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zc2's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Genocide, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
curicastic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
I never know how to rate dark romance books because they're an entirely different breed for me, as far as books go.
I heard the hype, I guess it kind of lives up to it. I was a bit slow, the back and forth between the present and the "three years ago" POV was a little tiring at times. I think this book could be 100 pages less and it would change nothing, there where scenes where the character repeted themselves and it was eye rolling.
I might continue the saga because these type of books are like crack, there's just something about em. There were a few moments where I laughed and I was SURPRISSSSSSSSSSED, LEMME TELL YOU.
Penelope Douglas makes assholes look good, that's an art.
PS2: Oh my god. The whole "Rika got us arrested" was so stretched out thin I nearly fell asleep during that. I even thought it might've been more fun is someone stole the masks and did something with them that oh so special night. But I repeat myself, this book needed to be edited DOWN at least 100 pages.
Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence
modjeskapup's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual content, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Grief, Rape, and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
anastashamarie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
If you take the 2006 film The Covenant, remove the magic, flesh out the plot a little more, and add smut...that's what this book is. An untouchable group of mischief-causing, incredibly attractive bad boys who enthrall everyone with their mystique. Old money posturing and politicking that leads to a revenge plot that uses the sweet blonde FMC as a pawn. Dramatic confrontation scenes that could have been resolved with a much-less-attractive, logical conversation. Some unexpectedly homoerotic tension that I don't think was intentional. The vibes are identical between the two.
And those vibes are immaculate for the first 2/3 of the book. But around 67.5%, this takes a weird atmospheric turn that I didn't vibe with as strongly. Idk how to explain it, but the storyline just didn't carry the same oomph after the 67% mark (the spicy scenes still did for sure, but I'm talking specifically about the actual storyline). It went from this hot push and pull between Rika and the whole Horseman group, to a different dynamic that I didn't enjoy nearly as much.
Also as much as I enjoyed the Rika and Michael circling each other, I really just felt bad for her the whole book because everyone around her objectively sucks. This girl deserves better than the thousand red flags surrounding her entire social circle. I hope she finds a genuine friend eventually or that at least the ones she does have treat her better.
But this was greatly enjoyable as a guilty pleasure read. I see why people like Penelope Douglas if this one was any indication, and I am going to read the next one for sure.
⚠️ TWs: lots of sexually explicit scenes, sexual assault/harassment, violence, murder, arson, gaslighting, manipulation, bullying, alcohol use, death of a parent, death of a dog (side note: wtf did this need to be in here for?)
Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Alcoholism
Minor: Car accident
A dog dies in the last chapter; I feel like you can just totally skip that chapter and feel like things are neatly concluded.assesgrass's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Stalking, Bullying, Death of parent, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault
ac_blanco's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Death, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Cursing, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Infidelity
mejisilliterate's review against another edition
I just want to point out a recurring theme that i’ve noticed throughout not just penelope douglas’ books, but the new steamy-tik tok genre as a whole.
The idea of what consent is is majorly fucked up within all of these books. They all have scenes that are inherently non-consensual, but even bigger than that is the authors trying to convince us that those scenes are actually practicing consent.
In this book, I couldnt help but laugh at the stupidity of it all when the horsemen (stupid fucking name by the way) went through with their plan, but michael, suddenly, pulls out and isn’t ok with it because “she’s not on board” and they “only said they’d do it if she was on board”. that’s practicing consent, right? wrong! because the plan was literally to rob this woman of all her possessions, kidnap her mother and then her, hold her against her will and “make her theirs” (heavily implying they are going to use her as a sex slave, although thats never said explicitly, probably to try and convince the readers that somehow they will just be nice and kind to this girl! even though they’ve talked the whole book about “what they want to do to her”!). what kind of idiot would ever truly believe she would consent to this! the only reason michael backed out is because this freak damon almost rapes our protagonist, which michael suddenly objects to, even though the entire book damon was saying that that was exactly what he was gonna do once they kidnapped her. multiple times in this book we see damon assault girls but it’s treated as unimportant and merely a character flaw rather than a huge fucking problem that makes him a deranged lunatic. for gods sake, he knows how to roofy someone! why are you friends with this man!
as tik tok makes these types of books more known to younger people, it’s important to recognize that the depiction of a messed up form of consent has extreme ramifications. rape is never justified, ms douglas.
(look at the content warnings and tell me how the fuck this is marketed as a romance)
Graphic: Rape, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Torture, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse
madipeppell's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, and Bullying
Minor: Rape
rorolovesbooks's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
chaosdemonmonster's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping and Murder