Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

22 reviews

safety_pin's review against another edition

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: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Abandonment, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Vomit, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol

thegreatelise's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved it, at times I couldn’t even put it down, I was so convinced that I would rate it 5 stars but sadly the ending was a bit disappointing. There are some things that I don’t understand why it happened, it doesn’t add anything to the plot except unnecessary issues.
The first 400 pages were really enjoyable and went smoothly but the last 100 were a bit messy.
Lou is a bad bitch, we love a confident queen.
Reid is definitely my fav book boyfriend I love him so much 😙
Ansel is so adorable I love him with my whole heart please protect him at all costs.
However I thought that the romance was a bit too fast for their situation but it was sweet so it’s okay.

I appreciated the fact that it was Reid who was still a virgin when they had s*x while Lou already had partner of that kind, because usually in media it’s always the woman who is a virgin and the man who had a lot of experience so it’s cool that this time it was the other way around.
All the informations that we’re thrown at our faces at the end of the book we’re overwhelming and a bit too much.
The archbishop is Lou’s real father ? Okay fine
Madame Labelle is a witch ? Well there are plenty of them already
Madame Labelle is Reid’s mother ? Alright 
Reid is the king’s son ? Okay..
Reid can now use magic ? Why..
You know what I mean ? It’s too much and things are really messy.
I really don’t like the fact that men are able to use magic when the whole time it was like « only women can be witches » then suddenly because his wife is close to death he can use it too where no one ever did it before ?
Some things don’t make sense but I’ll let it slide because I enjoyed the whole book except that, I love their dynamic, I want to adopt Ansel, I wanna snatch Lou from Reid and I’m in love with Reid.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence

neaky__'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Things I liked: 
• The mechanics behind the white witches. I LOVE how their magic has limits and how the magic is presented. I also liked how the magic has a scent in this universe. 
• Relationship between Reid and Lou was fast but surprisingly believable. 
• I wasn’t expecting the final “twist” i guess you could say. A cruel twist of fate and i’m excited to see where it will lead in the next book. 

Things I didn’t liked: 
• I don’t think many of the side characters aside from the main few were developed. 
• Some parts are cringey and predictable but overall not too much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Murder, Misogyny, War, and Sexism

Moderate: Vomit, Suicide attempt, Genocide, Emotional abuse, and Eating disorder

victoriacp769's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

I think this is a great book, not the best one I read, but it’s good and I love this type of stories. Something I will say is that it was really difficult for me to read at the beginning, cause I found the first part of the book really slow and not much was happening.. but then in the second part of the book all the things you where holding on to starts happening, all the spicyness, the challenges, the mistery, everything. It really starts being entertaining and captivating. Also, in the third part of the book it continues on being that way, which is good, but something I did notice is that the author started rushing everything in the last chapters. In the last chapters there is tooo many things going on and too many plot twist and in a certain way it can be good but for me it was really rushed and uneven considering all the other chapters of the book. Also, the end was wayyy too open, I know that maybe she wanted to do that so that more readers would want to reach to the sequel, but personally I think it was a really confusing ending. 
Anyways, the book is good, really good, but the writing was not the best.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, and Animal death

prof_pelon's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Torture

sofmar917's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

veganecurrywurst's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.25

I did like the relationship that was developing between the two main characters, although it felt at some points uncomfortably toxic. I absolutely hated the ending and the storyline between Lou her mother and the other witches. I think I'm not going to continue reading the series's due to this. The POC representation was laughable. But I would recommend reading this book if the themes generally interested you, because you might actually enjoy it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, and Torture

kokorobosoina's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Emotional abuse

owlishly_reading's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit, Infidelity, Genocide, and Death of parent

jasirepe's review against another edition

funny relaxing slow-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

4.0

just kind of weird to have a fictional book but the real catholic church in it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence