Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Shadow Princess by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

20 reviews

lorenmarie7's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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shorthannah's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

No book has ever made me as angry as this one, I wanted to punch the screen multiple times. I grew to hate all of the main characters because of their stupidity and refusal to learn from mistakes we've seen them make over and over throughout the series, and I'm still not convinced it was worth finishing it. I persevered this far based on reviews saying the series improved in books four and five but this was the most infuriating one yet. Rather than having character development they actually got worse; for a bunch of characters who are meant to be at least 18 they were unbelievably immature and really haven't had much real character development. Perhaps that is down to the bizarre pacing of this series because while we have slogged through four increasingly, unnecessarily long books, only about one semester has passed in the plot, with most of the books being filled out with constant repetitive bullying. Not to mention this book was filled with my two least favourite lazy tropes: miscommunication and the dreaded betraying body trope. I wanted to shake the characters and scream at them so many times. Take tory for example,
rejecting Darius and becoming star crossed
was the most sensible decision she made when it came to him. 
I'm torn over whether or not I want to continue reading this series. I'm a sucker for magical academy settings and I'm desperate to see the Vega's grow into their powers and earn their place on the throne but it feels like these authors refuse to let them catch a break. Any time there is hope for them the Heirs or Lionel do something even more horrific to them (and then no doubt a vega will "get back at them" by immediately screwing them *cough* toxic Torius *cough* and make me want to throw my phone at a wall), so I don't know if I could put up with more of the inevitable bullying and abuse.
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just_klaudia's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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msvernier's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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_savannahreads_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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sam019's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The books just keep getting better and better. My absolute new favorite series. 
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bekand1's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

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lotte5322's review against another edition

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4.5

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bialves's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ceruleanshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

ugh the FEELS !!! ok well someone in a review somewhere totally spoilt one of the big twists for me, so DON'T read thru too many like I did lol. Definitely took the surprise out and colored my reading experience differently than I expect other readers'. 
That being said, this book has it all. Great laughs (Geraldine & Tyler, gotta love 'em), forbidden romance (Blue & Lance, see more Darius & Tory action), more mysterious clues, and now we start to explore more of the Shadow realm and its magic. 
A lot of readers seem to dislike Tory in this one - to be fair, she is VERY stubborn, but I can see where she's coming from. Plus, you can't expect to write characters who don't have flaws and figure everything out and make all the right decisions, what kind of series will you have? Nothing it'll be three pages and done. Conflict, conflict, conflict!!
Can we talk about how much I fell in love with Darcy & Orion? Like.. student-teacher, older man issues aside LOL but really their love feels so pure and beautiful... ugh it hurts.
I do have many questions (I wanted more info from the Palace!!!) and the ending is the BIGGEST, WORST cliffhanger YET of the series so you know what that means... Gotta start #5 as soon as I finished writing this review.
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