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bibliophile1's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and War
I listed a lot of trigger warnings because these themes/scenes do exist in this book. However, the focus is always on how the main character feels emotionally about what’s going on, so the physical descriptions of these events are mentioned but are glossed over; no really in-depth details. The author wants you to know the heroine is suffering, but the overall theme is about overcoming adversity and belief in something greater than oneself.accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really expected to like this book more, but I should have heeded the warning one of my friends gave me long ago about Lackey's books: 85% of the book/series will be great, and then the last 15% will come in out of nowhere and be extremely dark. And look at that! This book took a super dark turn about halfway through, just about 5/6 aka 83% of the way through the series. I'll be adding content warnings to this review, but here I will simply say that it is dark, and I would really advise caution if you're expecting more horse girl content here.
Additionally, I found the romance to be really frustrating here. Dirk spends his entire time being SO DUMB and then comes in as a deus ex machina in the end.
Finally, this book is pretty clearly not the end of the story, although it's the end of Talia's story, so many of the serious problems for this country that come up are not solved at the end of the book. Will it compel me to read the next one in the series though? Based on this experience, I doubt it.
Additionally, I found the romance to be really frustrating here. Dirk spends his entire time being SO DUMB and then comes in as a deus ex machina in the end.
Finally, this book is pretty clearly not the end of the story, although it's the end of Talia's story, so many of the serious problems for this country that come up are not solved at the end of the book. Will it compel me to read the next one in the series though? Based on this experience, I doubt it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Rape, and War
Minor: Child abuse and Incest
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