Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands

2 reviews

yuna's review against another edition

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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

3.5

CW: body shaming, minor description of self harm

Very fast-paced, compulsively readable. The characters are probably a bit relaxed on period-correct behavior and speech, but I'm here for it. This is my kind of historical romance. I quite enjoyed it and will definitely continue with the series.

There are some silly moments that border on ridiculous--like Annabel running around with a dress tangled around her head--but the characters poke fun at themselves a lot and that helped me suspend my disbelief. Annabel's parents and the villain of the story are laughably, un-complicatedly Bad People. The villain is a flat, 2-D clown villain. Their obsession with Annabel kind of comes out of nowhere and felt forced into the story.

Loved the friendships with Sionag and Giorsal. Found myself wishing for a little more physical and setting descriptions. 

Was not a fan of the rampant body shaming that went on in this book. There's a lot of fat shaming toward Annabel, and while some of it is critiqued or combated on the page, the book's #1 defensive strategy is to skinny and/or appearance shame right back. So...there's work to be done here.

Re: some of the content warnings: there's brief description of Annabel being forced to self harm, mostly because of anti-fatness. For the rest: Spoilers!
there are a few conversations between Annabel and Kate where most of the content warnings occur. Kate is a gaslighting, toxic, fat shaming bitch. If vicious sister relationships aren't your bag...either skip this book or leave off once she shows up (it's not for a while). It's a romance, you know how this ends. Also, Kate arguably kills her lover? It's an accident...but is it? Not sure if this counts for the murder tag.

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solacelight's review

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

3.0


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