Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Sea of Ruin

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

deathmetalheron's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

Sea of Ruin has a lot going for it. The setting is great, the character dynamics are certainly there, the author knows her chops. The romantic tension is palpable.
But the delivery of many of these aspects is disappointingly subpar. The characters go through humiliation parade after parade. The garnish of shipping and naval vernacular immediately gives way to crude words for sexual interaction, the transition between the two being jarring at best and non-existent at worse.
The height of this book comes at Bennett's capture by Ashley Cutler--the dynamics indicated before suggest a conflict between Bennett as a character and her struggle between two loves. I daresay the second fifth to quarter of this book is pretty much phenomenal.
You could see it in my reading journal, but at the halfway point this book goes from a high tension pirate romance to an absolute slog. Some critical decision are made of Ashley's character that really draw the line and make him seem a bit more manipulative and Bennett (who's been characterized as being headstrong and skeptical) brushes them off. I get this is the appeal of a captor-captive romance but the characterization is quite literally strewn off the deck into the sea, NSFW

squirted into the ocean much like Ashley is described as doing repeatedly.

The final act is an absolute slog where Bennett is NSFW

kidnapped and raped

and then she is

kidnapped and tortured.

The end of the story basically just happens to her. I was turned off from this book at the halfway point, but by the end I was uniquely frustrated.
Even during the good times, the way sexual interaction is written is hysterical and I saved numerous quotes. In a better story, they would be a fun aspect to giggle about and another layer to add to the story's atmosphere, but given the dark humiliating train to the end they come across as severely out of place and way too lighthearted. I was really hoping this book would be it, but MAN it was not.

Content Warnings

crwhite's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

leighlo_'s review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

4.0

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

A badass female pirate with two obsessive, possessive men chasing after her; what’s not to love? This was a fun read! I wanted it spicier though. I would have liked more MMF scenes. Check trigger warnings, it gets pretty dark at times.

- Age gap (11 years and 13 years)
- Enemies to lovers
- Captor x captive
- One bed trope
- Forced proximity
- 🐱 spanking
- 🍑 spanking
- Non-con
- Cheating

Content Warnings

oharamboure's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

I so badly wanted to like this book. The summary sounded awesome, pirate captain searching for treasure that has been promised to her and in the meantime dealing with romance. I liked the way the author wrote, and while the opening is very tragic, it made sense for the characters backstory. What I didn't like was how the audience is supposed to sympathize with one of the MMCs and buy into the romance between him and the FMC after

he brutally abuses her.

There is one scene near the beginning of the book that I found to be so shocking and disturbing that it put me off the character for pretty much the rest of the book. Quick outline of that scene here in case you wanna have a heads up before diving in.

One of the MMCs ties the FMC arms together and throws her off the boat to hang there for over an hour. He then hits her in the genitals many times. He then SAs her.

I was expecting an enemies to lovers between a pirate captain and a high ranking navel officer, but what I got was an abusive MMC. I didn't realize this was a "dark romance" so if you are a fan of that genre and pirates, you might be into this book. It just wasn't for me.

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kyeruhh's review

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Too horny and too violent without much else in my opinion. Also didn’t love the narrator which made it it harder to enjoy. She’s very Not Like Other Girls™.

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