Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Broken Bonds by J. Bree

89 reviews

antidietleah's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Bullying

witcheep's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The main character is wrapped in a mystery that just keeps growing the more we learn about her. She is put in a situation where the control of her own life is taken away from her (and it is very distressing to read about it), but she hints that she can manage it and will take her freedom the first chance she gets. I'm interested in finding out what the mystery of her will unfurl into in the sequel(s).

The book left me quite disappointed, though. Mostly I just wish we would have learned more about the FMC's mysterious past and gift in this first book already. Her Bonds are acting very toxic towards her, mist of them restricting her freedom and choises to the extent of kidnapping and treating her in a nearly hostile way even when thwy allow her a little freedom. There is also some university life material that feels unnecessary filler to me: I just want to learn about the mystery, not dwell in the FMC:s crave for normalcy when she clearly is something extraordinary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Physical abuse, Bullying, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Vomit

mj_86's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual assault, and Bullying

Moderate: Death of parent and Kidnapping

Minor: Confinement

simplicity1511's review

dark emotional 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

4.25

Every book but the last one ends in a cliffhanger. However, it feels like 1 book just divided into 6 parts which means no unnecessary summarizing of the previous books in the story.  I devoured each book within a week, which is why I recommend getting all the books at once if you hate cliffhangers.

The first two books are mainly told from Oli's perspective except in the second where we get a North Prologue. Every other book that follows is told from the various characters in the bonded group.

I found I wanted to know what the other characters were thinking a lot more than just hearing Oli's perspective since I'm so used to reading at least dual points of view or from the past and present within a story.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHECKING OUT THE TRIGGER WARNINGS I POSTED BECAUSE THEY WILL GIVE YOU A BETTER IDEA IF THIS BOOK SERIES IS FOR YOU. I RECOMMENDED A SIMILAR BOOK THAT'S YA (YOUNG ADULT) BUT STILL HAS ALL THE GREAT PLOTS THAT I ENJOYED IN THE BONDS THAT TIE WITHOUT ALL THE SUPER DARK INTENSE THEMES.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Bullying

Minor: Torture and Death of parent

I think if you're going to start this series you should know all the trigger warnings ahead of time before you become invested. Some of these content warnings are spoilers.

explicit sexual content, threesomes, orgies, war, murder, violence, explicit depiction of torture, incest/pedophilia, rapes and attempted rape (mentioned but not explicit), cult brainwashing, domestic & child abuse

The first two books make it seem like this story is like Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead where the main character leaves for a year and then is forced to come back, even though she and her best friend are being targetted making their school unsafe for them. Add some supernatural elements, hot guys and complicated family relationships and BAM a young adult version of "The BONDS THAT TIE' which is a dark ADULT romance series. If these trigger warnings scare you then I suggest reading Vampire Academy as the content in this series gets darker as you read.

howboutjane's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.0

This was a nice read! The first chapter/ prologue really draws you in but then it kind of slows and gets a bit highschool/teen drama (but in a new adult/college setting) which didn't quite vibe well for me. It gets really good in the last quarter of the book which ends with an amazing set up for the next book in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying and Domestic abuse

m_a_wyatt02's review

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

Incredibly whiny, unlikeable characters and the women only care about their appearance and boys. The writing style was distractingly annoying. I wouldn't recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Rape, and Bullying

kristanjenkins's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Bullying, War, Grief, Kidnapping, and Sexual assault

ashwood_15's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying and Sexual assault

jumbledjess's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

Hear me out - I know I’m rating this a 3.25 and sometimes people can think that means bad bad, but that’s not the case for this one. I enjoyed this book and will absolutely continue this series because the tension and plot have me intrigued. While I’m excited to continue on in this world, there are some things that pulled it down for me. I would say the first half of the book is definitely trying to find its footing and repeats A LOT of the same things (words, interactions, internal monologue threads). For a book about relationships that involve having multiple partners this read YA (I know the characters are 19, so I did give them some passes) which was probably due to the amount of petty comments, cursing (and I curse a lot and even this felt like too much), and just sheer childishness by all of the characters. All that being said, I was able to look past it because the main plot of this story has so much potential and I NEED to know what happens. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Car accident, and Suicidal thoughts

s_holdthebus's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The bullying was way more abusive than I thought it was going to be, once I learned it was a bully romance. I didn’t mind most of it, but the constant “freaking” and “bitches” felt really juvenile. And the SA scene felt really gratuitous. We already knew the guy was an asshole, we didn’t need to go that far. It was a bit triggering for me. The end finally picks up when you learn about her gifts and they are cool, I just wish the whole book wasn’t “I ran away from my bonds (at 14) and now they hate me but I can’t share why”. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Misogyny