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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Sorry, but the magic system in this book felt downright unpleasant to me, and I couldn’t warm up to Briony—she was really unlikable. That said, I did enjoy the ending. The cliffhanger was strong and left me curious about what comes next.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This story is really good! I’m excited to see what happens next when the second book is published! The characters were interesting (lovable and at times a little frustrating), but the FMC is strong! Definitely a good book to add to your tbr
dark
emotional
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent
Minor: Bullying, Vomit, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was an absolute struggle for me.
I’ve never read any Dramione fanfiction, so I really had no idea what I was getting into.
The whole story seemed to only be put together to create the ‘romance’.
World building was no existent. We were flooded with characters, places and hierarchies all at once, which completely throws you off when you first start reading a book. Even the flash backs felt disjointed to the storyline at times.
As for the romance, it was so lackluster. I just felt frustrated that they seemed to be completely blind to the other person. Even though they both spend a huge amount of time paying attention to the other.
I’ve never read any Dramione fanfiction, so I really had no idea what I was getting into.
The whole story seemed to only be put together to create the ‘romance’.
World building was no existent. We were flooded with characters, places and hierarchies all at once, which completely throws you off when you first start reading a book. Even the flash backs felt disjointed to the storyline at times.
As for the romance, it was so lackluster. I just felt frustrated that they seemed to be completely blind to the other person. Even though they both spend a huge amount of time paying attention to the other.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Sexual harassment
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
.5 stars for wasting my fucking time.
Vague spoilers below but really nothing concrete.
Starting out with the good: the prose is readable. The sentence structure throughout is questionable and I made fun of a couple of lines in my head, but this book was clearly edited.
The bad:
- Briony is not smart. We are told she is smart constantly, and then I get to read about her not asking questions, not connecting patterns, not using her position for any type of benefit other than accepting it. She realizes things chapters after I, the reader, has already made the cognitive leap about, and reacts to them poorly.
- The magic system is under-developed. You can't just take a previously established system and rename it without doing the legwork, and there was not enough effort put into it. It was needlessly complicated, with the 8 (?) forms of gestures, which were shared between magical sources. Why did each country have a different magic source? Why did this not matter to any of the key players, who all dabbled in both sources?
- I thought this story was written for a slave/master fetish. Tell me why the slave part got almost erased by the end of the story. Briony is put into a horrific situation where she is likely to be sexually and physically assaulted day-in and day-out and she only escapes that by the pure luck of the richest boy in the country having a crush on her.
- She also constantly undermines Toven's "master" role in public because she isn't treated like a slave, and literally nothing is done about this. The plot demands that inquiries are made at the house to make sure he's been properly abusive but Toven faces no consequences for not disciplining her in any way that matters to the people in power.
- Briony spends the entire book learning mind magic. Something she was already taught in. She does this to protect her secrets. Which she doesn't have until 60% through the book. If I see the phrase "a lake with still waters" again, it'll be too soon.
- The fact that this book is part of a trilogy is offensive to me. Nothing happens for any part of this book, Briony faces no character development, and the relationship is stagnant.
- Mallow sucks as a villain. The genderbending was a strange choice and doesn't make any sense for the majority of on-screen slaves being women. Yay feminism, a girlboss rises to power. Ignore the fact that she's allowing and encouraging sexual slavery and promoting only men to the successive seats of power, but thinks she's better than the patriarchal monarchy of that other country.
- The names, god the names are so bad.
- Julie Soto, I am talking directly to you. Virginity is a made-up concept that does not change the fundamental makeup of the human body whether it is present or not. Because it is not real. There is no way to tell if someone is a virgin or not, especially not through the expectation of penetrative sex involving a vagina, and I will not accept the lore of there being a magical spell to identify that. The entire concept of there being a DARK RITUAL to fool this single spell of the presence of VIRGINITY is a fucking joke and I need you to realize that.
Vague spoilers below but really nothing concrete.
Starting out with the good: the prose is readable. The sentence structure throughout is questionable and I made fun of a couple of lines in my head, but this book was clearly edited.
The bad:
- Briony is not smart. We are told she is smart constantly, and then I get to read about her not asking questions, not connecting patterns, not using her position for any type of benefit other than accepting it. She realizes things chapters after I, the reader, has already made the cognitive leap about, and reacts to them poorly.
