Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

41 reviews

kdb_0620's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Murder, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Torture, Medical trauma, Blood, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Violence

meganlaza's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Classism, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Death, Drug abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Rape, Bullying, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

emily511's review against another edition

This book just really wasn’t for me.  The multitudes of trigger warnings aside, there just wasn’t much of a plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual content, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Stalking, Physical abuse, and Sexism

wandering_seal's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

Look it was fine. There are some really fucking questionable decisions going on storywise - the

kiddos names at the end

for one, and the weird need to write out the name and artist of every song they hear playing.

This is one of those books where I'm somehow meant to believe the MMC has only had sex as a teenager and has been abstinent for the past three years before getting a pet sex slave and is somehow amazing at everything he wants to do with a solid working knowledge of all the kinks and how to navigate our FMCs body. Oh and he's a super awesome killer. With a future in law. Yep. Yeah. The suspension of disbelief was hard in this one.

I think you know what your getting into with these books. The lack of kinkshaming was really nice, and the emphasis on consent was also good considering this is a story with lots of dubcon aspects. I listened to it on audiobook at twice speed so the length of the plot didn't really bother me, but it is a loooong story and the later part in particular could have been tightened up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, Drug use, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse

xlaurareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

a dark romance masterpiece! i really enjoyed reading this one although i was actually expecting it to be a bit darker than it actually was because of all the reviews i read and heard about on bookstagram. i mean, don't get me wrong, it was really dark and there were lots of quite morally questionable scenes, but it still didn't get me totally freaked out if you know what i mean? i fell for ryat the second he appeared (don't we all love the broody, morally-grey dark-haired guys?!) and i found blake to be a quite nice fmc, too. nonetheless, she sometimes seemed a bit too..idk eager?? to be degraded and all that and it didn't make her seem like a very confident fmc. however, she got some real nice badass properties and some real bite, which i enjoyed pretty much. some twists and turns felt a bit overdramatic and didn't make that much sense to me as to why they were incorporated in the story. and i am not the biggest fan of all the

knocking the fmc up, breeding kink, loads of kids kinda stuff

to have a happy ending. still, it was a great book and as a sucker for dark romance i highly recommend reading it! i am also looking forward to "the sinner" as the fanart of sin is already making me drool lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Sexual assault, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

emeraldlemon26's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Drug use, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

klsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Death, Addiction, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Torture, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pregnancy

alexklop's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

4 Stars!

I can’t say this was the best dark romance book I have ever read, but I can say with 10% certainty that after reading half of the book and then attempting to sleep. I got no sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about what might happen next, and how Blakely and Ryat were going to either fall in love or kill each other... Most likely the latter. 

While there were so many amazing kinks in this book, I did find myself tensed and anxious at how some of them were portrayed and played out in the book. I wish at some point during their relationship a little more discussion about boundaries, hard limits, and safe-words would’ve happened, but alas… it will not keep me from reading the next book in the series next time in I’m the mood for something super dark and kinky!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, Bullying, Death, Violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

namitini's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Stalking

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

ellykristina's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Even porn needs a plot, Shannon

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Trafficking, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Stalking, and Toxic relationship