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mcsmartypants's review
1.0
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Pedophilia, Child death, and Adult/minor relationship
kifirth95's review
3.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Addiction
Moderate: Grief, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Torture, Sexual assault, and Rape
evmb_c's review
4.5
TWs⚠️: Breath play, knife play, sadism, mental and physical torture, aversion therapy, child death, suicide, drug addiction, attempted rape, sexual assault, bloody scenes, paedophilia.
Despite all of those trigger warnings this is a really good book. It’s one that I think is gonna leave me thinking about it for ages to come as well which to me is always the sign of a good book.
So considering this was the pic for dark reads book club it does feature a dark romance however this book is so much more than that as well. The plot twists just kept coming and coming, and in the last 30% of the book every single chapter had a new OMG moment for me and then the last 10% was just like Jesus F Christ.
The story follows Isa (Isadora) who takes up a job as a companion for Master Lucian Blackthornes mentally declining mother. The Blackthorne family is shrouded in years of mystery and rumours, and their family home - actually a castle - has seen some tragic events in the past. Isa moves into the castle to start her job and from the moment she meets the devil of saltbones himself her life is set on a new mad path.
Throughout the book you gradually start getting fed pieces of the puzzle of Lucian’s darker past and I really enjoyed the fact that the dark romance mostly featured his troubled past rather than the female main characters past. However Isa also has some haunting secrets of her own.
Wrapped up in this story are relationships that test limits both mentally and physically, damaged & tortured souls who just need some healing, mystery, suspense, shady cults and just a little bit of everything to be honest.
I absolutely loved that I could see everything playing out in this book exactly how I would imagine it would be in a movie. This story has haunting Gothic vibes to it that just really set a scene and the story feels really fresh and the plot is certainly not one I’ve come across before especially in dark romances and I loved that.
Two reasons this wasn’t a five star for me: 1) there’s a few parts of the plot that I didn’t really like how they were resolved in the end.
2) I expected more from the sex scene, in that I’m not sure they were written that well in terms of where the story could have taken them
All in all this is definitely going to be a book that I recommend to people who are wanting to expand their horizons a little bit, maybe take a step out of their comfort zone while still playing it safe, and who enjoy not knowing where the story is going to take them next.
Graphic: Sexual content and Child death
Moderate: Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Blood, and Pedophilia
mcluster1's review
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Child death, Child abuse, Suicide, and Torture
There is no room to breath in this book. I couldn’t finishhaleybsreads's review
3.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Violence