Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Lesson in Thorns by Sierra Simone

18 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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A Lesson in Thorns feels tailor-made for my kinks and proclivities - it's got an apparent love-triangle turned to a triad, a complex, messy, but ultimately loving relationship that blurs lines between a group of friends, a priest that probably would fuck, and weird Catholic-pagan rituals. And, if meeting my interests wasn't enough, it also contains some of the best prose and most compelling plot of any published erotica that I've read to date. I'm really excited to see read the next three books in the series; hopefully, they will be as tantalizing and intriguing as this one.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Chronic illness, Rape

Minor: Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol

-This book explores kink and consensual pain in a lot of detail.

frantically's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This made me talk about discovering new kinks in a full restaurant, so take that as you will

I've truly never felt so *seen* by a book and its characters. This feels so magical realism-ish but all the characters are so real which is something we rarely see in dark academia inspired novels. 

I'm not gonna talk too much about my sex life in this public review (sorry babes) but there are a lot of fascinating discussions about topics like virginity and general intimacy and it was so great. We've seen a lot of BDSM in romances but the BDSM in this book is so well researched and healthy and god, I'm so grateful we're getting beyond the Fifty Shades stuff. BDSM isn't just sex, there's so much more involved and a lot of conversations are required and all that comes across so good in this book while not feeling like a guidebook, if you catch my drift.

Also absolutely obsessed with the way religion is handled. We have Catholic characters who experience their closest link to God while recreating a Celtic ritual and priests who are still human, still experience sexual feelings. Religion can be so fluid and so personal and especially Catholicism isn't as straightforward and fixed in its rules as other Christian religions and I loved how we got to see all this represented in this book.

This is absolutely one of my new favourite novels and I was so delighted to find out it's a series — onto the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Alcohol

Moderate: Chronic illness, Rape, Grief, Classism

Minor: Fatphobia, Death of parent

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood

Moderate: Death, Rape, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol

krisalexcole's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Incest, Racism, Blood, Fire/Fire injury

jlaz_13's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Death of parent

raen99's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Death of parent

becausebrenna's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent

Moderate: Cursing, Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Rape

roseamillerg's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: No

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such beautiful writing. 
my only qualm is the that the mystery plot was abandoned early on and didn’t return until the very end. (not a HUGE deal bc I wasn’t reading it for that lmao). 

update: Im reading the sequel and the mystery is definitely developing further! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders