Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

God of Malice by Rina Kent

227 reviews

funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark fast-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

As much as this book was entertaining, it was very problematic.

I know the author warned us at the beginning of the book that Killian is a real psycho and it is not for the faint of heart so I know what I was getting into. However, there are just too many things that cannot be romanticised in romances (even if they're dark).

Spoilers
I, to be honest, found Killian quite tame. Like he is very much psycho (until he meets Glyndon cus ofcourse) but he is all bark and no bite. The man continues to say shit like 'I will fuck you in his blood' but he never follows up, in any kind of sense. I'm not saying I want him to do that, god no, but I'm just saying he doesn't actually do anything. Apart from raping the mc, which is an issue on a whole other level.

The first time they meet he forces her to a blowjob which is assault but continue the story and she finds it attractive??? Like at some point she even says she knew she wanted him the first moment they met, which is when he assaulted her. I just thinks it makes a joke of people actually getting assaulted. 
I get the assault (and rape) is part of him being a psycho but i just hoped it would be handled differently like was the rape and assault necessary to establish him being crazy?? 

It was entertaining for sure, Kent knows how to write engaging stories that want you to keep reading, I just wished it didn't always have to be this toxic. Leave out the assault (and still make him psycho I guess) and would still be good.

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I read this book as part of our “traveling book club” - some of the gals loved it (no judgement) and the author is upfront this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I am not her target audience, but I was asked to review it so here we go!
(Some spoiler-ish elements below) 
From almost the first page, I hated this book. Its list of trigger warnings is as long as my arm and I’ll cover most of them here. Glyndon (FMC) and Killian (MMC) attend competing colleges on a small island off the coast of England. He’s an American sociopath with a virgin kink; she’s a British art student with an inferiority complex. It’s a match made in the depths of hell.
The opening scene (meet not-at-all-cute?) is S.A at the scene of an acquaintance’s suicide. (I won’t refer to this scene as non-con or a cutesy name - it was assault through coercion). They return to school where he stalks her when he’s not indulging in raucous parties, secret societies, and underground fighting. He obsesses over her being a virgin.  When they get down to it, it’s rough and dirty. I don’t have a problem with that but I do take issue with a lack of conversation around limits, safe words, and other practices to ensure a safe & healthy environment.
Naturally, they fall madly in love; she meets his parents and vice versa. They become engaged - he planned it all during some back door fun time - and they obviously lived happily ever after!
Things I liked: the annotations of the book club
Things I disliked: everything else
I bumped this up to 3 stars from my original 2 star review because someone who likes deep dark romance with young characters may enjoy it.  The author is good at writing spice, and I could have enjoyed parts of the book if only the MMC wasn't such a tool.

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional tense
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

  Trigger Warnings (Book 1,2, and 3): S/A, suicide, violence, Knife/gun play, toxic family, manipulation, masochism, stalking, murder, arson, attempted murder, child abuse, primal kink. dub-con, kidnapping, etc etc.

I read every book in the series that's available, (God of Malice/ God of Pain / God of Wrath), and all I have to say is every book is a HEAVY Trigger Warning. Personally, I love dark romances, but I've never strayed further than angry/sunshine type of dark romance. This is actually the first time I've read something this heavy and I'm surprised I made it through Book #1.

About the Series:

Each book follows two POVS, with the endings including bonus POV's [and Epilogues] from other characters on the relationship between the main characters. The main characters are on an island attending Universities that are located side by side, separated by a wall. One side is rich-kid-central (UK), and the other side is Mafia-Galore (US). There is underground fighting, initiation nights where people are literally being hunted for sport, and a whole lot of sexual discoveries. The male love interest are sociopaths, psychopaths, and annoyingly possessive/obsessive over the love interest. There is also a lot of controlling and manipulation.

Thoughts:

I get that this is dark romance, however this series doesn't really involve any romantic/passionate themes that I read about in the reviews. (I assumed this was one of those tropes where the villain becomes soft for her type of book but it's not. lol oops. my bad!) The relationships between the characters felt forced. Trauma bonding, maybe? The characters are repetitive, and so is the story. For some reason the author is obsessed with writing virgin characters. I love the whole "evil villain finds love" trope but each book is basically copy-and-paste except for name changes and a few character details and assigned kink(s). Each book gets 2 stars because while this was unrealistic and repetitive, it delivered on the dark themes; and the author did influence me to try to stray further into the dark romance genre.

I'm honestly reaaaally curious on who the author plans to pair up with Landon. I have a guess, but the author could also do a 180 and completely kill off the conniving character. (I'm rooting for the 180.) Also, was the mystery member for the initiation ever mentioned because either I zoned out or completely erased that info from my mind??? 

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dark fast-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

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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