Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark

39 reviews

mayawata_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional funny fast-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

Loved this book! It was a great in between read after some of the heavier books I’ve read. 
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hapalyn's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

This book is so fun and a great, fast read for when you're in a reading slump. There's a decent side plot, and the main two characters have such funny interactions. I think this book could've had more plot details and schemes, but I still had a lot of fun throughout this read! 

I recommend it to people looking for tension, small politics, gang side-plots, mafia, and spice
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julianacosta_01's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging fast-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

4.5

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madisone's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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riley_0202's review against another edition

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

2.0

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poupimali's review against another edition

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funny tense fast-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

5.0

Sophie Lark did it again. It is my first mafia romance fron her and it was joyfull.
I love the FMC Aida. This character made me laugh so many time with her sassy mouth. She is a hell well written character.
Just for her, you should read this.

It is:
- mafia romance
- enemies to lovers
- strong and skilled FMC 
- arranged marriage 
- forced proximity

It was a perfect reading balancing between the love story and the plots.
This is a good audiobook also (duo POV narrators)
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vj_thompson's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-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

4.5

The writing took some time to get used to, but eventually I didn’t mind all the internal monologuing. It was tough to get through the first part of the book because of the immaturity of the two main characters but once they were together and married, their character development was significant. I surprisingly liked this book. I tend to stay away from mafia type romances because some times they can be a little too dark. 
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melb_reading's review against another edition

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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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carla20's review against another edition

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

2.5

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kathis_wonderland's review against another edition

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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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