Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Kraken's Sacrifice

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert

14 reviews

lazy_raven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Its ok. Lots of abandonment and neglect. Smit scenes were ok, not her best work

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nose_in_a_book's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️

Of all the books in this series so far, my feelings on this one are the most complicated. Both of the main characters are deeply flawed from trauma. I do think this book handles the way trauma manifests in our actions beautifully. The driving actions have layers to them which is part of why my feelings are complicated. While I wouldn't want changes to how the characters act from a storytelling perspective, it made it really hard for me to actually want the two of these characters to end up together.

The MMC may not have a malicious bone in his body but that doesn't change the fact that his actions for the first half of the story are abusive. That's not to say that characters can't work through unintentional harm but I didn't feel like the book held him accountable for just how fucked up what he did was, regardless of intention. It was hidden behind empathy for why he acted that way and the fact that they clearly had healthy communication by the epilogue.

I suppose I wanted consequences. I wanted the same protection that Briar got in Dragon's Bride to be applied here and it felt deeply unfair that it wasn't.

Briar is a stereotypical damsel, described as soft and deeply kind, while Catalina is decidedly not those things. She's self-destructive, loud, and hyper-independent but she honestly needed someone standing up for her (i.e. her demon guardians) more than Briar. At least Briar knew what happened to her was wrong and spent the book advocating for herself. Catalina is so used to being abused that she doesn't even bother anymore. She deserved to be ripped away from Thane and then have him prove he was worthy of her.

All in all, the romance was less successful for me but the character studies were beautiful.

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rae_the_reader's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

This is a good LGBTQ+ friendly monster romance. The FMC has a lot of trauma she's overcoming and the MMC struggles with the loss of a spouse. It's not my favorite of the series, but there were parts I enjoyed. I didn't think the chemistry between the two characters was believable, and I'm not really a fan of Thane. He just rubbed me wrong and never really made up for the crap he put Lina through.

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judythedreamer's review against another edition

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0.25

I gave the lowest of the low because this novel failed utterly at being a romance for me. The first 50% are just solid partner neglect/abuse. The sex scenes didn't even feel sexy anymore, I just felt cold disgust. (And I really like krakens, people!)

Additionally, which might be informative for new readers and I haven't seen mentioned anywhere, the main character is neurodivergent, ADHD likely.

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diamondsequallove25's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

The relationship between Thane and Catlina was off putting at time with Catlina acting somewhat like a child a most occasions

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mariakureads's review against another edition

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challenging sad fast-paced

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

1.0

I wanted to like this one. I really did – I mean the premise sounded promising plus Kraken MC why not right? – but there was enough here that left a sour taste in my mouth.

Thane is cold and distant in a way that leaves him almost nonchalant and unfeeling towards others and slightly self absorbed in his own pain that he's blind to the rest around him which might not be a problem except he's just signed a deal to take a human bride for the next 7 years, which honestly he's not wanting.

Whereas our human MC, Catalina, signed the deal to get away from her world and all the bad with it, I'm thinking in hopes of something better. She has a lot of issues, one being that she's so used to being verbally, mentally and possibly physically abused that she can't tell when she is being hurt thus harmed and in violation of their contract because it's so "normal" to her.
I tried but honestly Thane doesn't recognize his maltreatment until more than 3/4ths of the way in and by then I really couldn't see or understand how aside from the contract keeping them together, why, and this is a short read, they would be together? She has so many different self issues aside from being a survivor of abuse to stay in a relationship with a man who neglected her time and time again and added on to the damage.

I loved The Dragon's Bride and am curious to see how the others play out, hoping that the other protagonists get better treatment than Catalina did.

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