Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Merry Inkmas by Talia Hibbert

9 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

2.0

Read this book if you seek sexual tension building while a troubled past is being used as an edgy backdrop for smut scenes. If you want to read about a balanced relationship forming, pick up some other book (I suggest Hibbert's The Brown Sisters series, I'm far more impressed with those books than this one).

It bothers me that the Merry Inkmas's main characters Cash and Bailey are represented as nearly perfectly goodhearted people that want to save each others from the ghosts of their dark and traumatic pasts: Both their parents have been in different kinds of abusive relationships. This has lead to the main characters to close up in order to shield themselves from similar harm, but they seem to easily warm up to each other because of their sexual chemistry.

However, Cash and Bailey's relationship has big imbalances of power all the time: they are a customer and a server, or a boss and and employee. There is also economical inequality in their relationship. These things are not addressed enough in my opinion, even though they clearly affect the characters' choises in the present and bring up similar situations from their past where things went very badly. This is a novella so I understand there isn't room for very in depth bonding on mental level if you want to write about the sexual tension building up and releasing in multiple smut scenes, as happens in this book. Maybe I picked up a wrong book for me, but I would have preferred to see more chemistry in the interpersonal relationship besides the bedroom.

I hoped these issues would be at least mentioned in the ending, but they are completely brushed under the rug. In the epiloque

Cash and Bailey are thrust into a happy ever after of one big family with seemingly no trauma or baggage remaining.

The premises of this book had potential to discuss the heavy topics and show how to deal with them, but the novella falls short in this regard, unlike the other books by Hibbert I've read. Hibbert's later books address representation and struggles in a more wholesome and considerate way. Perhaps Merry Inkmas could have accomplished that as well, if it had been a fully fleshed out novel instead of a shorter novella.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pregnancy

readbykatherine's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

notsobinaryart's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Mental illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Classism, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, and Pedophilia

rickireadss's review against another edition

emotional funny fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

i wanted to love this SO bad. i honestly think if i had read the ebook, i would have enjoyed it more since i didn't really like the narrator. i did like the grumpy/sunshine aspect, the plus size rep, and the fact that our mmc was TATTED *swoon* but overall, i just felt like it was choppy and didn't really flow. like some of the scenes felt just thrown in there or abruptly happened, and i was like "woah, wait what???" not my favorite of talia's for sure, but i know many have loved it.

⚠️: domestic abuse, emotional abuse, home invasion, death of parent, mental illness, bigotry towards unhoused people, stalking, cancer, grief, adult/minor relationship (past, fmc’s mother) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Grief, and Cancer

dramageek24's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

kbairbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad 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

3.0

This was short, and sweeter than I had expected! Yes I imagined there would be sexy parts but the heart behind it was really lovely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

kim03's review

emotional lighthearted

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

This book is proof that Talia Hibbert is super talented and with the pace she has evolved within the last few years, she's gonna be a god damned genius very soon.
The story was cute, the beginning a little underwhelming, but the climax basically brought me to my knees (metaphorically), which meant for me that I cared about the characters and that they were three dimensional.

Tropes: workplace romance
Content warnings: death of a parent, domestic abuse (bot emotional and physical), homelessness (if that even is a triggerwarning, i just feel like it's a sensitive topic)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Emotional abuse, Cancer, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

bryelle's review against another edition

emotional funny sad fast-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

4.0

Emotional and cute Christmas love story. Both parties have past childhood trauma.  They learn to give space to heal while learning to love. Realistic “Happily ever after”. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Stalking

caseythereader's review

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Cancer