Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Hideaway by Penelope Douglas

59 reviews

beautyandthebookworms's review against another edition

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1.5

1.5 star…?⭐️ 😬🫣 idk— i’m sorry. I wanted to like it, & feel bad when I don’t, but honest review leggo ⤵️

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💀this book was just not it for me.

💀I felt like it was slow, not exciting, & lacked plot & chemistry. I probably would have DNF’d if I wasn’t buddy reading it.

💀my favorite part about this book is the side character Alex. I loved her in book one & continue to. but she’s in like only a handful of scenes.

💀I also liked the scene with Banks in the shower after being out in the rain

💀I didn’t get Kai’s obsession with The Pope building & 12th floor & it felt anticlimactic. they barely gave us more depth to his character & it was supposed to be his book? a lot of the book is getting Banks backstory & Damon backstory—so not much of Kai, which was disappointing.

💀there was repetitiveness in the writing (in phrasing) and also..there feels like there’s a lot of instances of men being too handsy/harassing/attacking women like throughout this series (including but not limited to the ‘four horsemen’) & it’s not really written where it feels like the women have mixed feelings/are okay with it & it’s just like never addressed & I didn’t like it (I’ve read many dark romances & this scenario can be executed so much better in my opinion) 

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💀I honestly don’t know if I’ll continue the series at this point. 

🎧I listened to the audio and it was done pretty well as far as narrators go

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sevendoteight's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.75


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readsbyjeann's review against another edition

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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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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bigbookslay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

KAI AND BANKS ARE THE LOML

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dkgreads's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

For a book that’s supposed to be about Kai, it sure seemed like it was more about Damon than anything. It was also really sloooooooow. And there was, like, ZERO chemistry between Kai and Banks. This one didn’t really do it for me. On to the next I guess…

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_terah_hansen_'s review against another edition

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

5.0

This is NOT a Young Adult (YA) book, I'm not sure why it's labeled that way. Not suitable for anyone younger than 18.

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anyakdh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

1.75

mmh would have been 2 if I liked banks I did like the start of the book highlighting how much Kai has changed and then it was never addressed again the only thing that kept me gking was Damon I’m so interested in his character and WILLL he was so quiet I can’t wait to step into his mind but yeah no this book was boring 

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kaylabrotzman's review against another edition

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dark tense

2.5


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littlebookishfairy's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

FIVE STARS BABY!!!!! You kidding me Kai Mori HELLO BABY ILY 🫶🏻💕 inject this into my bloodstream cause this was the right amount of smut and plot and I’m here for it!!!! 

Spoiler warning but, banks stealing the dogs has me going awooga ily 🫶🏻

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curicastic's review against another edition

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

2.0

THIS WAS A JOURNEY, PEOPLEEEEEEEEEE. 

PSA: This is a dark book and I went into it knowing that. They're not my fave books but I read them once in a while.

I  liked this one. Kai Mori is more balanced than Michael (First Book), and so he had more interesting feature instead of JUST being an asshole. 

And Can we talk about Nikova Banks? Girl... I need to take you to therapy YESTERDAY. I felt awful for her the whole book. Damon is a piece of shit. 

I sense a Penelope Douglas pattern here... this book could've been 100 pages less. The mystery wasn't really misterious, I'm beginning to think that Douglas is just a little too in love with her ideas and repeats them a lot. It's still good, but I think it'd be a stronger book if it was filtered (not the evil/fucked up stuff, but the editing standpoint where you don't overstretch your scenes and plot devices.).
For Example, Banks being Damon's daughter was an interesting fact... for the first few dozen scenes. But when you freaking pull it until the (almost) whole book? It gets repetitive and low key boring. Michael not telling him? Weird.



I'm honestly worried about book 3... I don't think I can like Damon after all he's done.

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