Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

A Touch of Ruin by Scarlett St. Clair

28 reviews

ninahuynh's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-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? Yes

3.75

I like the dive into Apollo and his character arc, and Hermes. I like how Persephone has grown as a character and how her flaws make her that much more real. We could do with a sex scene or two less- there were times it felt like they use sex to solve their problem, never really communicating their sorrows/problem.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Alcohol, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Violence, Cursing, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Car accident, Murder, Blood, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Torture

nicolaj1994's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Death, Violence, Sexual assault, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide and Infidelity

farfromsarah's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed this a lot less than the first book, the characters are so whiney and repeat their mistakes too many times for my liking, and some of the plot beats towards the end of the book were way too serious to only be tackled so briefly and then moved on from, it felt like they were only thrown in for dramatic effect and I was not a fan.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Medical content, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Torture

Minor: Car accident, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Infidelity, and Confinement

namitini's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual harassment, and Infidelity

Moderate: Infertility

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Torture, Alcohol, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, War, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Rape, Abandonment, Stalking, Suicide, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

scarlett_f's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

<Disappointing writing. Choppy sentences. Often rushed. It quickly became boring. Persephone would screw up, get mad at Hades, distance herself, then make up with him again.  And the sex/make-up sex became boring pretty quickly. Seemed like every other page was another sex scene, overdone and typical. 
Poorly wrapped up problem with a stalker. Done in less than five minutes, then back to poorly written sex scenes. The first book in the series was better. Very disappointed in the rushed writing. Going to read book three for grins and giggles, hoping it will be better.>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide, Sexual violence, Slavery, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child abuse, Infidelity, Blood, Medical trauma, Self harm, Stalking, Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness and Drug use

Minor: Car accident

majormnkey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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

3.25

Unlike many others, it seems, I like this book better than the previous (A Touch of Darkness). 
It explores more of the main character and other characters beside the love interest, although maybe in a slightly chaotic way. Persephone’s is still whiny and frankly annoying though, and she hardly learns from her mistakes. 

Some parts were spicy when there was more need for proper conversation and exploration of each others feelings. 
Also some relationships with the characters did a 180 degree spin without proper incentive. One day they felt this way, the next they felt the total opposite. But overall I liked where they went with the story. 

The only thing that felt really off was one of the spicy scenes in the latter half of the book where a momentous event had taken place and they STILL chose to do a spicy scene almost immediately after, WHILE having a conversation about that specific event. It pulled my mind out of the book, because it felt disrespectful and like the opposite of what the main character would do in that situation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Kidnapping, Self harm, Grief, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Car accident, Torture, War, Cursing, Infidelity, and Suicide

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Sexual content, Death, Infidelity, Medical content, and Violence

samandthebookstack's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I first read this back in 2022 and started a series re-read in preparation for the release of the remaining books in the series. I enjoyed the books in this series the first time around, but the second read made me love the characters more. 

I think when dealing with stories based on Greek mythology specifically, it's important to remember that one of the hallmarks of the original stories themselves is how flawed the gods truly are. In these original stories, the gods display flaws that are considered very human and these flaws often set them up for great strife or failure. I really like that Scarlett has preserved that even more in this book specifically. Persephone loves the upperworld, but she really doesn't understand what it means to be mortal and she clearly struggles with the notion that she IS a goddess and regardless of how much she wishes to be different than the other gods, there will be things she cannot help. Hades and Persephone both struggle to communicate properly with one another and that lack of communication causes them both great pain but we get to see them begin to explore ways to avoid those issues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Sexual content, and Infidelity

Moderate: Kidnapping, Suicide, and Car accident

margaret_k30's review

adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Abandonment, Stalking, Torture, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Car accident, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Infertility, Terminal illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis