Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Dom by S.J. Tilly

10 reviews

__romancereader__'s review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is so good at first in the beginning I thought it was moving way to fast until then I realized why and then I was like oh ok 💎Dominic💎is😩🙌🏽my goodness so attractive so so so attractive I love the brotherly relationship between King Nero and now Dom that made me love the book even more this book is spicy with no love triangles and no cheating between the main characters it’s a happy ending with no cliff hangers some of the tropes are One Bed, Age Gap,  Forced Proximity and many more I cannot wait to read Hans I literally love this series so so so much these male main characters in this series are super possessive easily jealous ready to kill anyone who touches there woman😩overall i rated this book 5 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Grief, Violence, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Car accident, Death, Infidelity, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Not all content warnings are about the main characters some are and some are about the other characters you meet/hear about in the book🥰🫶🏼

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

madlereads's review

dark funny medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

🔫 mafia romance
😍 plus size heroine 
😛 all the tattoos 
💒 Vegas baby!!
🤭 cute texting
🔥 age gap (H 41/h 25)

Okay this one might be my favorite of the series. I think it does get better and better each book cause this one was highly enjoyable and very good cozy spicy mafia romance. 

Val is King's half-sister who we meet in the previous book. She's always longed to have a family and belong since she's the illegitimate child. She comes with childhood trauma and insecurities and tries not to take up space. 🥺 then Dom comes along and there may be a little Vegas wedding that he uses to gain The Alliance's help to protect his family and his mafia. 🤭

Cue the wonderful "my wife" and rings and chaotic over the top marital tattoos. 😛 I loved it all. Dom was unhinged and hilarious and definitely smitten with Val since the beginning. Since Val has her insecurities, she doesn't believe he actually likes her and feels like she was just a tool for Dom. But Dom has no problem proving over and over just how obsessed he is with his wife 🥵 

He dropped $80k in her bank account and said it was "some money". Um my good man, give me *some* money too plz. He orders her food while he's away and texts her every day. Threatens creepy men for her. There's so much Dom does for her. I loved it. Even the more *questionable* actions 🤭 

I also love getting to see the previous characters make their appearances. Always love the banter between the men and their overbearing ways. Payton being a pro at ignoring the red flags always gets me. 🤣

So why not 5 stars? I feel like some parts were repetitive. And I low key started to hate how Dom kept leaving to go on his missions so it'd be long stretches of texting instead of them being together in person but I'm not that mad at it. It was still cute.😅 And I wish the epilogue gave us a little more time with Val and Dom post story instead of totally focusing on setting up a teaser for the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Suicide

TW: grief, depictions of funerals, mentions of suicide of parent, violence, gore, gun violence, drugging, tattooing without consent, forced marriage, dubcon, BC tampering

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

moodreadmoonchild's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

So so good. definitely has the most plot and character development so far in the series. Dom is definitely the most “grey” of the alliance men and has to work the hardest to earn the love & forgiveness of the FMC. The plot is much more significant in this book than Nero & King. Nero was mostly smut, some dialogue in between. King is still mostly smut but there is a bit more plot, story, and character development. This book still has a lot of spice but it’s actually mostly plot & story. The climax is built up to and it’s great to see the FMC & MMC’s relationships outside of them two progress. My heart went out to Val and i loved reading about her healing journey. Definitely would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Car accident, Grief, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Suicide

Minor: Drug abuse, Body shaming, Vomit, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Addiction

most are on-par for a dark romance but i do want to give a bit more info on the ones that are not “standard” for the genre. These are non-spoilers. Panic Attacks - FMC has panic attacks that you read through in first person. read through her thought process and also her grounding practices Body Shaming - mostly historical & off-page except for one quick comment made by a person about the FMC while not in their presence Suicidal thoughts - not ideation, brief and rare. Suicide -historical, not fully on-page but not fully off-page either. this is the only one that i will go into that could be minor spoilers but do want to give proper warning & will note what chapter to avoid

FMC finds person who has committed suicide & states how it was done. Story not told while in her POV. After than, mentioned twice very briefly and not in detail. if you want to avoid, stop reading in chapter 53 when FMC is detailed her packing her bag to leave back home. skip 1 page and then you can continue.

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

rickireadss's review

4.0

Y'ALL-- this one was a wild ride!! i wanted to fall in love with dom in the same quick way i did with nero and king, but it took me a minute.

like i LOVED HIM in the beginning, but after the betrayal of las vegas and then he like exposed all that he had done, i was PISSED off. like i was visibily so angry and had to put the book down because I FELT betrayed too. like he didn't just do that shit to val, he did it to me as well

i will say i started to come around to him after some of the sweet stuff he did, but he still threw in a little *punch* there towards the end

the changing out her BC was like a gut punch to me bc i would be LIVID bc i do NOT want kids, but i'm glad it all worked out and val was okay with it

that scene towards the end?!?!?! had my heart RACING, but man val is a f*cking badass, let me tell you. overall, i enjoyed it, had a great time, but dom really hit me where it hurts a few too many times, so king's still my favorite. i did LOVE seeing payton&nero and savannah&king in this one!!! i think i fell even more in love with both couples throughout this book.

ALSO THE FINAL SCENE!?!?!!? holy. shit. like i saw it coming but i didn't expect it at the same time iykyk.

⚠️: violence, murder, drugging (done by LI to FMC), death of parent, grief, death, child abuse, car accident, body shaming, bullying, stalking, gore, body horror, gun violence, blood, addiction, suicide, pregnancy, injury/injury detail, infidelity, emotional abuse, medical content, vomit, torture

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Death of parent, Gore, Blood, Death, Murder, Body horror, Grief, Torture, and Child abuse

Moderate: Car accident, Addiction, Suicide, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, and Vomit

Minor: Infidelity, Stalking, and Pregnancy

tguccione's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Car accident, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Stalking

threeundertwopnw's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.5

I really love all the other books by this author but I had a lot of trouble with this one. 

He stalks her, ambushes her, roofies her, forces marriage while she's high, has sex with her when she says no, drugs her again and tattoos her, eavesdrops on her therapy session, and switches out her birth control pills with placebo, which is a form of sexual assault.

Val might have decided she was later okay with his actions, but I wasn't. Nothing redeems this level of behavior. She should never have trusted him. He didn't earn it. 

Edited to add: Amazon has scrubbed all negative reviews for this book including mine and I can absolutely not support an author who does this. Thank heavens storygraph exists!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Stalking, Vomit, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Torture, Abandonment, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcohol