Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

7 reviews

viselik's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

At first, I just thought this book was boring and predictable but then it just started to get worse and worse. The book only gets good in the last 30-ish %, but I still had numerous issues with this book.

Please look up content warnings for this book, it deals with some pretty dark topics and the version I had did not have any content warnings in it.

1) There is no content warning and this NEEDED to have one.

•  There is a fucking
  concentration camp
  in it and there was no warning about it before we find out about it. We find out about it in Chapter 15.
• Emotional manipulation is a super big thing in this book, there is no warning about that.
  •  
    Like the entire character of Ronan/Sebastian should have had a content warning
     
    
    

2) 

The whole plot twist about Sebastian actually being the prince is just so bloody predictable if you have read romances before. He's written like a love interest for crying out loud.

 

•  
  Once we learned that Prince Ronan was missing I instantly knew that Sebastian was Ronan. It was too obvious to me after we had it stated that Sebastian was going away the night after the first day of the ball.
   

3) The naming system of this world. Characters and the land.

• We had the Seelie lands, the Unseelie lands and the Wild Fae lands... This just felt too basic for me.
• Then there are the characters. 
• Let's start with the main character's nickname, Brie. That is a cheese, a rather smelly cheese. I may or may not have just started calling her cheese girl.
• The two love interests! We have Ronan/Sebastian and... Finnian. I was left slightly disappointed by these.
  • Finnian's uncle is called Mordred or something like that and his father was called Oberon. I expected more considering the name of the people around them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Vomit

Minor: Sexism

theespressoedition's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

Personally I didn't enjoy this book. The premise was promising but the execution fell flat. The whole first half felt very much like ACOTAR fanfiction. 

And the ending was not satisfying for me. I guessed a lot of what was going to happen by chapter 10 and almost everything else by chapter 19. 

This felt like the miscommunication trope to the extreme which has never been a favorite. There were so many places where honesty could have made a better story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Slavery, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Confinement, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Medical content

Minor: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Violence, War, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

haley49's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

This was the kind of book with all the twists and turns I wanted with enough setup to guess twists but still find them believable and satisfying. The romance(s) were well-done in that I went back and forth on who I was rooting for. The unreliable/fish out of water narrator helped build tension and suspense. Only real complaint was that some of the characters could have felt more 3-dimensional; there were some moments where some characters felt more like empty tropes without their own flair. Otherwise, an amazing, unputdownable read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Abandonment

Moderate: War, Sexual content, Infidelity, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Death

Minor: Gore, Slavery, Child abuse, and Sexism

Manipulation,

louisa_pennyfeather2021's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Moral of the story, it's spelled "Man"ipulation for a reason. Brie deserves an Anti-hero arc. I support women's rights, but more importantly I support women's wrongs.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, War, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Murder

psydneigh's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book. I knew there was a cliffhanger at the end of the book, but when I finally got there it was not what I was expecting. Brie’s thoughts can be a little annoying at times but none of it seems out of character so I was fine with it. Excited to read the next one!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Xenophobia