Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx

13 reviews

ka_ke's review

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Mental illness, Rape, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Violence, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Medical content, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Abandonment, and Death of parent

penhjay's review

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

darcynewtonn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I don't even know how to start this review!
Can I swear on here? I don't know, but holy s**t!
I recently read the mother of dark romance (if yk yk) and I didn't think It could be beaten, but my god this book goes above and beyond! 
if you need an easy read to pull you right out of a reading slump this is the one! 

Now, my TBR is somewhat 300 books long and a lot of books have been on there for a year or so, but this book didn't even last month on my TBR, I had to jump in and it did not disappoint. 

The spice is absolutely amazing, the backstories of the characters are really heart touching and sad but my favourite parts... the plot twists and drops, holy moly, I didn't see a lot of them coming whatsoever and it was shut the book and scream moments. 

I loved the characters in this and their personalities are. spot. on. 
Seraphine is a hot headed, impulsive young woman suffering trauma and anger issues as a result; Leroi comes to the rescue and flips her life around. The character development in this book is insane and the way Leroi handles her and trains her essentially, is truly beautiful in the sexiest, most effed up ways possible. 

I will recommend this book every day till the day I die, but please do check trigger warnings if you think there is anything that could potentially upset or hurt you. 

I'm sorry Zade, you've been beaten. 

Easiest 5 stars I've ever given and I cant wait for Emberly and Romans story Snaring Emberly on the 31st of March 2024!

Gigi Styx, what an amazing author, I will be reading all books by her from now on!

If you've made it to the end of this review, do send me a friend request as I love connecting with people!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Self harm, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Child abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Hate crime, Death, Kidnapping, Child death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Slavery, and Torture

stephaniemcuervo's review

dark emotional

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Rape, Murder, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Trafficking, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual content, Body horror, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Sexual harassment

aytac's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Murder

salma_kaoma's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Violence, Blood, Torture, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape

darrenofficial's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Abandonment, Confinement, Drug abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking

darcycallista's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Orgasms are definitely an incentive to be a good girl and not murder

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Cursing, Blood, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Death, and Sexual assault

chaoticmama8721's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I have a love hate relationship with this book. While normally I have no issue with long books, this one did not need to be over 600 pages. Most of those 600 pages was spent with Seraphine losing her sh*t and stabbing people and then Leroi stressing over how to to contain her wrath and then they had a sexually tense moment where Seraphine decided she might like him and 2 pages later she would decide he was going to hurt her. It was extremely repetitive. Much of the violence seemed like it was there for shock factor or to lengthen the book and not to actually help the plot. Milo was pretty much a pointless character until like 5 minutes at the end 🤷🏻‍♀️ idk there were a lot of things that could have been left out. I will say if you want spice the spicy scenes are well done (but dont accurately represent a SSC BDSM dynamic at all times) and Leroy’s devotion to Seraphine is pretty adorable. I guess what I’m saying is this story could have been told in like 300 pages and I only kept reading to figure out all the little mysteries.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Torture, Murder, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Gore, Death, and Child abuse

megdigsbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Taming Seraphine is a crazy, jacked up love story that sucks the reader in with the first chapter and doesn't let go until the very last chapter. Seraphine has been held captive by her own family for five years, abused and taught to kill. She is practically feral. When professional assassin Leroi goes in to kill every member of her family, he finds her hidden away in the basement. She looks so small and wounded. He can not help but take her away from the carnage he leaves behind. He moves her into his own home, not sure what, if anything, he can do to help her.  As her shock wares off, Seraphine realizes her life may be different, but her nightmares are the same. And she has an unusual way of making them more tolerable. Leroi has his own demons, but when he looks at Seraphine, he sees an angel, an avenging angel with poor impulse control. The goals become teaching her to manage her more basic compulsions and help her get revenge on those who harmed her. In the process, they realize they work pretty well together. They accept each other for the bits of darkness that live in their hearts and tarnish their souls and love each other that much more because they see them but also see past them. This book has about twenty trigger warnings, and all should be taken seriously. It's a dark romance that will take you from the depths of desperation to the heights of triumph, with a twisty bit at the end that I didn't see coming. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this wild little book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Mental illness, Torture, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Abandonment, Violence, Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Stalking, Confinement, and Emotional abuse