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can't even remember if that's the percentage i was at, i just rage quit and deleted it. one of the brothers tried to fucking rape the girl WHO IS SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD and not only do the characters act and try to convince her that it's normal but the author makes the girl say "oh but for a moment there i wanted it" fuck that, fuck this book, and fuck this author for ever writing this. this is completely irresponsible and it's baffling to me that this book is in the "romance" category. and what i mentioned isn't even the start of it. yes, "uncle jake", it is fucked up of you to think of and picture your 17 year old niece (putting a "step-" before that doesn't make her less your responsability) fucking someone when you were supposed to take care of her after her fucked up parents both commited suicide. what's wrong with people who read this shit and even recommend it?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual harassment
This book is just horrendous but I will attempt to revisit it at a later time. I’m so done with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
dark
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
My 69th read of 2023 and none of these hoes even bothered to do 69. Lame. Easily one the most deplorable books I've read, ever. Like this would've made an interesting book if this had been about Tiernan getting to know what it would be like to be a part of a family and everything was familial love and shit and not that Tiernan is gonna know the true meaning of family through fucking and Jake and co. weren't such weirdos. But at the same time, Tiernan's parents are so comically, exaggeratedly neglectful and emotionally abusive I can't take it seriously. Also this book has one of the worst things in fiction: the "money isn't everything" bullshit. That shit is more painful to read than an ovarian torsion pain. I think books where rich people are sad and pitiful are the worst. I like it when they're absolutely unhinged and messy lol.
Anyway, I hated that this book used an attempted sexual assault to titillate. I just don't find that hot, it was weird, and worse how Tiernan throughout this story wants to ease Kaleb's culpability and share half the blame to idk give her like control and give it nuance??? And even worse worse when it happens right after Tiernan was raped by Kaleb and then it horrifyingly segues into a sob story of Kaleb's childhood trauma and we have to like feel bad for this serial rapist and forget what he did to Tiernan??? Hello???
The writing in this is terrible; the way every complication was conveniently resolved by Jake or Noah knowing information that would absolve Kaleb of any would be wrongdoing, like if he's a baby daddy (HIPAA? we don't know her) or how also conveniently Kaleb turned out being a diarist and therefore all character development was lazily shown through that. The characterizations were even worse, just all-around levels of dross. (Jake disappears out of the story in a haphazardly done way though who cares bc he SUCKED. And Noah, who is the most normal one out of these clowns but the bar is in hell so, was just a doormat and spokesperson for the man-child nontalking troglodyte. He deserved better. Actually getting away from this horrendous family.)
I'm not too close minded and I don't moral outrage easily so the step-family incest angle of this did nothing to me and I could've overlooked it but the out of nowhere "romance", "love" with a sexual abuser and all the steps Penelope Douglas took to make it cute just enraged me. But then again, there are other awful sins this book makes like sexualizing pigtails (!!) and Penelope Douglas thinking having the attention of an ambiguous 40 year old when you're 17 is hot. Idk about anyone else but at 17 I DID NOT want some 40-something year olds sexual attention and now at 33 I don't want to feel 17 again thinking how nice it'd be to have some 40-something year olds advances. And there's sprinkled homophobic prison rape jokes, for good measure.
I enjoy smut but nothing written here was even good bc the characters were fecal matter awful and just everything that preceded it throughout the story was a nightmare. The ableism and sexism towards Tiernan, for example. This Jake dude wants her to "smile more" and be his little ray of sunshine and her maybe neurodivergence is weaponized against her but his animalistic son who doesn't WANT to communicate is ok? Yeah yeah. At some random point it's shown that Jake wanted to teach Kaleb ASL and whatnot but it was only to conveniently explain what a gesture Kaleb made before disappearing again meant. In conclusion, this is a mediocre and stupid and bad book. Save yourself and don't read it. Don't let curiosity kill the cat like I did.
Anyway, I hated that this book used an attempted sexual assault to titillate. I just don't find that hot, it was weird, and worse how Tiernan throughout this story wants to ease Kaleb's culpability and share half the blame to idk give her like control and give it nuance??? And even worse worse when it happens right after Tiernan was raped by Kaleb and then it horrifyingly segues into a sob story of Kaleb's childhood trauma and we have to like feel bad for this serial rapist and forget what he did to Tiernan??? Hello???
