Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Winter Duke

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett

9 reviews

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a pretty solid read, which was a nice surprise considering I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book.

The characters felt really well rounded. The MC actually read as a teen thrown into a situation she didn’t know how to handle, but that did lead to moments that I was extremely frustrated with the MC because she came across as incredibly stupid. The rest of the cast I found considerably more enjoyable and she we had gotten more of. I also really liked the character dynamics, both posters and negative. Each character played off each other in a unique and interesting way that I really enjoyed.

The mystery of the book was also really solid. A lot of the conclusions the MC came to I also suspected and pieced together, even if getting there felt a bit rushed at times.

My only issue was the world building. There were a lot of details that felt conflicting with what had been established and what we were seeing on page. And a lot of what was established didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why was the MCs family so violent and prone to killing each other? What sense did that make? Why was the issue of following the MC was that people believed she killed her family when every leader before her had? I just didn’t feel like it was super consistent at times, despite how interesting most of it was.

Overall pretty solid sapphic fantasy read!

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miraileah's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5. I loved this! I really liked Ekata’s character development, I thought her journey was really realistic and understandable, and I enjoyed reading it (though it frustrated me at times). Inkar was a great supporting character, and Eirhan and Aino were fun to read as well. I did feel that the other council members were sort of samey and hard to tell apart at times, but I also felt Ekata’s confusion was reflected by this choice, so I can respect it. Overall though, I thought the story was really well structured and paced, and I loved the world building and character work.

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buttermellow's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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reign_kaur's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

The only reason I think this book counts as YA is because the main character is sixteen years old. If she was a bit older, nineteen perhaps, then I would have rated this book 5 ⭐️
The representation in this book is perfect, people of different genders, cultures, religions and sexual orientation. Most importantly is that the LGBTQIA+ didn't distract from the plot, nor was it the focus. In this fantasy world it was just as normal as assasinating your siblings for the throne.

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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spacexgay's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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yvonne_cl's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was pretty good. The book’s representation of queer folks and gender diverse characters was very well done. Good slow burn sapphic romance. The political elements were interesting, though the end of the book felt overly complicated in its wrap up of the plot. Overall, this was a decent young adult fantasy but not amazing

Spice level: 🌶/5

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booksandcat's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

As others have said I enjoyed the wlw/non-binary representation and the fact it wasn't treated as out of the ordinary at all, but the plot and characters really fell flat for me. I was so disappointed as the premise was amazing.

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