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kittkat's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.75
trilogie? nein, danke 😊
dieses eine buch hat gereicht, ich will nichts mehr mit diesen figuren zu tun haben. cecelia, dominic und sean waren so zweidimensional, dass es mich echt geschmerzt hat.
die story an sich hatte eine interessante und sogar wirklich spannende grundlage, die dann aber leider schrecklich schwach ausgearbeitet wurde.
cecelia ist sehr naiv und führt sich teilweise so peinlich vor der ganzen „raben-gang“ auf, ich habe so viel second-hand embarrassment gespürt.
am 27. juli habe ich bei 80% des buches in meine notizen geschrieben:
dieses eine buch hat gereicht, ich will nichts mehr mit diesen figuren zu tun haben. cecelia, dominic und sean waren so zweidimensional, dass es mich echt geschmerzt hat.
die story an sich hatte eine interessante und sogar wirklich spannende grundlage, die dann aber leider schrecklich schwach ausgearbeitet wurde.
cecelia ist sehr naiv und führt sich teilweise so peinlich vor der ganzen „raben-gang“ auf, ich habe so viel second-hand embarrassment gespürt.
am 27. juli habe ich bei 80% des buches in meine notizen geschrieben:
ich will das buch einfach nur noch verbrennen…
sean ist mittlerweile nur noch am gaslight, gatekeep, girlbossing
dominic ist nicht besser
cecelia… ich kann nicht mehr mit ihrem „ich bin eigentlich nicht so eine“ DOCH GENAU SO EINE BISTE!!!!
ich glaub, man spürt meinen frust 🥲
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent, Cancer, and Misogyny
amandarenee1002's review against another edition
Absolutely not. I hate Sean with everything in my soul. The female main character is so immature and has no backbone. The men in this book are absolutely vile and disgusting. I wanted to like this book so bad and I am so beyond disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting and Misogyny
If you like the toxic man trope then you will love this, I unfortunately did not.aalysad's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved this book! While there is a ton of spice I wasn’t expecting, I loved the story behind it along with the characters. No matter how toxic 😂 immediately started the second one as soon as I finished the first! Read it, you won’t regret it. Also, the audio is 🤌🏻
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Violence, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse
amanda_reads13's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was an interesting story, but I had no clue what was going on majority of the time. This is a Robinhood retelling. The author seemed to be driving home the fact the the FMC was very young and inexperienced. This was evident with her lack of recognition of the manipulation and gaslighting going on in her relationships with Sean and Dom. These relationships were very toxic and were based on lies/lack of communication. I am hoping book 2 will show some maturity/growth in Cecilia.
The whole idea of the Ravenhood was very confusing for majority of the book and, due to the POV, the readers only knew what Cecilia did, which wasn't much. Nothing was really revealed until the end of the book.
The whole idea of the Ravenhood was very confusing for majority of the book and, due to the POV, the readers only knew what Cecilia did, which wasn't much. Nothing was really revealed until the end of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Drug use, and Misogyny
Minor: Cancer
crinkledmochi's review against another edition
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
3.0
This book is one huge white savior complex….
All the men in this book are just huge red flags walking. The main character is 19 for majority of the book very young compared to the men she’s dating/interacting with. Again she is of ‘legal’ age but it’s still very weird. Plus there’s also a relationship hinted between these two side characters that is also on the creepy side as well because they grew up seeing this person.
I feel like the characters in this book try to be woke so bad and just completely miss the mark, and not only is the main character kinda prejudice it just contradicts the whole story’s forced narrative. The men don’t tell her anything and she follows along like a lost puppy (the irony…). The ending was also lackluster in my opinion and I knew from the beginning what direction this would probably go and the execution was not good.
One thing however that I found like-able was the writing style, it felt real and the emotions the characters expressed you could definitely feel from the pages. I definitely feel like the characters in the book could be real life people, everything felt realistic to an extent like people just suck. I wasn’t too sure going into the book if the writing was going to be any good since a lot of booktok recommendations have some of the most illiterate pieces of work I’ve ever read. I was pleasantly surprised.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Cancer, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, and Car accident
kingrosereads's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence
roseamillerg's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Terminal illness
Minor: Abortion, Blood, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Infidelity, Death of parent, Car accident, and Adult/minor relationship
mheeringa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
SUPER unhealthy "bad boy" relationships
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