Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

26 reviews

alamayhem_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

I am absolutely OBSESSED with this series now. Honestly I have no idea how I did not read it sooner, but I absolutely ate this book up. I had been in a slight reading slump, but I finished this book in a week while I worked 37 hours at work. I genuinely did not want to put it down and was picking it up every single chance that I got. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series and every other book that Adalyn Grace has and will write!

As I was reading this book, I was heavily reminded of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and House of Salt and Sorrows. It genuinely felt like a mashup of these two books, which was awesome, because these are two of my favorite books of all time. I loved the gothic vibes, as well as the murder mystery element to the story. It is quite literally everything that I could want in a book. It is all of my favorite tropes and components wrapped up in one book!

I also loved Death being an actual tangible person that we get to see as a romantic lead. Seeing Signa interact with him and also getting that enemies to lovers trope? Absolutely love. This is definitely where I found the comparison to Addie LaRue, as it was similar to Luc and Addie's love story. I also loved getting to explore the connection between Sylas and Signa, and then ultimately seeing how it all made sense in the end.

Getting to uncover the mystery surrounding Lillian's murder and who was also behind Blythe's poisioning was super intriguing and kept me on the edge of my seat. Although I was able to figure things out a second before Adalyn explained it in the text, it was still surprising and a good reveal. Especially being a YA novel, I was able to overlook being told what I had already figured out a little bit earlier.

I also loved being able to learn more about Signa's powers and seeing her come to accept and embrace herself for who she is. I thought that was a beautiful component of the book and a much needed character development for Signa.

Lastly, I also wanted to comment on the little Bridgerton elements that we got to see with Signa's debut into society, getting to see her meet potential suitors at tea and parties, and her strict following of the expectations placed on women during that time. However, it was also super awesome to see her push against those constrictions and not follow them at times. We love a strong queen!

Favorite tropes of this book:
🖤Shadow Daddy
💘Enemies to Lovers
🔎Murder Mystery
🫖Regency Era/Courtship

Overall, I had so much fun reading this book and literally immediately started Foxglove after that ending! I cannot wait to read the rest of the series and see what happens to Signa and her family next! I rate this book 5/5 stars! 🌟

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

• a FMC Signa, who can't die & who has been THROUGH it
• Death is a person, who the FMC can see/touch
• they solve a mystery together!!
• slow burn young adult romance
• historical fantasy with paranormal & gothic elements

Do I think it was a little gross that Death met Signa when she was a baby & then proceeded to have a romance with her once she was grown? Ummmm yes. What in the Jacob and Renesmee lol. Did I also still enjoy parts of this? Also yes. I actually thought this was published in the early 2010's because that's how it read to me, so color me surprised when I saw this was published in 2022. 

Anyway, this was fine and again, I enjoyed listening to most of the audiobook, but still find that dynamic to be a bit ..... iffy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gore, Self harm, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

bectothebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. Even more shocked that I thoroughly enjoyed a

romance with Death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Medical content

Minor: Infertility, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

nicholettegm's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Overall I very much enjoyed this book, it just got to a point where I felt like it was just never going to end. But even then I was intrigued enough to keep going. I will be continuing in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Physical abuse

tessamariee's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to really love this, but it was predictable and the characters were not flushed out enough. It fell a little flat in my opinion. It was fun though! I love a good slow burn and I love some of the personalities in the family! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexism, and Terminal illness

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

honestly signa was dumb as fuck 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Classism

Minor: Infertility and Pregnancy

katharina90's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

There's an interesting idea here but the execution is lacking. 

The writing is mediocre, the plot develops at a glacial pace, the characters aren't fully developed and the relationships between them are unconvincing. 

I don't care enough to continue with this series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Physical abuse and Religious bigotry

j_day's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Not my genre but still enjoyable enough. Predicted

Sylas being death and Percy being the murderer

from less than halfway through but this didn't spoil it too much - although I would've preferred not to have worked it out so quickly!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sarah_royal04's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Physical abuse and Vomit