- The magic system is under-developed. You can't just take a previously established system and rename it without doing the legwork, and there was not enough effort put into it. It was needlessly complicated, with the 8 (?) forms of gestures, which were shared between magical sources. Why did each country have a different magic source? Why did this not matter to any of the key players, who all dabbled in both sources?
- I thought this story was written for a slave/master fetish. Tell me why the slave part got almost erased by the end of the story. Briony is put into a horrific situation where she is likely to be sexually and physically assaulted day-in and day-out and she only escapes that by the pure luck of the richest boy in the country having a crush on her.
- She also constantly undermines Toven's "master" role in public because she isn't treated like a slave, and literally nothing is done about this. The plot demands that inquiries are made at the house to make sure he's been properly abusive but Toven faces no consequences for not disciplining her in any way that matters to the people in power.
- Briony spends the entire book learning mind magic. Something she was already taught in. She does this to protect her secrets. Which she doesn't have until 60% through the book. If I see the phrase "a lake with still waters" again, it'll be too soon.
- The fact that this book is part of a trilogy is offensive to me. Nothing happens for any part of this book, Briony faces no character development, and the relationship is stagnant.
- Mallow sucks as a villain. The genderbending was a strange choice and doesn't make any sense for the majority of on-screen slaves being women. Yay feminism, a girlboss rises to power. Ignore the fact that she's allowing and encouraging sexual slavery and promoting only men to the successive seats of power, but thinks she's better than the patriarchal monarchy of that other country.
- The names, god the names are so bad.
- Julie Soto, I am talking directly to you. Virginity is a made-up concept that does not change the fundamental makeup of the human body whether it is present or not. Because it is not real. There is no way to tell if someone is a virgin or not, especially not through the expectation of penetrative sex involving a vagina, and I will not accept the lore of there being a magical spell to identify that. The entire concept of there being a DARK RITUAL to fool this single spell of the presence of VIRGINITY is a fucking joke and I need you to realize that.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
adventurous
dark
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:
No
Briony has been a secondary character in her own life living in the shadow of her brother’s prophecy. But now she is alone in a new horrifying reality where her people are treated no better than livestock with no autonomy and no rights. Without her twin she is the only Rosewood left and she has to become a leader for her oppressed people, a role she was never prepared for growing up in a patriarchal society.
The feelings of helplessness and despair in a regime that has become increasingly hostile and divisive are almost too real given our current political climate. At times I was so eager to read more yet had to put the book down and take a second to process the intense feelings this audiobook gave me. The narrator perfectly captured Briony in all her hope, despair, heartbreak, acceptance and determination. I was truly transported into this world (for better or worse at times) and that’s why this book hasn’t left my mind since I finished. I will be waiting with bated breath for the next installment as we are left with so many more questions than answers and one heck of a cliffy. I’m also eager to see how the romance develops as we got a ton of tension in this book but no significant pay off. I’m hoping Toven will learn to not treat her like a doll upon a shelf eager to protect her virtue and purity. The build up in their animosity towards each other through escalating flashbacks really helped drive that angsty tension through the roof and yet you couldn’t help feel he was an anchor in the storm for her despite it all.
Needless to say I cannot recommend this listen enough and I will continue to theorize and speculate wildly until book two is finally in my ears and heart.
The feelings of helplessness and despair in a regime that has become increasingly hostile and divisive are almost too real given our current political climate. At times I was so eager to read more yet had to put the book down and take a second to process the intense feelings this audiobook gave me. The narrator perfectly captured Briony in all her hope, despair, heartbreak, acceptance and determination. I was truly transported into this world (for better or worse at times) and that’s why this book hasn’t left my mind since I finished. I will be waiting with bated breath for the next installment as we are left with so many more questions than answers and one heck of a cliffy. I’m also eager to see how the romance develops as we got a ton of tension in this book but no significant pay off. I’m hoping Toven will learn to not treat her like a doll upon a shelf eager to protect her virtue and purity. The build up in their animosity towards each other through escalating flashbacks really helped drive that angsty tension through the roof and yet you couldn’t help feel he was an anchor in the storm for her despite it all.
Needless to say I cannot recommend this listen enough and I will continue to theorize and speculate wildly until book two is finally in my ears and heart.