Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy

19 reviews

friendlyghosty's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Missouri, 1955. 
Loretta Davenport is a mom, homemaker, and housewife—at first glance her life seems picturesque with a home and children and a successful husband who is a professor at the nearby university. She found comfort in the teachings of church and her husband, Pete, is also deeply religious. 

After being very sick, Loretta is disconcerted by some strange visions she has about a recently missing girl in her community. When her visions turn out to be true and end up helping find the missing girl’s dead body, Loretta’s life starts to go up in flames. Her husband thinks her behavior and independence of thought is “of the devil” and is determined to bring her to heel. As the cracks in her life start to crumble the very foundation of her marriage and home, Loretta tenaciously and cleverly rebuilds one where she can fully embrace her abilities and redefines how she wants to be as a mother, wife, and career woman. 

Empowered through therapy, facing her past and present trauma, and refusing to be abused anymore by her controlling, alcoholic spouse, Loretta will not continue to live a life she is barely surviving in. She must figure out how to break free from her hellish, violently escalating marriage while also trying to use her psychic powers to track down the devil who is killing young girls in the area before it is too late…both for herself and other victims. 

This book pleasantly surprised me. Loretta grew a backbone and realized her worth fairly quickly, which can be credited to therapy as well as positive friendships in her life. I adored how Loretta did not give up on a better life for herself and her kids, no matter how hard her husband tried to break her and made it impossible for her to leave. The more she learned about herself, the more competent and formidable she became, and was eventually ready to face the devil himself by the end of the book. This book does have quite a few trigger warnings though, so please make sure to look those up before reading. Loved this book, through and through. I will be reading more of Paulette Kennedy’s books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol

earlgreywithmilk's review

4.75

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting

freemakd's review

4.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Abortion

lyssylyssy's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Stalking

teddie_valetine98's review

5.0

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol

anawaskie's review

3.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol

alexa2107's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol

reading_and_roaming20's review

4.5

dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-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: No

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It’s funny how sometimes you buy a book and it sits forever. Other times you just feel drawn to it and pick it up immediately. The bond that I had with THE DEVIL AND MRS. DAVENPORT was the latter. I saw a five star review from @mother.horror and I was on my way within the day. 

THE DEVIL AND MRS. DAVENPORT is such an interesting combination of genres. Who knew that 50s historical gothic paranormal mystery would work so well? It’s not too dark and it’s not too creepy but it will scratch a horror itch with spirits from the other side while also hooking you with Mrs. Davenport herself. 

The story follows Loretta as she grapples with her abusive, controlling husband (in a time where that was totally a-ok with society) and newfound psychic abilities. When a local girl is murdered, Loretta becomes entangled in the mystery by way of visions and visitations from the girl’s spirit. The character development is fantastic and I absolutely adored watching Loretta grow into the confident woman her husband was gaslighting and berating her into thinking she could never be. 

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is into any one of the genres that are tied together to create this story. I definitely plan to check out other works from PAULETTE KENNEDY after loving this one so, so much! (I rounded down to 4 stars but it’ll be a 4.5 on StoryGraph.)

CW NOTE :: There are scenes containing a multitude of abuses, so this is just a heads up to consider CWs on @the.storygraph before reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Self harm

Minor: Alcoholism

katy_jay's review

4.0

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book had me hooked from the moment I picked it up. My first ARC read and I was blown away. It covered off so many sensitive subjects in a respectful way. I knew from early on who the killer would be in this book however it still managed to keep me hooked with lots of twists and turns in the story. I loved the setting in the 50’s and the characters were diverse especially given the time period. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting