Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

14 reviews

katharina90's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Cringe Fest. 

The writing is terrible and there's too much going on with the worldbuilding which leaves little room for a plot. 

The characters are flat and painfully immature. I also just couldn't keep the twins apart. 

There's so much cringey and problematic stuff in this book, including but not limited to the non-stop boundary and consent violations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual content, Infidelity, and Violence

Minor: Fatphobia and Racism

autumnwitch14's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed the world building very much. I wish it focused more on the fantasy elements outside of just supernatural races. I wouldn't say this book is much of a romance even though it describes itself as a bullymance. Maybe later in the series, but this first one in particular barely has any outside of a little flirting (in between all of the sexual assaults)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Incest, Abandonment, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Slavery, and Infidelity

Mind control is prevalent in this book, meaning sometimes characters are forced to do things they don't want to do.

ifoundcallie's review

dark tense slow-paced

• 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Car accident, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Torture, Stalking, Incest, and Vomit

_alyssar_'s review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Stalking, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Murder, Pedophilia, and Infidelity

micaelamariem's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Liked this and hated that I liked it because of all the er ethical considerations. And everyone makes me mad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Cursing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Sexism, and Sexual content

midnacine's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this! The story was interesting and engaging, the world building was pretty intense and unique, and the little bit of spice was enticing.
But goddamn, getting past the poor writing was a struggle. About 100 pages in, the only way for me to continue was to start annotating just so I could edit as I read. I restructured sentences, corrected grammar and spelling, and added punctuation where necessary. It honestly felt like no one but the authors read through the book before sending it out to print. And don't even get me started on the fact that Tory and Darcy- two 18-year-old girls who were supposed to have grown up in the US- used terms like "sports kit" and "postie", which are very British terms.
But again, I enjoyed it. So am I gonna read the rest of the series, no matter how infuriating it is? Absolutely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Incest, Vomit, and Medical content

silverrae's review

4.0

After accepting the egregious amount of run on sentences, out of place British spelling, and the occasional typo, it turned out to be an entertaining read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Cursing, Abandonment, Sexual content, Car accident, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Murder

lestie4short's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Vomit, War, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Torture

arys_library's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I really really loved this book! A great introduction to this giant series. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on it and I agree with a small part of all of them. 

Someone said the first book is like a really long first chapter of a book. And while I agree, it’s a damn good first chapter. It’s an introduction to this fantasy world, but was so easy to understand, there was very little info dumping. 

I absolutely loved how all of the characters were built and their development. Their personalities, even the bad annoying characters, were so prominent it made the book so lovable and entertaining. Certain times when a character would appear I would get so excited to read their parts, no matter how small. And for a book that is mainly an introduction have that much character impact shows how great the character building and storytelling is. 

I will say I wish there was more internal turmoil between the two main characters Tori and Darcy. Their whole lives have been turned upside down and everything they’ve ever known is taken from them. And we don’t get to see much into their minds on how they are processing so much new information. It really lacked depth in that area. It was like after something incredibly strange happened, the girls thought about how weird and crazy this event was, and then just went along with it 2 minutes later. 

I loved the double povs between the twin mcs. But it would sometimes be confusing. I got a good grasp around 3/4 of the way into the book but before that I was having trouble deciphering between the two. There were many times where I was questioning which girl lived where, who has which power, etc. 

Also super random but the artwork on the beginning of each chapter was so beautiful but there were times where it wood cover up the words and I couldn’t understand what was happening. It didn’t happen every chapter but it happened enough for me to be annoyed by. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book, I’m so excited for the rest of the series so I could see more of each of the characters!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Car accident, Cursing, Sexual content, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Murder, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content