Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

DARK ROMANCE by Penelope Douglas

37 reviews

florixer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

So this is a hard one to describe, on one hand I really enjoyed reading this book, because it got me out of a reading slump and is really fast paced. But there were many scenes I thought were not okay.
First, Micheal doesn't like to explain him self most of the time, which often ends in miscommunication. Also they often treated Rika like shit and when she said No to the actions they often still continued and said stuff like, but I know you want it so bad. And also she never really seemed bothered by it most of the time. 
The story line though was really interesting, sometimes a little bit confusing, but it was written in a way you couldn't put the book down. I'm not really sure yet if I want to continue the series, but if you have a high tolerance rate it is okay to read. But if you can't read story's that are sometimes a little bit unmorally than this might not be the right book for you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Deadnaming, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death and Child abuse

curicastic's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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? No

1.5

This is a hard one to review. (This might have slight spoilers)

I never know how to rate dark romance books because they're an entirely different breed for me, as far as books go. 
I heard the hype, I guess it kind of lives up to it. I was a bit slow, the back and forth between the present and the "three years ago" POV was a little tiring at times. I think this book could be 100 pages less and it would change nothing, there where scenes where the character repeted themselves and it was eye rolling.

I might continue the saga because these type of books are like crack, there's just something about em. There were a few moments where I laughed and I was SURPRISSSSSSSSSSED, LEMME TELL YOU. 
Penelope Douglas makes assholes look good, that's an art.

PS: Ah, yes, I nearly forgot. While we can all appreciate the kind of asshole Douglas writes... I quite often like it when it comes with a soft center. This might not be the saga for me, maybe... but I am willing to read one more book to find out. All that pulling  not giving in Michael did was frustrating at times, which... I get it, if that was the point. I'm just saying that if that doesn't change... I might have to reconsider reading these books lol. 

PS2: Oh my god. The whole "Rika got us arrested" was so stretched out thin I nearly fell asleep during that. I even thought it might've been more fun is someone stole the masks and did something with them that oh so special night. But I repeat myself, this book needed to be edited DOWN at least 100 pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence

anastashamarie's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? Yes

3.0

3.5/5 (TWs listed at the end, plz read)

If you take the 2006 film The Covenant, remove the magic, flesh out the plot a little more, and add smut...that's what this book is. An untouchable group of mischief-causing, incredibly attractive bad boys who enthrall everyone with their mystique. Old money posturing and politicking that leads to a revenge plot that uses the sweet blonde FMC as a pawn. Dramatic confrontation scenes that could have been resolved with a much-less-attractive, logical conversation. Some unexpectedly homoerotic tension that I don't think was intentional. The vibes are identical between the two.

And those vibes are immaculate for the first 2/3 of the book. But around 67.5%, this takes a weird atmospheric turn that I didn't vibe with as strongly. Idk how to explain it, but the storyline just didn't carry the same oomph after the 67% mark (the spicy scenes still did for sure, but I'm talking specifically about the actual storyline). It went from this hot push and pull between Rika and the whole Horseman group, to a different dynamic that I didn't enjoy nearly as much.

Also as much as I enjoyed the Rika and Michael circling each other, I really just felt bad for her the whole book because everyone around her objectively sucks. This girl deserves better than the thousand red flags surrounding her entire social circle. I hope she finds a genuine friend eventually or that at least the ones she does have treat her better.

But this was greatly enjoyable as a guilty pleasure read. I see why people like Penelope Douglas if this one was any indication, and I am going to read the next one for sure.

⚠️ TWs: lots of sexually explicit scenes, sexual assault/harassment, violence, murder, arson, gaslighting, manipulation, bullying, alcohol use, death of a parent, death of a dog (side note: wtf did this need to be in here for?)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Car accident

A dog dies in the last chapter; I feel like you can just totally skip that chapter and feel like things are neatly concluded.

bookishkir's review against another edition

dark emotional

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Murder and Violence

Minor: Child abuse and Drug abuse

ecravens's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

itsmeyseniab's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Animal death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, Death of parent, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Child abuse

giorgos_k's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape

quietmarki's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Misogyny, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Classism, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

midnightrose_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

Corrupt is the first book in the Devil’s Night series. It’s about a young woman named Erika Fane and a young man named Michael Crist. Erika and Michael have felt a connection to each other that they’ve both tried to ignore their whole lives. It finally comes to a head on Devil’s Night, and changes all their lives forever. This was a strong start to an exciting and well loved series. Michael and Erika have a crazy amount of chemistry together. Also reading about his friendship with his fellow friends The Horsemen (Kai, Damon, and Will) was really enjoyable as well. The found family aspect of their friendship was really beautiful. Suspenseful, sexy and shocking this is definitely not a book for the faint of heart!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Violence, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Incest, Animal death, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

livilu's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I just… it’s a very cis-white-rich-straigth-book. HUGE y/n main character with a harem, not a good harem though. The 🌶 is cool, al least we know that they where okey with what was going on. 
All the warnings that i mentioned where just there and no one actually talked about them, seriously. Wouldn’t  recommend unless you want what i just said. 
ALSO, for the love of god the amount of toxicity holy molly. I still don’t know how the book ended the way it did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, and Toxic relationship