Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Charm

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Charm by Tracy Wolff

11 reviews

booktrovertreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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kirahaycock21's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

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

4.75

I absolutely loved this book. The only critique I have is how slow it got about 3/4 of the way through. I found myself asking, “Well do you love each other or not?” But other than that, so so so good.

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kaylameaux's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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

3.0

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

Yeah, I’m done with the Crave series after reading Charm. Everything that I disliked about <i>Court</i> is even more amplified here and made me realize that I simply don’t care about the series anymore. This book was more tedious, more mundane, and in all honesty just unnecessary.

This book takes place between Crave and Crush and tells us about the time when Grace was trapped in Hudson’s lair. Like other reviewers said, a novella would’ve been fine, but this is a full 600 pages long book where barely anything worthwhile or interesting happens. The biggest problem with the plot is that we already know what will happen. I assume everyone here has read the other books in the series, but just in case:

We already know that Grace’s connection to Jaxon is gone, we know that she will fall for Hudson and forget him afterwards, and we know that she will get out of the situation

. Especially since we already know how this book will end, there are just no stakes there. The stakes are additionally low because it takes the villains such a long time to act on their evil plans™. Additionally, many things about the plot just didn’t make sense and dragged the book in an unnecessary way. If I didn’t buy the book, I wouldn’t have finished it because it was so boring. Hence, I started skimming the last 150 pages because I just wanted the book just to end.

I’m probably one of the few people that read this series for the plot and not for the romance but in this book, the romance takes up the biggest portion of the book. It’s also so cliché with moments like the one bed or one character having to patch up the other one where one of them has to take their shirt off. I said at least “for God’s sake!” out loud for like ten times because the romance was so cringy. The romance thus bored me as well, especially because we barely see any development until Grace suddenly says that she can’t live without Hudson anymore. This is mainly caused by the random big time skips in the novel, namely one of eight weeks, six months, and two months. Furthermore, their relationship is just so immature and silly, especially with those stupid pranks and arguments.

This is the first book of the Crave series where I’ve read the original and not a translated version, and I have to admit that at least the chapter puns work better in English. Still, the writing wasn’t that great; there’s more than one instance of letting out the breath she didn’t know she was holding.

The other big problem this novel has is that Hudson and Grace are just not interesting as characters; they’re in my opinion the most boring characters of the Crave series. Still, we spend the first 150 pages and at least a third of the book only with them which was just so boring. Grace is in general so annoying here. She’s overdramatic, acts stupid, and is even jealous of a random shadow that befriends Hudson which is just so ridiculous. Besides this, she insults Hudson as being mentally disordered, yikes. Her thoughts go so often in circle, especially concerning Hudson. She always has to tell us what a hard life he has and that we all should feel sorry for him – okay, shut up, I get it. It is so hypocritical how she suddenly decides that Jaxon is her ex and justifies what is essentially cheating, but okay.

Like I’ve mentioned in my review for Court: Hudson doesn’t feel like a real person to me but instead like a wish fulfilment fantasy. He literally can do everything, including now playing the guitar and singing. Of course, he also has a big loft and wears expensive clothing. In this novel, he’s back to his arrogant and rude self that he had in Crush, and I absolutely hated it. Also, I don’t want to throw this word around randomly, but Hudson definitely gave me some toxic vibes. He looks through Grace’s phone without her permission, takes everything away from her so she can’t defend herself (and is dependent on him?), and throws away all her food which was one of the few sources of enjoyment for her. He’s just as annoying as Grace, I guess they’re truly made for each other. His POV added nothing to the story for me. There were barely any (interesting) characters in this novel besides them; the villain is comically evil with the random evil laugh, telling our heroes his plans and a very cliché motivation.

Like I’ve said above: Charm should’ve been a novella. I don’t care enough about Grace and Hudson; they’re too annoying and immature for my taste. I just can’t stand any other book with them and the ridiculous plot.

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zanazy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny slow-paced

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

2.5

This was advertised to be the story of the four months Grace spent in stone as a gargoyle with Hudson, their love story. I had such high hopes, but instead of being romantic, the four months were a total train wreck of weird and forced storylines that made no sense. Rather than being a story centered on Grace and Hudson’s story, it was a story driven by the craziest plot ever.

Having read Court, it’s clear then author needed to fill in some gaps before her final book and since us fans were clamoring for the story of the missing four months, she meshed the two. Doing a huge disservice to Grace and Hudson, the first 1/3 of the book which was the bulk of the time they spent in Hudson’s lair was painfully slow to read. Nothing added to their story, it felt rushed, and very forced. Hudson realizes she is his mate right away, but hides it from Grace. Eventually telling her that her mating bond with Jaxon is gone. Although he talks about all his education and sees the strings in Grace, he just knows she’s not human. This makes no sense as we already learned gargoyles and strings are a big part in the other books. Then they enter the shadow world and live there seemingly happily and rent free in an inn, finding jobs, making friends, all while unaware the mayor of this city is basically a fraud and using them… Hudson being so smart misses all the warning signs. Grace finds out she’s a gargoyle and within minutes flies and does a bunch of shit she struggles with in the other books… Hudson is Mr. OMG I should have seen this coming when shit hits the fan, and Grace is a badass fighter, which isn’t bad but way too rushed for someone who at this point in the story has no training or anything. Everything Grace does which should be a first is way too easy for her. The side characters who become important in this life Grace and Hudson live are likable and make up for a lot.

Some things are better left to the imagination and this book is proof of that. If the author needed to tell us more about the shadow world for her next book, find a different way. Grace and Hudson’s story was not the place to do it in and ruined their relationship and growth in the previous books.

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dkgreads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced

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

3.75

Not my favorite book in the series, but it was nice to see what happened during those missing months. I was mostly annoyed that we went back to Book 1 Grace and lost all of her growth, but I get why that makes sense. I totally loved Hudson though. Obviously. I mean, how could I not?

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gabsunshine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.25

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michelleub's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

I don’t know. I expected slow burn enemies to lovers with a bit of fantasy but I got hit with kinda slow burn fantasy sun plot romance. I expected tension, pining but none of it was there. I am a bit disappointed but the book wasn’t necessarily bad, I just thought it would be better

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kristinwritesanovel's review against another edition

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4.0

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cait's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.0

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