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hannahwantstoread's review
4.0
Started strong, ended well
This was a solid story. I feel like it just needed a little more to reach ultimate angst levels, but it definitely had all the feels. I think I would have liked a bit more focus on her time in jail and on people apologising/grovelling for how badly they treated her. I feel like a lot of the people around her just tried to ignore how they responded, particularly her ex. I was also hoping to see a formal apology.
I really liked how Zach’s character grew and was able to admit he was wrong.
This was a solid story. I feel like it just needed a little more to reach ultimate angst levels, but it definitely had all the feels. I think I would have liked a bit more focus on her time in jail and on people apologising/grovelling for how badly they treated her. I feel like a lot of the people around her just tried to ignore how they responded, particularly her ex. I was also hoping to see a formal apology.
I really liked how Zach’s character grew and was able to admit he was wrong.
kelly_reads_books's review
5.0
6 star read ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This story was devastatingly beautiful.
The Land Where Sinners Atone was filled with fate and how she can raise her head and create chaos or serendipity. Phoenix, our heroine, is in a terrible situation until she meets a boy, Zach, and the story of her life alters forever. She drifts through life, doing the best with what she is given, and once again cataclysmic events change her life once again.
This story was heartbreaking and traumatic. The reader becomes swept up in the drama and unjustified events for Phoenix, feeling a desperate need for this woman to survive and endure.
This book is highly recommended!
This story was devastatingly beautiful.
The Land Where Sinners Atone was filled with fate and how she can raise her head and create chaos or serendipity. Phoenix, our heroine, is in a terrible situation until she meets a boy, Zach, and the story of her life alters forever. She drifts through life, doing the best with what she is given, and once again cataclysmic events change her life once again.
This story was heartbreaking and traumatic. The reader becomes swept up in the drama and unjustified events for Phoenix, feeling a desperate need for this woman to survive and endure.
This book is highly recommended!
mar_cortz's review against another edition
2.0
216/398 - DNF
It’s hard for me to quit a book but when I only manage to read like 10 pages in a whole day that’s another level and life is too short for me force myself to read something I’m not enjoying.
Now don’t get me wrong I love dark romance and to me villains and anti-heroes make the best “heroes” but I have to admit there is something seriously wrong with this book and let me list all the things I did not agree with so you know why I rated this a 2⭐️:
First of all I think this book was a great idea and a bad execution. I was so intrigued after reading the blurb! I could hardly wait to read it, so it does deserve credit.
What I did not like:
- Zach destroyed the heroine’s life and yes he was mad with rage and grieve but that’s not excuse
- How can you feel the minimum attractiveness and passion over a man who you know destroyed your life, had you beaten to an inch of your life more than once and as consequence you “lost” your baby?
- How is it possible that as soon as Zach found out she was innocent he wants her, is attracted to her and bent on having her? Where does this insta lust and possessiveness comes from?
- Yeah, I get hate and love are two intense feelings but I could not for the life of me feel attraction for someone who never ever shown me kindness and instead tried to have me almost killed, again SEVERAL TIMES over the course of 3 years?!!!!
- Why when she is having an anxiety attack he pulls her from her hair to try to snap her out of it?
- What was that about them meeting as kids and becoming pen pals? I wished we had more exchange or a longer chapter when those letters show up because honestly thy didn’t have this deep life altering relationship so I don’t get the strong connection.
Dark romances for me are about villains and anti heroes who want to destroy the world and protect you, who want to save you even from themselves, but this is not that, AT ALL.
I would have felt different if Lydia who is the serial killer, tried to have her killed in prison and blames it on Zach and then he tries to save the kid when he finds out.
Also I would have loved if the connection happens because they are forced into a relationship or living together by the circumstances and after that we have this attraction growing. Not the other way around.
I really hope anyone who picks this one up is ready to let a lot slip because for me as a mom it was too hard to understand and therefore enjoy ☹️
It’s hard for me to quit a book but when I only manage to read like 10 pages in a whole day that’s another level and life is too short for me force myself to read something I’m not enjoying.
Now don’t get me wrong I love dark romance and to me villains and anti-heroes make the best “heroes” but I have to admit there is something seriously wrong with this book and let me list all the things I did not agree with so you know why I rated this a 2⭐️:
First of all I think this book was a great idea and a bad execution. I was so intrigued after reading the blurb! I could hardly wait to read it, so it does deserve credit.
What I did not like:
- Zach destroyed the heroine’s life and yes he was mad with rage and grieve but that’s not excuse
- How can you feel the minimum attractiveness and passion over a man who you know destroyed your life, had you beaten to an inch of your life more than once and as consequence you “lost” your baby?
- How is it possible that as soon as Zach found out she was innocent he wants her, is attracted to her and bent on having her? Where does this insta lust and possessiveness comes from?
- Yeah, I get hate and love are two intense feelings but I could not for the life of me feel attraction for someone who never ever shown me kindness and instead tried to have me almost killed, again SEVERAL TIMES over the course of 3 years?!!!!
- Why when she is having an anxiety attack he pulls her from her hair to try to snap her out of it?
- What was that about them meeting as kids and becoming pen pals? I wished we had more exchange or a longer chapter when those letters show up because honestly thy didn’t have this deep life altering relationship so I don’t get the strong connection.
