darcy after they were caught but he took it too far. I feel bad for Darcy, she is finally happy after years of feeling worthless and now she lost the love of her life (who she believed to be her Elysian Mate), her sister and the world seems to he crumbling down.

 When it all comes down, CANT wait to get to the next book :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, and Pregnancy