Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Flock

Listen, I'm sure I'll catch some heat for only giving Flock 3-stars, but I promise! Three stars is still a liked book for me, and I have a feeling it won't be the one I like the most in this series.

It just left me so darn frustrated for most of the book. I came to terms with Cecelia's angst and immaturity. She was turning 19 at the start of the book, and I can only imagine how unpredictable I would have been at that age in this situation.

And the secrets!!! SO. MANY. SECRETS. AND the gaslighting...sheesh. I'm exhausted from the emotional gymnastics these men put her through.

Gah! The relationships are so toxic, but I ate that up. The cliffie at the end had me immediately downloading Exodus, and I spent the entire day with my family feeling like my skin was crawling. I needed to get home and work on this series some more.

So, there, three angst-ridden stars. Welcome to the Ravenhood. sigh...whatever *wink*

Happy Reading!

Content Warnings

janzenriley's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

itoriseva's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

fireheart_2010's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

You’re probably looking for a plot synopsis because the blurb on this book does not give what it is supposed to give. Here you go:

Cecelia Horner is an 18 (almost 19) year old woman who has been forced to move in with her very wealthy father who owns a factory in Triple Falls North Carolina for a year before she can claim her inheritance.

She meets Sean Roberts her first day at work at her father’s factory. Then she meets Dominic King and things get interesting. Sean and Dominic are hiding a lot of things from everyone except for their very close group of friends who all have the same tattoo of a Raven. There are also lots of classic cars, hiking and parties.

This is a coming of age/sexual awakening story set in a small town with an anti-establishment twist.

The main characters are all kind of terrible and a little stupid. There is a lot of explicit sex and it’s well done, but the relationships are super toxic, there is a lot of lying and some scenes could be triggering if you have issues with emotional abuse or gaslighting.

There is not an HEA or an HFN so it’s technically not a romance. But that’s what this book is about. Hope this is helpful!

Content Warnings

ingrid6's review against another edition

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tense medium-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

1.5

Content Warnings

theshrew's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

Content Warnings

kingrosereads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

1.25

I wanna start by saying that I told myself that I would not DNR a book this year unless the grammar was ridiculously bad or the book was terribly offensive, which is the only reason I finished this book. BookTok really fumbled with this one and I usually find something about the books on there that I liked.

I think we should start off with Sean is the most pretentious fuckboy on the planet. I get not being involved is social media. But serious? Everything about is just SCREAMS toxic bro culture. He smashes her Apple Watch to make a point about technology but it’s also fucking rude? Like we get it, so go live off grid somewhere. He literally compared to living in America to NAZI GERMANY. The Holocaust dude? SERIOUSLY?! Usually when a love interest is described as having blonde hair, he immediately gets re-written in my mind (idk why blonde men are a red flag to me) but he got back his blonde hair REAL QUICK. Then he like made Cecelia feel stupid and unreasonable when she waited SIX HOURS for him after spending the day cooking for him? Miss me with that gaslighting, abusive shit. You can literally get a burner phone. Like what? There was NO WAY you could’ve gotten a message to her? And because she’s upset that means she doesn’t trust you or believe in you or your mission? I was over Sean after their first date.

Now on to Dominic. Like at least he doesn’t pretend to be all lovey dovey and caring like Sean. He’s an asshole through and through. What you see is what you get with Dominic and not only that, the fact he’s so subtle but people notice how loyal and devoted he is to Cecelia, is what makes him sooooo attractive. He believes the same things as Sean, but he’s not shoving it down your throat every damn minute. Also, him and Sean’s fascination with 1984 by George Orwell is so cringe. Immediate red flag. They humiliate Cecelia in public which is such an immediate turn off for me. Like pushing her to force her to become strong for YOUR needs and desires? No thanks.

Cecelia, the protagonist, is so fucking irritating. The entire book I’m just screaming at her to run. She can’t hold her ground at all and immediately forgives these assholes. And to be honest, that’s a pretty accurate representation of a 19 year old (basically a literal child) being taken advantage of by men who are nearly 30 years old. Many women, especially young/inexperienced women, who are preyed on by abusive, manipulative gaslighting assholes, often go back to these dickwads. Though, I’m not sure why the present day (26 year old) Cecelia is returning to this town because of these two guys when she should be old enough to know better.

Look, I don’t know if Roman is truly a bad guy or he’s got some shady people working with or around him, but it does genuinely seem like he wants to make amends with his daughter in the only way he knows how to, but in typical teenage detachment, Cecelia blows him off. I’d do anything to have a dad that tried even 3% and Cecelia rejects him because what? She’s nurturing her daddy problems between two men? Unacceptable.

Also, the writing is like irritatingly cryptic. I’m not sure if that’s the point considering the two men are always cryptic (which is not only a turn off and annoying, but a HUGE red flag) but it’s just such a turn off as a reader.

I immediately figured they were using her to get to her dad, but Dominic’s dead parents being a result of Roman’s negligence or malice is so cliché.

The cliffhanger in this book is not enough to get me to finish the series. Also, Stewart made too many references to whipping/lashes (not referring to the kink) for my liking. The book had zero plot until the last maybe 5% of the book with no tie-in to the prologue at any point during this book so it is easily forgotten and upon recall, makes zero sense. It gets 1 star for the spice and quarter a star for the very minor intrigue.

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