Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Vicious

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Vicious by L.J. Shen

9 reviews

a_melville's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? No

5.0

Vicious is a dark romance novel and it's the perfect mix of smut, romance, and plot. I absolutely adore Vicious. This book is about childhood enemies Vicious and Emilia, who turned into adults who hate each other.

Emilia is the FMC who grew up as the "Help" because her parents worked for Vicious's family. She grows up and goes to New York with her sister and works a few jobs to support herself and her sick sister. After not seeing Vicious for years, she runs into him and he gives her an offer she would be stupid to refuse. She is stubborn, smart, and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Especially when it comes to Vicious.

Vicious is the MMC and he is dark, twisted, and full of childhood trauma. He is a childhood bully who grows up to become a lawyer. He hates the "Help" from the first time they met, and he is not afraid to let her know that. However he still can't seem to let her get away from him, and he might just need her help.

The banter is simply to die for. The plot is interesting and tells a great story, and the world-building is good. It is easy to get invested early in the story. This book is medium-paced. I would say the spice is a three out of five. Love, love, love this book!

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coles14_'s review against another edition

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2.75

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sophiejo_'s review against another edition

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4.0

no spoilers <3

this book had SUCH A PUBLIC SEX KINK it’s literally the only thing possibly turning me off from reading the rest of the series. like sure, live your best life, but NOT in your office or on a Manhattan balcony. please and thank you

other than that, this was a really good book. i’ll say that towards the middle i was loosing a lot of interest, and i started to hate both of the characters, mostly bc of the friends w benefits relationship. but it picked itself up so go l j shen <3.

What was it say about this book is it I had a very curious plot. Honestly I think I may have liked most of the plot a lot better than the characters to be honest. there were just so many interwoven pieces like there was of course daddy issues, step mama issues, step mama’s brother issues, dead mothers issues, but also just like the relationship between the two characters while they were in high school, the pink and black, the relationship that emilia has with her sister, there’s just so many different elements that work really well together it really made the story very complex

I also loved the whole scene and the places that it was held like New York Manhattan the workplace, art galleries, like it all just sounded very like a luxurious, at least on vicious’ side, and it also kind of highlighted the bad parts of the city you know because emelia was not as better off so I feel like the development of the scenery was actually very good.

to be honest the worst part of this book was the characters because both of them were barely tolerable half of the time,. At some time I was rooting for emilia because obviously ✨ go girl boss she doesn’t need no man to pay for her, ✨ but on the other time like she was just as much of a jerk as vicious was. And again he is an absolute asshole like he does so many things wrong and starts out being just a horny teenager but turns out into a businessman who literally sue you for millions of dollars and burn your house or something like that. But then we go back to his past and see his trauma and he’s just such a layered character that honestly I have to appreciate him anyways. Does that justify all his actions absolutely NOT but it brings up good topics on morality.

overall this book really was a 3.5. I can’t really tell because the romance was definitely not my favorite, because I just kept going back-and-forth and I was like MAKE A DECISION, but the plot was really good outside of the romance and the characters traumas was also really well written. so I’m gonna give it a four stars for now but it may drop down later.

the real question is should i continue the series….?

TRIGGERS
explicit sex, death and violence, cursing, cheating, drug and alcohol use, a lot of trauma, domestic abuse, etc

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carrie12321's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted 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

3.5

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spaghettii's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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valeria_gzz's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Edit: the biggest reason I gave this such a low rating even though it was entertaining was because there was too much “you’re mine” and not in the cute way but in the creepy way ya know? 2 These people need therapy. This was entertaining enough because of the drama. I didn’t like Vicious at all for the first 60% which good for me.

I liked that Vicious got better about expressing his feelings and knowing what he wanted, even though I still don’t think this is a good relationship. I also liked that the author showed that while he did like her he knew that the way he was going about it was completely wrong.

I don’t plan on continuing this series because I didn’t like the other characters enough and don’t want to read another bully or dark romance, I’ll stick to my fluff.

I only have a few things to add about the bully romance aspect:

I think the author could have written Vicious a lot worse than how he was written i.e. as someone who physically hurt Emilia (did threaten her a lot though which isn’t any better, it’s the thought that counts). He also could’ve been written as someone who actually hated her and then felt bad about it and started to like her, unlike how he knew of his attraction to her but was hindered by his personal issues. Omfg I just went back and skimmed the first few chapters and yeah no this guy was absolutely crazy awful to Emilia and I’m just now remembering that I thought it was so weird how even though we were in Vicious’ pov he didn’t act like he knew he liked her more like he just wanted HER (and not to be with her) it was weird.

(Original)2,5 These people need therapy. This was entertaining enough because of the drama. I didn’t like Vicious at all for the first 60% which good for me.

I think the author could have written Vicious a lot worse than how he was written i.e. as someone who physically hurt Emilia. He also could’ve been written as someone who actually hated her and then felt bad about it and started to like her, unlike how he knew of his attraction to her but was hindered by his personal issues. I’m really glad the only bully romance I’ve ever read (this one) was one where the characters were not physically abusive and hateful.

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