Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Crimson Moth

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli

10 reviews

andi885's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is filled with tense mystery, adventure and suspense. I ate it up so fast.
I'm a sucker for a good enemies-to-lovers trope - and I mean a real one. I want the hate to be so intense that it seems they will never be able to love eachother. This book didn't disappoint in that regard.
The plot was mysterious and suspensful and it kept me on the edge of my seat guessing the outcome.
It was so well written and almost perfection.
My cons with this book is sometimes the sweet moments of the romance felt a little forced because of how intensely the main characters were supposed to hate each other.

I also felt like Gideon just suddenly fell in love with Rune without any real epiphany moment, or solid reasons for changing his mind about her. It wasn't blatant enough to knock too many points off my rating though.

I can't wait for book two, and I'm so sad it won't be released for another nine months!!

Content Warnings

aheinicke27's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book felt a lot like the plot of The Scarlet Pimpernel but set in a world of blood magic and witches. The main characters, Rune and Gideon are on opposite sides of a newly instated anti-witch regime. Rune masquerades as a ditzy socialite to hide her secret identity as the scarlet moth, a wanted rebel who frees witches captured by blood guards. Gideon, a blood guard captain, is working to hunt her down. Both characters attempt to use each other for their own gain with a “fake courtship” that, somewhat predictably, becomes all too real.

I enjoyed the cat and mouse aspects of the story and the budding romance between the characters, despite the fact that there definitely were times that they also frustrated me with their bonehead choices and assumptions. While the romance part of the book was fairly predictable, there was a HUGE plot twist that I predicted incorrectly at the end of the story. Overall I enjoyed listening to this book, and I’ll probably read the sequel too!

Content Warnings

annamay1021's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

kirsty_irwin's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Content Warnings

taylor500's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

chasinggrace's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

Overall, I really liked this book. I was invested in the fake courting between two characters, rooting for the underdog, and anxious during the attacks. I was worried this was going to be a typical “two brothers and a girl” love triangle story, but it really was more than that. You truly come to understand each character’s motivations, why they are who they are today. By the last 20 pages, I was crying.

Now, there are a few things I would change. In the first 100 pages, the author repeats herself a LOT, with very similar sentence structures and identical descriptions (of a witch’s first bleed, of how Rune played into her Nan’s death, etc.) I found it annoying and it took me out of the story. Secondly, boxing? The way the characters speak and dress and transport themselves, this story takes place in the “past.” But boxing? With gloves, in a ring? This could’ve easily been a fighting ring or sparring, but boxing took me out of the story as well. It didn’t seem to fit.

Seeing as Rune and the witches have escaped to Cailis on the Continent, I’m excited to see what happens in book 2 as the world expands. My heart is BROKEN that this is now an Enemies to Lovers back to Enemies story, but I’m rooting for them. They just need to talk it out😭

Content Warnings

gibbse97's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

mirandanoel's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

Overall this book was a good version of what it was trying to be. It was entertaining, it was emotional, and the writing was propulsive. It’s definitely not setting out to reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t suffer for that.

I did not realize until I came here to review it that it is being marketed as YA, and I would caution you that it is definitely mature for YA. There are some explicit scenes but, beyond that, I think the book gets into murky water when it comes to sexual consent (ie some seduction under false pretenses).

I think the biggest shortcoming is the ending - the author seemed to sacrifice a satisfying ending in order to set up her sequel. Had I knows this, I likely would have waiting to read the book until we were closer to the sequel’s release. IMO, the first 350 pages were leagues better than the last 50.

Content Warnings

randi_jo's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark medium-paced

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

0.25

Jesus, I don't know where to begin. I feel lied to and cheated - whoever marketed this book was probably a court assassin in a past life or something, slipping poison into goblets at celebration feasts.

Anyway there are so many trope icks in this book for me. I feel like the author singled me out, asked everything I hate in a book and then made this book but added playing with period blood. Just to list some of them:

🚩 Obviously the use of period blood, like ew. But ok plot reasons; don't do blood magic using self harm cuts because it makes you a target for witch hunts. Still ew.

🚩 Love triangle/hinge. MC must choose, oh no! One is the tall, dark, and brooding with a tragic past - physically strong! The other is lean, blonde, intellectual - her childhood friend! Ahh smell those tropes.

🚩 Oh yes, those two are brothers! Yes

she kisses them both!! And more!

.

🚩 There is no mention of using protection in the smut scenes! This is YA! She lost her virginity! I don't care if it's not "realistic" it's fantasy! Use fake magic to prevent STDs! Sex safety for the Youth.

🚩 The fact that brosef Gideon feels the absolute NEED to have sex with someone to PROVE she has no scars is weird. Weirder, and CREEPY is that random ass chick Harrow keeps PUSHING FOR HIM TO HAVE SEX WITH HER? I know it's for PLOT AND ROMANCE reasons, but how fucking creepy?? Peer pressuring people into doing the deed is ew.

🚩 Why is there a duo named Gideon and Harrow, anyway? Is this a hat tilt to Muir's Locked Tomb series? It's distracting as fuck.

🚩 A bro literally

dies

and all people can say is "oopsies" and they leave it at that? Like no one blames anyone for this outright

murder

? Not even a why the fuck did you DO that?? Just "she wasn't paying attention"? Christ.

🚩 The font! It's huge! I thought I had a large print book! Nothing crazy, but what a waste of paper. This book should not be anything over 300 pages. It's THAT large.

🚩 Short chapters. I don't think a single chapter was over 10 pages long. WITH HUGE FONT. I accidentally skipped an entire chapter because two pages got stuck together. Weirdly upsetting.

🚩 The plot was ridiculously easy to predict, and as much as I like to be right, reading for plot heavy books (because let's be honest, the characters here only exist to bang) is not one of them. To go into more spoilery areas...

It was obvious from early on that Cressida wasn't dead because Alex didn't kill her. She was literally the only character ever posed to be even a POSSIBLE villain. Literally who else could it be? The only other witches in the whole fucking story are Rune, who we have the POV of, and Seraphine who's in fucking prison lol.
There was zero chance of Alex surviving this trope heavy book. Obviously he is an obstacle to the Rune/Gideon pairing and he needed to be gone! The second Rune accepted his proposal I knew he was dead. And I was right!! I'm a wizard!
Verity was so obviously Cressida the second Cressida's mark appeared at the dinner scene. The entire book the prose was "he is so tempting but he is my enemy! I must save witches to atone for my grandma! Verity's perfume is stronk af. Why is Gideon so hot and dark and spicy? Wowowow." Like the second something other than sexual frustration and the repetitive BS about Rune trying to get herself killed or whatever, the foreshadowing hints become like BEACONS. This was solidified the very second it was Verity's face in the criminal sketch, making the probability of her being the villain from like 80% to 100%. Ugh.

The ending was ok. . . it left a lot to be answered in book 2, but to be honest I'll probably just mine reviews and summaries for what happens next, if I even remember by the time it comes out. I am just not interested in carving out even another day of time for this series.

Content Warnings

bprdy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

It’s a fun fantasy read with an enemies to lovers/forbidden love trope. There’s also some surface level references to class struggles and prejudices. Unfortunately the story was predictable and by 1/3 of the way through I guessed the main plot point which took away a lot of the suspense. The world building was intriguing but lacking in detail. I’m curious to see if the sequel will bring more of it to light.

Content Warnings

More...