Dark romances for me are about villains and anti heroes who want to destroy the world and protect you, who want to save you even from themselves, but this is not that, AT ALL.
I would have felt different if Lydia who is the serial killer, tried to have her killed in prison and blames it on Zach and then he tries to save the kid when he finds out.
Also I would have loved if the connection happens because they are forced into a relationship or living together by the circumstances and after that we have this attraction growing. Not the other way around.
I really hope anyone who picks this one up is ready to let a lot slip because for me as a mom it was too hard to understand and therefore enjoy ☹️
ferfrey13's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
nikkieliz13's review against another edition
2.0
The MMC wasn’t redeemable to me. I ended up skim reading/jumping around to the end of the book because of how much I disliked him. A major spoiler that really made him irredeemable as the MMC to me: So the whole reason the MMC hates the FMC to the point of having her sent to jail and beaten to within an inch of her life is because the FMC was the driver of the vehicle that ran over and killed the MMCs beloved wife. (It’s important to note that the FMC’s car was hacked, and she wasn’t in control at the time of the accident. Nobody believed her though.)
We later find out that the FMC and MMC were actually each others pen-pals from childhood/tween-years into early college years (I can’t remember the exact age range.) They both had sh*tty lives, and were each others person, but when they finally plan to meet in person for the first time since they met as kids, the MMC ends up running late and missing the FMC. Instead he ends up meeting his future wife and instantly becoming smitten with her, to the point where he’s like, “My whole relationship with my pen-pal [FMC] was leading me to this moment where I met the love of my life.” Him and the FMC are never in contact again after this point, which is why neither recognizes the other (along with the fact that they knew each other by different names) when the whole car incident occurred over a decade later.
Honestly, this additional knowledge made him even more irredeemable, with how easily he replaced/got over the FMC the first time around. It made it seem like the FMC was always going to be second-place to the MMC’s beloved late wife.
We later find out that the FMC and MMC were actually each others pen-pals from childhood/tween-years into early college years (I can’t remember the exact age range.) They both had sh*tty lives, and were each others person, but when they finally plan to meet in person for the first time since they met as kids, the MMC ends up running late and missing the FMC. Instead he ends up meeting his future wife and instantly becoming smitten with her, to the point where he’s like, “My whole relationship with my pen-pal [FMC] was leading me to this moment where I met the love of my life.” Him and the FMC are never in contact again after this point, which is why neither recognizes the other (along with the fact that they knew each other by different names) when the whole car incident occurred over a decade later.
Honestly, this additional knowledge made him even more irredeemable, with how easily he replaced/got over the FMC the first time around. It made it seem like the FMC was always going to be second-place to the MMC’s beloved late wife.
corvinascloud's review against another edition
5.0
“you know how they say true hell exists here on earth and not bellow us?”
this book broke me in ways i can’t even begin to comprehend; it wasn’t an easy read, as most precious things in life aren’t easy. it ended as it started, devastatingly. demanding trust and understanding. pressing you to think as much as to feel.
“yes, it’s a theory that earth was once heaven, but we ruined it.”
the allegorical motif of hell and the devil is so overused in romance, yet this story regarded it as its own, giving it new meaning, a perspective that hadn’t been theorized this way before. for what morals dictate love? and are they different from sin?
“i think the land where sinners atone is here.”
this book broke me in ways i can’t even begin to comprehend; it wasn’t an easy read, as most precious things in life aren’t easy. it ended as it started, devastatingly. demanding trust and understanding. pressing you to think as much as to feel.
“yes, it’s a theory that earth was once heaven, but we ruined it.”
the allegorical motif of hell and the devil is so overused in romance, yet this story regarded it as its own, giving it new meaning, a perspective that hadn’t been theorized this way before. for what morals dictate love? and are they different from sin?
“i think the land where sinners atone is here.”
alexandra26's review against another edition
4.0
3.75/5 ⭐️
This book got me hooked, I could not put it down.
It's a thriller/mistery mixed with (dark) romance (and lots of spicy scenes) and the writing was very good.
However, there were so many twists that sometimes they seemed excessive and what the H did to the h would be probably forgiven only in fiction. There are some tough scenes to read (be mindful of the TW) and the enemy to lovers trope is really believable, Zach really hated Phoenix, but the progression to lovers happened a little bit too fast.
V.F.Mason is a new author for me but I'll definitely read other books by her.
This book got me hooked, I could not put it down.
It's a thriller/mistery mixed with (dark) romance (and lots of spicy scenes) and the writing was very good.
However, there were so many twists that sometimes they seemed excessive and what the H did to the h would be probably forgiven only in fiction. There are some tough scenes to read (be mindful of the TW) and the enemy to lovers trope is really believable, Zach really hated Phoenix, but the progression to lovers happened a little bit too fast.
V.F.Mason is a new author for me but I'll definitely read other books by her.
kaylaabibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
Wow I absolutely loved this
I usually like my dark romances either RH or fantasy so I was a little nervous going into this book.
But I freaking adored it, it had everything it needed to keep me hooked.
Second chances, plot twists, romance,steam, mystery, it kept me on my toes.
I definitely recommend this book
I usually like my dark romances either RH or fantasy so I was a little nervous going into this book.
But I freaking adored it, it had everything it needed to keep me hooked.
Second chances, plot twists, romance,steam, mystery, it kept me on my toes.
I definitely recommend this book