Reviews with content warning for Rape - Captivating

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Captivating by Onley James

9 reviews

aylen_96's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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haloblues's review against another edition

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4.0

I LOVE ELIJAH no one else is allowed to hurt him ever

Details: Alternating POVs, third-person, past tense
Favourite character: Elijah
Happy ending?: Yes

Favourite quotes:

"You're the only one of my guys with an active PI license. I need an actual investigator."

"You just said the guy's a few French fries short of a happy meal. He's chasing butterflies, man."

"Grab a net and join him," Linc growled.

"This lazy talking fuck is Calder. Don't listen to a word he says. Everything that falls out of his mouth is bullshit. Also, don't leave him alone with anything you don't want him to mount like a horny goat."

"I get paid to guard your body. The jokes I give for free, rabbit."

"Rabbit?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm going to call you," he said as if it wasn't negotiable.

Why rabbit? He was certain it wasn't a compliment. His hand fluttered to his throat in an overly feminine gesture Lucifer hated. "I really wish you wouldn't."

"I mean, if you feel that strongly about it..."

He pressed his mouth into a firm line. "I do, yes. Quite strongly. Thank you."

"You're both dead to me. We're not friends anymore."

"We're still doing mimosas and mani-pedis at your house tonight, right?"

"Duh."

"You know, I don't ask for much, Lucifer, but tomorrow is script reading day and you know before script reading day I like to float around in the pool and listen to Yanni and get myself into the mental headspace necessary to embrace my character. This..." He waved wildly towards her. "Whatever this is you're doing... is not respecting my process. It's the opposite of respecting my process. You're really just kind of bringing me down right now so can we just table whatever's set you into a psychotic rage this time?"

Elijah wasn't a football guy. He hated sports, hated beer, hated action movies, couldn't give even one fuck about cars or engines. He hated pretty much anything people pegged as hyper-masculine, yet in high school, he'd forced himself to do all of it. Every single one. Football had never been his grandpa's idea. It was all Elijah. He'd needed to prove himself, needed to prove he could turn it on when he had to. He excelled at blending. His grandpa had called him a chameleon, but Elijah called it what it was... self-preservation.

"What's your last name?" Elijah asked, his voice a step above a whisper.

Shep frowned into the darkness but didn't hesitate to answer. "Shepherd."

There was a long pause. "Your parents named you Shepherd Shepherd. Wow. No offense, but your parents sound like dicks. Did they not want kids or something?"

"Isn't that yours?" Elijah asked, confused why Shep was offering his own coffee when there was a whole pot behind him.

"It's yours now," Shep said, that same almost primal expression on his face like Shep was a lion presenting Elijah with his kill and he expected thanks for his efforts.

"If you wanted to know about my background, rabbit, you could have just asked me."

Elijah sucked in a surprised breath, before firing off one last text to Wyatt: Traitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Seems like everybody in California has signed a waiver giving up meat and dairy in favor of grass and almonds. Fucking hippies."

Molly scoffed. "Language, Padraic."

"Fucking bohemians. Better?"

"Jaynie has only shown emotional attachment once in his life and... it ended badly."

"Like their body is fertilizing your azaleas badly or he just stops returning my calls out of the blue one day and I wear black and become a sad Elijah meme?"

"Did she scare you away?" he asked.

Elijah scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Yes, we can't see each other anymore. This is our goodbye shower."

"So, you're a sociopath. All relationships have issues. It could be worse. You could be a Republican."

"This was your idea. You wanted us to figure out what we like. Push the button. I'm getting impatient."
Elijah was too. He closed his eyes and randomly clicked on one of the thumbnail images. When he opened his eyes, his mouth dropped. "Oh. My. God. Is that..."

"Uh. Yeah." Shep seemed more curious than concerned.

"A parking cone? That can't be safe. That dude's going to need surgery."

Whatever Elijah wanted. He wanted everything. He wanted his career and Shep and a life without hiding who he was - who he really was - from the entire world. Could somebody like him have that? He risked another glance at Shep. Elijah had resigned himself to a life of lies, a life of good enough, but maybe not. Maybe people like him could have happy endings, even if they didn't look like everybody else's.

"I love you," Elijah whispered against his chin. "I know you can't say it back. But I just wanted you to know before everything falls apart."

Shep could say it back, but he wouldn't say it just to say it. He didn't know what love felt like, but he needed Elijah to know if he could love somebody, it was him. "You are the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night. You are the only person who makes me smile. I feel like something is missing when you leave the room. I would protect you with my life. Is that love?"

Elijah pulled back, cupping Shep's face with his palms. "I think so, yeah."

"Mark says you told him you'll pay the money for breaching your contract. He said you wanted him to send an official letter stating your intention to back out of the biggest film franchise since Star Wars. I told him he must be having a stroke because only an absolute fucking lunatic would be crazy enough to walk away from this opportunity."

