Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Brutal Prince

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

ellielot's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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katkinslee's review

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dark lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The steamy scenes were excellent but the rest of the story was just ok, I didn't really connect with the characters that much and found myself skimming alot of the story.
Alot of storylines were going but nothing felt fully completed.

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bookedwithmel's review

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3.75

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saoreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Miscommunication tropes, enemies-to-lovers literal dramatics, and the rough tone of language, considering the age, were quite immature. There's this immediacy that was toxic to a relationship to start off, but it was easily consumed for the most part due to the short chapters. I'm not a big fan of the violence, and the storyline was a bit lackluster; the scenes were short, and if it was fast-paced, it was just that it was detailed on parts I don't like that much. Overall, there were areas that could have been improved and some side characters to be given spotlight.

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melb_reading's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

First off: I absolutely adored the illustrations! I wish more authors would do this, as it gave such fun insight into the author’s world-building.

This book had me hooked from the get-go at the potential for an angsty arranged marriage mafia romance with political intrigue. Aida, the take-no-prisoners daughter of Chicago’s Italian family was a clear match-made-in-hell for the stoic, proper, and politically ambitious Callum, only son of Chicago’s Irish family.

The pacing felt rushed in their enemies-to-lovers journey, and the angsty push-and-pull that one expects with this trope didn’t have the depth it could have given the characters initial meeting and insta-hate. The tension just seemed to dissipate so easily and quickly. Though this absolutely does not stop the spice from being out of this world.

Plot-wise, there was a lot going on at once, and some of the conflicts resolved a little too cleanly given the drama of the situations/surrounding circumstances. That said, the supporting characters and overall “gangs of Chicago” story had me going straight to the next book in the series.

I received an ARC of this book from Bloom Publishing and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.

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lexi_hexi's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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booksalacarte's review

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tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Brutal Prince- 2⭐️ 3.25🌶️

Mafia Romance

Dual POV

Arranged marriage

True Enemies to lovers

Forced proximity

Bully moments

Age gap (10 years)

After a public incident between their children, 2 mafia fathers make a deal to have them marry to unite rival families.

I didn’t love the FMC. She came off as an immature and childish character for most of the book. My biggest issue was the strawberry allergy incident. Having a kid with a food allergy, I am very against allergies being used as a prank. Who the hell doesn’t take food allergies seriously?! The girl would have never been forgiven by me… And it’s on the cover? So is this the big draw to the book? Nope. That’s not tomboy/hellcat behavior. That attempted murder. And she doesn’t even think of the implications her actions would have on her family… ever.

Honestly the MMC wasn’t any better. He came off chauvinistic and depreciated the FMC, and women he dated in general… it was gross. Also, he was a 30 year old, living at home having his every thought taken care of by a housekeeper, chef and his parents.

This book wasn’t very lovey-Dovey. It was more enemies than lovers… well except that there were 4+ spicy scenes. So there was a bunch of lust.

There wasn’t and true character development. Nothing to show any growth. The main characters just stayed pretty flat while the plot raced through a bunch of quickly concluded plot points.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks bloom books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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kathis_wonderland's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark is the first book in the Brutal Birthright series. After Aida (accidentality) sets her family's rivalling family's library house on fire, she is forced to marry their eldest son Callum. Both hate each other's guts, but they have to play along to their fathers' wishes. The more time they spend together the more attracted they are to each other. But other families are pissed and they have to be cautious.

I received this book for free through an online read club and I desperately needed a quick read yesterday. Here, the book did not disappoint. I read it in one go. It was not a mafia story I expected. The ones I read previously, I did not enjoy at all. Usually they are just to brutal. Sophie Lark did a better job here. We had a lot of action, but there was no real harm done to the children of the mafia bosses from the families themselves. I loved Aida's brothers. They are quite the gang and would do anything for their siblings. The same goes for Aida. She is not some damsel in distress. She is quite a good fighter and knows what she is doing. I liked that about her. Callum's family is not my favourite. We don't read so much about them as we do with Aida's. Callum himself is not my type of guy either. But we will come to that. There were really steamy and sexy scenes. Callum's and Aida's chemistry was really good! But here comes my problem.

Callum kept talking about breaking Aida and making her submit to his rules and lifestyle. He kind of threw out most of her clothes, because he did not like how it was different from his standards. The first sex scene and another one later on were quite borderline. Especially the spanking scene - no consent, just some angry dominating scene. Those two scenes did not sit well with me.

The book was okay. It was not the mafia story I expected, but it was even better, because my previous experience with that trope did not go well. There were some scenes and character traits which I did not ilike at all. But it was not a bad read.

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apolen's review

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5.0

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tiana_king's review against another edition

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dark hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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