Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Dom by S.J. Tilly

11 reviews

culzean's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gaslighting, Car accident, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Murder, Blood, Body shaming, Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gun violence, Suicide, Body horror, Cursing, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Sexual content, Stalking, Classism, and Violence

erinmure5's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

2.75

I was so excited about Book 3, but it fell kind of flat for me. Loved Val as a character and I connected with her romanticism and authenticity, but Dom is by far my least favorite of the 3, which I did not expect.

I tried to look past the drugging into marriage, but then the birth control pills deception put me over the edge. I think if Val had mentioned earlier how much she wanted to be a mom (but felt some sort of barrier or fear about it) it wouldn’t have bothered me as much. But finding out AFTER Dom had already made the decision made it feel less morally grey and more “no he’s a POS with no redeeming qualities.” I knew early what Dom had done but I was still hopeful there would be some sort of redemption I could latch on to, and then when there wasn’t… it just didn’t work for me.

Curious how I’ll feel about reading Hans next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Child abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Suicide, Body shaming, and Toxic relationship

taylorjade's review

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death, and Medical trauma

Minor: Trafficking, Drug abuse, Abandonment, and Fatphobia

crispycritter's review

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

I don't know how many mafia romances I've read at this point but I desperately want to get the appeal. I guess as far as mafia kidnappers goes Dom is at least self aware? For just once can we have an alphahole who grovels and apologizes for doing OBJECTIVELY TERRIBLE things to the FMC and a FMC with the briefest whisper of a spine. Can we not solve things by jumping into bed together? No one's dick is that magical.

Three stars because the writing, pacing, and plotting were good and like . . . I understand the things that happened are pretty cookie cutter situations for the subgenre despite making me want to call the police.

Big eyeroll for being a man who *dOeSn'T Ap0LoGiZe* ooooh look at you, big strong man.

TL;DR this book was the closest to getting me to like mafia romance but still gave me a big ick. If this is your thing maybe go to therapy and call your dad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Body shaming

iamsammie27's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Pregnancy and Body shaming

amateur_bookworm's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Genre: Mafia romance, smutty romance, fiction

My summary: Valentine and Dominic meet after literally running into each other at the airport. Valentine is the half-sister of King, head of The Alliance, and Aspen. Dominic, the mob boss of Chicago, and Valentine have a whirlwind start of a relationship. And Dominic is determined to make Valentine his, by any means necessary. 

••••••••••••

My thoughts: This is the third book in The Alliance series and I have such mixed emotions about this one. I absolutely adored Valentine and you can’t help but feel sorry for her life events. I loved her feistiness but felt sad for her loneliness and insecurity. But, Dominic. Ugh. Where to start with Dominic? The controlling, devious, manipulative but sexy as hell and protective Dominic. Sigh. I’m not sure on this book, but Dominic is definitely my least favorite alpha male of the series. I have high hopes for Hans in the next book though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Minor: Blood, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Cursing, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

andeng's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

erinmd156's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Car accident, Violence, Death of parent, Torture, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Trafficking and Medical content

shanzzie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse

torilovesheas's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.0

I genuinely want to like this series but I seem to go through the same pattern of "oh this is great!" in the first 30% and then the rest of the book falls down for me. 

My biggest problem is how interchangeable all of SJ Tilly's FMCs are. They're all insecure with no spine and bemoan that there fat constantly. It's the same character over and over with a different name. I just want one fat FMC from her that is confident and doesn't hate herself. 

Dom was kinda unlikeable in a "oh he for sure cheats on her after the book ends way". He's going out of his way to make his insecure wife iealous and didn't really seem to care that much about her other than sex. Idk this one didn't work for me at all. I ate the birth control manipulation up. Everything else was... certainly words on a page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Fatphobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Death of parent, Abandonment, Bullying, Car accident, and Emotional abuse