Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Priest

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Priest by Sierra Simone

40 reviews

paperkindle's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

What an absolute stupid book

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I want to read this because it was all over the book community. I knew this book would have me questioning my morals the whole way through. But holy mother of balls, I feel like I'm going to hell for enjoying this book.

This book follows Father Bell. He is a priest and there are many rules a priest cannot break. A priest cannot marry. A priest cannot abandon his flock. A priest cannot forsake his God. Father Bell has had no problems playing by these rules for the last three years after a family tragedy set him on this path to priesthood. But this all changes when the sultry voice of Poppy Danforth sinks its claws in them through the screen of the confessional booth, and he can’t get her sins out of his head. It should be easy for Father Bell to put his impure thoughts of her to rest, considering the vows he has taken. It should be nothing to overcome what the sight and sound of her does to him, when his life with the Church meant everything. But the more he sees Poppy inside and outside of the church, the more she makes him feel like Tyler Bell instead of Father Bell. It gets worse once he has his first forbidden taste of her lips, Tyler can’t help but break all his rules for Poppy – no matter what it might cost them both.

I liked that it wasn’t all smut and no story, there was an actual story with actual characters with two very different family dynamics and very real traumas. I think Tyler’s head was a very intriguing and damaging place, knowing why he joined the church and trying not to go down the same road whilst falling in love was difficult and confusing for him. Also, I love the fact that he fell in love with a stripper which obviously added to the sin aspect of the book. Poppy, I thought was also a damaged character who didn’t understand why she was like this and instead of going to therapy she went to church. The smut was fire and honest to god, the alter chapter is going to be stuck in my brain for longer than normal.

I disliked the single POV, even though I was surprised to see that this was from a male’s point of view being the priest, I would have loved for this to be a dual POV especially with the last couple of chapters when they were apart. I liked the forbidden aspect of the story, but felt like it was easily pushed aside once Tyler got over his inner monologue and started sleeping with Poppy. I would have liked more of the forbiddenness.

I feel like I need to go to church after reading this book but I'm looking forward to Sean’s book.

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booksalacarte's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

2.75

2.75⭐️ 4.5🌶️

Forbidden love

Taboo romance

Contemporary romance

Miscommunication

MMC POV

The book’s story/character’s meet cute is starts kind of abruptly with very little context on the FMC’s side. The FMC point of view isn’t actually her POV, but her confessions to the MMC. So the all male POV was something new in contemporary romance, for me.

I was mistaken that this was a dark romance. What I expected to happen, did not happen. It felt like there was foreshadowing for it, but then kind of felt like a dud… but in reality it’s just a taboo romance… set up like a dark romance?

The spirituality of the book is what caught me off guard. On one hand it seemed so genuine, raw and applicable, on the other hand it seemed perverse and fetishized in many different ways. I found myself very conflicted with the juxtaposition of the premise of the plot/theme/spice. I also kept reading… so I don’t know what that says about me.

I’m reading the next book to see if it’s a copy and paste situation.

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_bailey_reads_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

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

2.25

This book was not the best. I went into it hoping I could imagine “Hot Priest” from Fleabag but I couldn’t. Father Bell, from this book couldn’t be more far away from Hot Priest from Fleabag who was superior in every way. This Father Bell character was just Disappointing….

I personally wasn't into it. As a person who is not religious I found Father Bell to be absolutely ridiculous. As well as Poppy, so that’s why I found a lot of humor in this book where I don’t think there was meant to be any…. Oops. I found both characters to be really annoying and stupid and I disagreed with most of their decision making.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in some intense kinks like:

anal, BDSM, slut-shaming and being spoken to in a very degrading way, and revenge porn. Also I found the sex between the two characters was always very violent and so if you’re into that then this is for you.

I do not recommended this just to someone who found this on TikTok and just wants to read a 4-5 spicy pepper book. It’s not a realistic or healthy relationship and also it’s a bit too intense if you’re just starting out, but that’s just one gals opinion.

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

I’ve had beef with organized religion, and especially the Catholic Church, for a long time. The fact that this book is about a Catholic priest abandoning his vows for a pretty potential parishioner had initially steered me clear of reading it but the TikTok reviews about the spice had piqued my curiosity. This book is so steamy — mostly because there is so much of it that is taboo or not allowed. The God stuff I could take or leave —- but the spicy parts? Gimme a bunch more of that. 🔥

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anararibeiro's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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lifeofchrstnlvly's review

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dark medium-paced

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

1.5

Although I didn't particularly enjoy it, I didn't dislike it enough to hate it. The more accurate description was I was able to tolerate it enough. There was little to no plot, and the characters were flat. In all honesty, their relationship appeared more lustful than loving. The smut was okay at first, but I eventually grew tired of it and skipped over those scenes about halfway through.

I only read this because it was book club #4's pick of the month. I know I could DNF it, but I wanted to finish it so I can join in the discussion.

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nydhoggyr's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

3 stars for the story (or maybe just the smut?). 5 stars to Jacob Morgan's narration, top notch as usual.

I was kind of disappointed. I expected a lot more from this after hearing all the praise. I expected less horny dude and more of morality crisis in the telling of Tyler's story, but that's where it fell short for me. For all his supposed guilt, he literally could not control himself, despite his strong and solid conviction for wanting to be a priest. He in no way sought out ways or desired to help Poppy, he didn't care for her as a person. He just saw her as a sexual object he couldn't resist, ignoring all the reasons he became a priest to help the community to begin with - the repeated sexual assaults by the clergy on the community. Literally what Tyler did to Poppy. Was that the story being told? Because that's the story I got out of it.

All the right ideas were there, the execution just didn't take advantage of it all.

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just_jess02's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

3.5

This is very well written and the sex scenes certainly get the job done ;) BUT The religion and guilt are so heavy handed that I wasn’t sure I wanted to finish the book. I have no issues with the context- it just got excessive for me.We get it, this isn’t priestly behavior… get back to the plot or the smut. If religious guilt turns you on this is definitely the book for you!
The continuous mentioning of the sister’s suicide/abuse really throws a wrench in the momentum of the lustful, steamy moments. It provided important context early on and when he discusses it in more depth… but it was poorly placed otherwise and ruined some really hot scenes for no good reason.
This book isn’t really my cup of tea but the writing style is. She writes in a way that acknowledges the toxic masculinity that drives a lot of erotic entertainment, using it to her advantage without letting it completely ruin the spicy descriptions. She developed a fantastic balance of rough, unforgiving dominance and consent/respect/understanding of each others needs
Yes aftercare!!!
The dive into the details of finding the sister developed the vulnerability and trust between the characters and helped the plot to have a little more substance. It made sense here but I still hated the way it was thrown in after/during sexy moments.
Milly is a fabulous sprinkle of flavor. I love this blunt, sassy old lady.
Kinda disappointed that the plot and characters were so shallow. There was a chunk of text in the second half that felt like the beginning of a plot but it was too little too late and ended up being really boring to get through after the fast-paced first half. Why bother starting to create depth now?
I definitely will give a chance to other books by this author… just probably not the religion based ones.

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booksthoughtsandtea's review

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emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

How am I giving this book 5 stars?! How did the author manage to make this book so complicated?!

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