Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

15 reviews

beepbeep101's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Confinement, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Dementia, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Stalking

Sexual trauma, difficult pregnancy, postpartum depression

navayiota's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring 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

5.0

In some ways it felt like an improvement from the first book, as unbelievable as that is. I enjoyed it so much. I would recommend this duology in a heartbeat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Misogyny, Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Confinement, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Stalking

water_violin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

wilybooklover's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

Ahhh, the Robin Hood references! I grew up about half an hour from Sherwood Forest and it’s always been one of my favourite legends, so I’m delighted to see the parallels in this story. 

Rob’s blackmail letters to Marian soon turn into love letters, and his infatuation with her grows after she drugs him and ties him up only to ask for his help when she accidentally murders her husband. I just loved their dynamic; Rob’s laidback golden retriever nature versus Marian’s mean and prickly personality. He basically follows her around with heart eyes for the whole book (although briefly distracted by adorable kittens). Both Rob and Marian are bisexual disasters, and their interactions and relationship feel realistically queer. 

The sex scenes were so well-done. Marian’s dislike of penetration isn’t treated as something to ‘fix’, or as though something is wrong with her. Instead they just work around it and find other sexy things to do together! It’s such a rare thing to see portrayed neutrally in a romance novel.

There were some great nuanced conversations about ethics in this — about having money, about stealing money, about murder, about motherhood — but they didn’t feel intrusive or unnatural to the narrative. The dialogue is as witty and clever as it was in Kit Webb.  

I will admit I was a bit weirded out at Rob being the half-brother of Marian’s daughter and the son of her deceased husband, especially since he kept that info from her for longer than he really should have. But it didn’t bother me enough to impact my enjoyment of the story! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Dementia

Moderate: Pregnancy and Confinement

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Rape, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Emotional abuse

kers_tin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Dementia

Moderate: Murder, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

imds's review against another edition

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dementia, Abandonment, Death, Sexual violence, Confinement, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

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

4.5

This is officially vying with The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics to be my favorite historical romance.

Here are some general things that I enjoyed:

• Bisexual Robin Hood
• Georgian setting (I’m getting really sick of most historical romances I read being Regency)
• Cat
• Kittens
• Discussions of privilege and money and how to use wealth for good
• Stealing from bad people
• Horses
• Classics
• Rob and Marian are very enjoyable characters and I very much enjoyed them together

Sex- and relationship-specific things that I liked:

• This is the first romance I’ve read between a cis man and a cis woman where PIV sex was not part of the equation
• And they had a LOT of sex of all sorts of varieties
• Rob’s general subbiness was fun
• I loved the way they negotiated consent and talked things through
• Great handling of both characters’ bisexuality but especially Rob’s

Things that I didn’t like as much:

• Does Rob inherently have a stepmom thing because of this book? Also what is he to Eliza because oh god the family situation is convoluted as fuck
• This book was really bad at locations. I felt like I never knew where the characters were until halfway through a scene and I’m not really sure what went wrong there 

I liked this more than book one and would read more books featuring this band of chaotic queer highwaymen. If Betty doesn’t get her own book with a sapphic love interest I will riot (please Cat Sebastian, prove that you are capable of writing a full novel that’s sapphic. I believe in you and will like you less if you don’t).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Blood

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Sexual violence

andatherrin's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Dementia

Minor: Confinement, Rape, Abandonment, and Kidnapping

caseythereader's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.25

Thanks to Avon Books for the free copy of this book.

 - Cat Sebastian books are just always so wonderful, and THE PERFECT CRIMES OF MARIAN HAYES is no exception.
- Marian and Rob are a delightful couple, wary of each other at first but quickly falling for each others' charms.
- I adore how Sebastian always weaves in queerness, kindness, and discussions of consent into her books. It's just so tender, while also being fun and funny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, and Murder

shaipanda's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

4.25

This was cuteee I really enjoyed it 
Neither of the books in this series are my absolute favorite thing or anything but they both were entertaining and enjoyable :) 
Solid reads imo 

im really really glad that despite it seeming like they’re gonna use the miscommunication trope and have a big third act break up they don’t really do that which was nice to see

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Dementia

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual violence