Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

314 reviews

mayalberg_'s review

4.5

dark emotional mysterious 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

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I reread this mid 2025, and I thought to myself “maybe I thought it was great the first time because I’m a noob with dark romance”. Honestly? It slapped just as hard the second time around. Ryat MF Archer 😭 probably my favorite MMC ever?? 

I saw some people say that it feels like it’s being dragged on around 60-70% of the way through and I totally get that. There were a lot of plot lines and lot of characters IN ADDITION to the spicy moments, which there was a lot of. And I mean A LOT of spice. There were also moments of severe discomfort and despite having read this before, I was hooked but also uncomfortable and anxious. 

But this book went hard and I adored it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault

aniajo's review

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol

katelynmill2's review

3.5

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Thought the like “high society” system was unique. Otherwise I wasn’t a fan of it, but I’m not really sure I’m SUPPOSED to be a fan of a cult run by men.

Soooooo much smut. I genuinely just wanted 1. A plot and 2. To witness the main characters actually getting to know each other. Idk it was just hard to believe they had a relationship considering how they had no apparent common hobbies or interests.

This amount of pure sex needs to be  heavily offset with scenes that AREN’T SEX. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Grief

Minor: Pregnancy

lilgemknits's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Murder

stac_bend's review against another edition

2.5

challenging dark 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder

chelsealistens2books's review

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Violent, dark, smutty and so good!

I wish the ending was different, maybe was a tad too dragged out.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
🎧🎧🎧🎧.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Pregnancy

amartin2085's review

3.5

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I went into this book 100% blind, except for knowing that it was a dark romance. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not, since I struggled getting into it. The first 6(ish) chapters grabbed my attention right away, but then I struggled until about the 40% mark. But once it picked up, it held my attention so much so that I read the last 380 pages in 1 afternoon, which was a pleasant surprise, because I saw myself absolutely DNFing this. Blakely's chapters the first half of the book had me cringing and rolling my eyes, but she got better the further the story progressed. This book is probably 90% smut and 10% plot, which is fine, I was just hoping for a bit more of the plot. The smut was hot, though it's definitely not going to be for everyone, especially if BDSM isn't your thing, so please double check your trigger warnings! Blakely and Ryat are extremely toxic for each other, but they somehow make it work, and end up actually falling in love in the middle of their crazy Mafia type world. 
 The writing was good, though it did feel a bit rushed at the end. Overall, I do see why it's recommended all over Booktok, though I'm going to set this series aside and maybe eventually I'll come back to it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting

iaana's review

3.75

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Spice was hot, story was good, ending kind of lost me the twists were a little too twisty. 
Style of writing changed around mid way from detailed really adding to the daily plot of the story to very rushed and clearly just trying to drop small chunks of information into the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence

Minor: Pregnancy

megnapier12's review

3.0

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Kidnapping, Classism

Minor: Abandonment

indulgeinfantasy's review

1.0

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury

Heavy on the spice, light on the plot.