Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

DARK ROMANCE by Penelope Douglas

34 reviews

angereadss's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.25

There are a lot of things I hated about this book. I don’t even know if I liked it, really. 

But I was somehow still addicted to turning each page, and will be continuing with the series. 

Basically, I need therapy as much as every single character in this book does but I relate to none of them and hate them all. 

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bigbookslay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.0

quick read and kept me hooked. only liked Alex and Kai towards the end. Damon can go to hell idc. didn't appreciate the sexism and sexual assault at all. if the men in this book were a little less fucked up it would be perfect.

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aris_butwhynotho's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

3.0


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natreadsabroyaldick's review against another edition

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2.0

tw rape
my third penelope book and punk 57 is sti the worse one

tbh this book was awfully mid, it's really bad as a romance but it's nicely done when I think of it more like a drama or sth.
Even though i hated every single character in this and I couldn't stop giggling at them thinking that they were hurt bc they were in jail (wym the consequences of my actions. a guy literally raped someone and had audacity to get mad for justice okay)
also speaking of damon, i cannot understand how someone who was raped as a child decided to do the same thing to innocent people later

also rikas and michaels relationship made me feel really uncomfortable for most of the time since they almost fucked when she was 16 and he was 20 or so and he was literally counting days to fuck her legally, also he hated her but not really and she didn't really have a reason to love him for so long so that's why romance wise it just wasn't good

tbh i finished it 5 minutes ago and i dont really remember what i wanted to say anymkre lmao i think it says enough, probably won't be reading next parts

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zc2's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

I didn’t like how
micheal never apologizes to her like it was a really traumatizing event and he straight up was like huh that sucks wanna make out? end
the whole tense plot of why are they in jail and why is it Rikas fault really had me on edge wondering what’s gonna happen next. Recommend if you like romantic thrillers!

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gabi_w21's review against another edition

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2.0

I liked this book, sort of? The romance didn’t feel like a romance. All Michael did was treat Rika like absolute shit, threaten her, stand back while his friends torture/torment her and joke about raping her, and he did one nice thing (the fencing tournament) at the end and THAT'S what made Rika love him? Rika was an idiot who thought with her vagina and not her head, and I hated the Alex/Rika scene because it felt way too much like fetishization. I hated how Rika never really stood up for herself despite all this lip service about how strong and fierce she was. 

And don’t get me started on the abundance of rape threats & jokes. Those aren’t funny nor do they make the story interesting. 

Why didn’t Rika just ask why Michael was ignoring her? Why are they so stupid? 

These idiots really
planned to torment this girl because they thought she leaked all the information to the cops without ever confirming it?
These dudes are predators, dangerous, and entitled. They've never been told no and are the epitome of the privileged white boys. They do whatever they want. Rules for thee, not for me.



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ac_blanco's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

3.5

Really really weird plot and not even a cute romance. Something inexplicable that’s just engaging about this book 

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foorneeh's review against another edition

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

1.25

PLS CHECK TW TAGS BEFORE READING THIS BOOK!!!
One time is already too much when it comes to sexual assault scares. This book took it to another level, making it VERY uncomfortable to read...

The characters have no personality, only an "I'm not like the others" complex, none of them was even remotely loveable?? I would've liked Kai and Will if they haven't tried
to turn Rika into their sex slave...is the revenge part supposed to make this okey?


The misogyny was astronomical, the
animal death
part....why include that?

And I read mediocre Wattpad fanfictions with better smut than in this book...

I regret reading this.

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ecravens's review against another edition

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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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mejisilliterate's review against another edition

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0 stars obviously but that’s not why i’m here. 

I just want to point out a recurring theme that i’ve noticed throughout not just penelope douglas’ books, but the new steamy-tik tok genre as a whole. 

The idea of what consent is is majorly fucked up within all of these books. They all have scenes that are inherently non-consensual, but even bigger than that is the authors trying to convince us that those scenes are actually practicing consent. 

In this book, I couldnt help but laugh at the stupidity of it all when the horsemen (stupid fucking name by the way) went through with their plan, but michael, suddenly, pulls out and isn’t ok with it because “she’s not on board” and they “only said they’d do it if she was on board”. that’s practicing consent, right? wrong! because the plan was literally to rob this woman of all her possessions, kidnap her mother and then her, hold her against her will and “make her theirs” (heavily  implying they are going to use her as a sex slave, although thats never said explicitly, probably to try and convince the readers that somehow they will just be nice and kind to this girl! even though they’ve talked the whole book about “what they want to do to her”!). what kind of idiot would ever truly believe she would consent to this! the only reason michael backed out is because this freak damon almost rapes our protagonist, which michael suddenly objects to, even though the entire book damon was saying that that was exactly what he was gonna do once they kidnapped her. multiple times in this book we see damon assault girls but it’s treated as unimportant and merely a character flaw rather than a huge fucking problem that makes him a deranged lunatic. for gods sake, he knows how to roofy someone! why are you friends with this man! 

as tik tok makes these types of books more known to younger people, it’s important to recognize that the depiction of a messed up form of consent has extreme ramifications. rape is never justified, ms douglas. 

(look at the content warnings and tell me how the fuck this is marketed as a romance) 

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