Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx

20 reviews

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

danieller96's review

dark 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Rape, Murder, Physical abuse, 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

slytekar000's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Trafficking, Torture, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Gun violence, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

smaller_fries's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Stalking

autumnwitch14's review

challenging dark emotional tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Blood, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Murder, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Torture, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Abandonment

Minor: Infidelity

2 page trigger warning at start of book that covers a lot more than here.

leelovesbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I think this could have been a bit shorter. It felt like a lot of it was extra stuff considering most the events happen within maybe a month timeline (the prologue which starts 5 year prior). But overall, I enjoyed the plot and how unhinged Sera was and the lengths Leroi tried to go through to protect and “calm her down” (he kinda succeeded but also failed 😂)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Rape

sad_samantha's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This is my honest review for Gigi Styx's Arc of Taming Seraphine.
My review includes some spoilers- but no details. 

These are my opinions and you are free not to share them with me. I have waited a little while to post this as to let the book gain some other reviews. 
I am very much a dark romance reader and enjoy books with pages of trigger warnings, just to give you an idea of whether the book was for me or not. I was expecting to enjoy it. 

Pros( let's start with the good bits) : 

-The sandwich IYKYK (You should read the book just for this.)
-Leroi is a sweet heart. He thinks about the fmc the whole time and only ever caters to trying to help her walk through the world without being harmed or arrested. 
-Sera is an artist, one of my fav details was Sera's love to draw to get out her frustration. 
- the plot was interesting and had enough twists and turns that I wasn't quite sure what to expect. 
-the pacing for the story was good. We had lows and highs and it kept you reading as there no prolonged scenes which were unnessisary.


Cons:

- Unlike some of the other reviews one of my main issues with the writing is that is was quite reperative and abrupt in places. This kind of took me out of the story because I felt like I was reading the same thing again. This was more phrases and descriptions than full scenes or repetition in the plot. 
-I didn't feel connected to the characters. Leroi was cute and out of the two main characters I enjoyed his pov more. But he flip flopped between wanting to set parametres with Sera to give her stability and then letting her manipulate him, when he knew full well she was doing it. I just expected him to have a firmer hand with her in some aspects.
- Sera has an obsession with GM*. This aspect of her character became repetitive for me and although the scenes are very different, the way the 2nd scene was written didn't feel right for me. (This is a matter of my opinion) also the fact she was trying to manipulate Leroi and make him jealous in that scene was completely lost on me. 
- I was expecting more spice. I know crazy. I just felt the couple were set up to have dom/ sub roles which didn't quite play out imo.

Over all if you're looking for a dark romance which gets a bit darker and more in detail with the torturey side of the writing then I think you'll enjoy this one. 



* Genital Mutilation

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Torture

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Rape

kreepingfire's review

dark emotional tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

Minor: Cannibalism

This is a dark romance and YOU SHOULD read the trigger warning page. She is dark. She is spicy and she was the perfect read for me. That said this author did a great job of outlining the triggers. Please read before going into it.

livvyreads's review

dark 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 received an arc of this book. 
Holy moly this story left me on the edge of my seat! So many twists and turns throughout the whole book. I love that Seraphine was a bit psychotic and that Leori still found the good in her. If you like a grocery list of trigger warnings, an unstable female main character and a morally gray male main character this book is for you! This book had everything suspense, gore, revenge and spice. It is definitely one of my new favorites 
Seraphine was kept prisoner for five years and forced to do the bidding of her captors. Leroi saves what he thinks is an innocent girl but comes to find out she is deadly. Can they survive each other? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Sexual content, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence