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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
12 reviews
sweetchocolatez'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
3.75
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Drug use, Gun violence, and Cursing
buttermellow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Moderate: Murder and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
emmacartlidge's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Gun violence
Moderate: Drug use and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
writteninmagic's review against another edition
3.0
The overuse of humor in the writing dragged down the story for me. The circumstances the main characters find themselves in get resolved quickly, so it didn't feel like there were real stakes involved for them. The characters also didn't really develop throughout the story, except maybe Cecilia's decision at the end. Of course, being a historical fiction book, it had to mention how tight and constricting corsets were—really, it's neither an original nor an accurate comment.
There were also some questionable scenes, like when Ned kept giving more wine to Cecilia to get her drunk, when it was her first time drinking, just because he thought it would be funny.... Another example was where three characters were dismissive of another character's outrage at being lied to about a serious problem.
Overall, the story had entertaining and silly moments, but there wasn't much substance to it. The writing also played off some serious offenses as being silly and harmless.
Minor: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Grief, and Misogyny
emilywemily6's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
rhi_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual content
Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, and Confinement
tors_tomes's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Violence and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Death
buildingtaste's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Most egregious here, though, is something I can't blame Holton for, because it seems to be more a convention of the historical fantasy-romance genre than anything: Cecilia is just the least interesting person in the bunch. And we have to stick with her a good 80% of the time. When your heroine sums up her role in the story with a glib "I'm afraid I've done nothing to advance the plot," and it's true, a good editor should perk up and recommend doing something about that. Cecilia, despite her bog-standard spunk, finds herself constantly outpaced and outsmarted, by the titular society, by the love interest, and by her villainous father. Not once does she get to be heroic on her own terms, and she's so baldly horny for Ned that her internal refrain of "well-I-never" gets dull.
So. Janky start. But I think the world of Wisteria has some real promise--I'd be interested in reading a short fiction anthology delving more into the lore of historical Lady Scoundrels and the senior ladies.
Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, and Sexism
A teenaged character and young adult character have a sexual relationship. It is played for comedy, with the younger character repeatedly lying about her age and the adult acting distraught about the revelation. Characters drink on several occasions and a character gets drunk without real consent or awareness that alcohol will intoxicate her; this character vomits while drunk. The backstory of a character involves being abandoned by his parents. The lower class characters are usually fearful, superstitious, and deemed foolish. Most characters are kidnapped and imprisoned. The backstory of multiple characters involve their mothers being murdered in front of them. The main character's aunt is controlling and overbearing. Alcohol and cocaine pastilles are used by characters. A verbal spar of two characters involves multiple fatphobic remarks. Most characters have and use guns with murderous intent, though no one dies from a gunshot in the text. There is cousin marriage. The villain's primary motivation is named as misogyny. There is a chapter dedicated to a sex scene (Chapter 20).saeruh's review against another edition
5.0
My only problem was that the end felt like a little weird. I personally thought it could have ended at the 80-85% mark since the story seemed pretty wrapped up by then.
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexual content
hrtlss_grl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Sexism, Mental illness, and Blood
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Drug use