Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Court This Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark

11 reviews

elntastic's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny fast-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

3.75

The story was very gripping and entertaining, maintaining quite a fast pace throughout the story. I really liked the FMC. The MC is definitely a dark/grey character with questionable morals, but he didn’t cross any lines for me (yet).  I also loved the dynamic and slow burn between the FMC and the MC. 
However; the story was definitely nothing new. Everything that happened was more or less foreseeable. The world-building wasn’t very detailed.

The seemingly „good“ king who saved his people turns out to be an evil man who uses his folk? Heard that before. The MC is not who she thought he was? Read that before. She has to make a bargain with him after learning the truth about him? Def read that before. She has powers that were somehow hidden from her her entire life? Read that many many times. So all in all, nothing in this book felt new to me.  

It’s definitely a good story but if you’re looking for something new/different, you won’t find it here. This book feels like a lot of other books I have read before. There were so many parts where I saw direct similarities to other stories. If you’re looking for something different and new I’d suggest reading Carissa Broadbents books or Beck Michael’s „Guardians if the Maiden“ series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Vomit, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

knottygeek's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

The first half with the mercenary group was great and I loved it. The second half of the hook felt like a lot of almost too convenient things were put into place for the FMC. The end got predictable as well as some of the ending plot twists. Overall though wasn't a bad read and I plan on reading the next in the series asap.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Murder, Religious bigotry, Classism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide attempt, Blood, Torture, and Child death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Medical content

dxisymitch's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Genocide, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Grief, Confinement, War, and Injury/Injury detail

altarbunny's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

Super enticing read. I loved the fact that when the love interest separated the MC actually performed and executed a plan. The romance was definitely in the back burner until about 80% of the way through the book. My biggest peeve was that the clothing descriptions lacked and what I imagined(especially court attire) was impossible to execute some scenes in. I loved the dialogue and the plot and was kept on the edge of my seat for most of the book. People who enjoy series like ACOTAR would likely love this, although I wish a different title would have been chosen. I get that they’re trying to get Maas readers, but the court scenes was less than 50% of the book, and I feel like this book could easily stand on its own against ACOTAR. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Death, Blood, Murder, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual assault

unboundbooklover's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent, Gore, and Grief

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

Fantasy romance with forced proximity (one horse trope), found family and enemies to lovers / forbidden romance. Revenge, bargains & betrayal. Interesting and unique magic system.

Mostly I really liked the book and the FMC. The pace was a bit slow to my taste in the middle of the book and it felt like there wasn’t really anything interesting going on but I liked both the beginning and end. End had some nice twist, some I was able to guess beforehand but some were a surprise.

Definitely going to read the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Medical content, Rape, Body horror, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

cassandramt17's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Classism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Sexism

Minor: Vomit, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, War, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

So many tropes were checked off in this book.

The world building is interesting and mysterious enough that I will probably eventually continue, if only because it's an easy read with low personal stakes since I didn't really care about the characters.  The banter was amusing and the plotting was fun.  There were some pacing issues, but it was kind of necessary plot-wise so I'm not bothered by it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Classism, Slavery, Violence, Alcohol, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Body shaming, Genocide, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body horror, Confinement, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Stalking, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Outing, Police brutality, Sexism, Self harm, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

unicornofthesea's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Slavery

karatics'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Racism

Minor: Genocide and Rape