"Then grab me a straitjacket, mother, because I'm not doing it."

"This is part of your present, but unfortunately, you can't keep it."

Elijah sniffed, not ready to forgive Shep's lateness. "No offense, Sam, but that sounds like a really shitty gift."

Shep laughed. "We'll see if you still think that after you see it," he said, sliding the lid to the cooler back.

Elijah froze. He was almost certain his heart stopped beating. A puff of cool air and mist escaped, and Elijah blinked as his brain attempted to process that he stared at a human heart. There was a human heart in a cooler. In his living room. "Fuck, babe. Please tell me that's not my mother's."

Shep shook his head. "Your mother is alive and well, still shacked up with that real estate agent in Boca."

His relief was short-lived. There was still an actual human heart in his house. "Whose heart is it?"

Shep cocked his head. "I think you know."

David Cane. Elijah swallowed hard. "He's..."

"Never going to hurt you or anybody else again," Shep finished.

"You're going to get caught. Somebody will find out," Elijah said, the words rushing from his lips as panic set in.

Shep scoffed. "I promise you. We won't get caught. Everybody thinks he's fled the country."

Thinks he's fled the country. Did that mean he hadn't fled the country, or he had fled the country and Shep went and found him? His brain formed questions faster than he could think to ask them. "You traveled here with a human heart in a cooler?"

"Well, I couldn't exactly mail it back here."

"By any chance, did you and the boys off Wyatt's dad on your last outing?"

Shep shook his head, popping a chip in his mouth and chewing thoughtfully before answering. "No. A human trafficker with a penchant for branding the girls he kidnapped."

Elijah gasped. "I knew it. You did kill somebody. I knew you weren't having a boy's trip. There was no way you'd sign on to go hiking in Costa Rica. Why didn't you tell me?"

Shep offered Elijah a chip. "One: killing people is a perfectly valid form of male bonding. Two: we hiked for miles. He lived way up that mountain. Three: you never asked."

Elijah slowly opened the box, the hinges protesting from lack of use. Inside was a heart-shaped red stone cushioned on a bed of white satin. It had to be at least one and a half carats. "This is... this is too much. You must have spent a fortune."

Shep didn't acknowledge Elijah's unasked question. Instead, he said, "Did you know that there is a process where you can turn human ashes into diamonds?"

"What?"

"Yeah, it's the strangest thing. You send them the ashes and a check, and they'll turn those ashes into a diamond. They don't even ask whose ashes they are."

"This diamond used to be a person," Elijah asked, his heart beating faster.

"Yep."

Elijah narrowed his gaze at Shep. "And my mother's still safe in Boca?"

Shep laughed. "As far as I know."

"So, this is Cane?"

"Yes."

Elijah gazed at him with wonder. "You did it."

Shep frowned. "Did what?"

"You outdid yourself. Last year you gave me a heart in a cooler, this year you gave me the rest of him in a heart. It's perfect."

"I'm glad you like it."

"I don't like it. I love it. I love you, Sam."

"I love you too, rabbit."

He stared at the heart, reaching out to touch it timidly as if it might bite him. "You know we are unhinged, right?"

Shep kissed him once more. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Content Warnings

bergha1998's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

3.5

Eli was just outed on the red carpet before one of his movie premiers. Now he’s getting death threats & other horrible things. So, he gets a new bodyguard Sheperd. From the very start there is something between them. And although they both hide who they are from the public, they can’t seem to hid their true colors from each other.

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jessie_h's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

4.0

I'm so happy to have finally read Shep and Elijah's story! I've been curious about them since I read Mac's book in the Necessary Evils series. Their story is both cute and heartbreaking. I can't wait to see who will be the MC of the next book!

Content Warnings

jmross10's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I went into this book completely blind and honestly it was better for it.

Shep was such an unexpected character and honestly, he made the book for me. I’m not sure any of the other EP guys will be able to measure up because his perspective is so unique. I do not have personal experience with his situation and cannot speak to the quality of the depiction or the truthfulness of it. As an outsider though, I thought the author could have made him a certain way and did a good job of avoiding the easy stereotypes there. I also appreciated the awareness of both Shep and Eli (as well as those around them) of the difficulties of this particular relationship.

I think Onley James does a great job of not ignoring real world consequences or impacts when it comes to her books and characters. They have more depth than I expected going in to it. Again, blindly. Nothing James did made me think these stories were going to be bad. It was mainly going off previous KU experiences.

Content Warnings

booksbutmakeitgay's review against another edition

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3.0

*content warnings: one hp reference, child abuse, sexual assault, rape, pedophilia, panic attacks, anxiety, edging*

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ruthiedr89's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-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

Content Warnings

sabinehunter's review

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dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

anil's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

This is really messed up. No, no don't take it away I'm not complaining! It's messed up in a fun way.
Favourite line probably: "killing people is a perfectly valid form of male bonding"

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