The writing in this is terrible; the way every complication was conveniently resolved by Jake or Noah knowing information that would absolve Kaleb of any would be wrongdoing, like if he's a baby daddy (HIPAA? we don't know her) or how also conveniently Kaleb turned out being a diarist and therefore all character development was lazily shown through that. The characterizations were even worse, just all-around levels of dross. (Jake disappears out of the story in a haphazardly done way though who cares bc he SUCKED. And Noah, who is the most normal one out of these clowns but the bar is in hell so, was just a doormat and spokesperson for the man-child nontalking troglodyte. He deserved better. Actually getting away from this horrendous family.)
I'm not too close minded and I don't moral outrage easily so the step-family incest angle of this did nothing to me and I could've overlooked it but the out of nowhere "romance", "love" with a sexual abuser and all the steps Penelope Douglas took to make it cute just enraged me. But then again, there are other awful sins this book makes like sexualizing pigtails (!!) and Penelope Douglas thinking having the attention of an ambiguous 40 year old when you're 17 is hot. Idk about anyone else but at 17 I DID NOT want some 40-something year olds sexual attention and now at 33 I don't want to feel 17 again thinking how nice it'd be to have some 40-something year olds advances. And there's sprinkled homophobic prison rape jokes, for good measure.
I enjoy smut but nothing written here was even good bc the characters were fecal matter awful and just everything that preceded it throughout the story was a nightmare. The ableism and sexism towards Tiernan, for example. This Jake dude wants her to "smile more" and be his little ray of sunshine and her maybe neurodivergence is weaponized against her but his animalistic son who doesn't WANT to communicate is ok? Yeah yeah. At some random point it's shown that Jake wanted to teach Kaleb ASL and whatnot but it was only to conveniently explain what a gesture Kaleb made before disappearing again meant. In conclusion, this is a mediocre and stupid and bad book. Save yourself and don't read it. Don't let curiosity kill the cat like I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Rape, Suicide
Minor: Homophobia, Abandonment
dark
sad
tense
slow-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
Credence- 1⭐️ 5🌶️
Contemporary Romance
Taboo Romance
Multi POV
Small town
Polyamorous FMC
Tw: suicide, parental death, SA, Rape, emotional abuse, physical abuse, pedophilia, predatory behavior, grooming a minor
The start of this book is interesting. A 17yo, raised by her parent’s assistant, looses her narcissist parents to suicide and goes to live with her step uncle in the middle of nowhere… but then the FMC turns 18 and things take a turn that I knew was coming, but by the end I felt like I was reading a train wreck I wanted to just finish and be done with. I think the setting was the only thing I enjoyed about the story. The rest just was a giant red flag. I think I kept reading because I was interested in how the situation could be sustainable enough to be considered a happily ever after.
This… was not the book for me. I don’t enjoy reading about the romantic couples abusing each other. I don’t consider that romance.
All of the characters were sad and depressing. There wasn’t a single person in this book that knew what joy or contentment looked like. Every single person in this book needed interventional therapy. The men were all misogynistic and gross. And once they had their “turn” they basically disappear from the plot . How? What?
The POV shifts were fine, but the 1 POV from the MMC (who is barely in the book other than SA/R scenes) was written to make his internal monologue sound like an absolute psychopath.
This was definitely a “taboo romance”. Although there was not really anything romantic about it. The girl sleeps with her step-uncle and step-cousins, who are supposed to be alpha males, but didn’t get possessive when it came to their own family. Nope. The spice was very disjointed and flipped on and off like a switch. It read more like Stockholm syndrome. The only character that showed her any type of romance was her pedophile step-uncle.
As if it could get any worse, it was over written. There is more than enough plot with the step-family…. Absolutely no other plot tools were needed to add to the drama.
Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for the Advanced eReader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for the Advanced eReader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I saw a review that said “wtf is this book?” And I could not agree more. This book was OFF. Really distasteful writing and plot. I’m by no means someone who gets offended or believes in political correctness, but a female referring to her own genitalia as the “c-word”, is tasteless and just not for me. On top of that, the plot doesn’t kick off until the mid 200 pages. Definitely read the content warnings on this one and good luck lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm all for dark romance and the spicy scenes were great. I just wish the characters weren't kind of related (which I know is kind of a selling point of the book). It just made everything weird and gave me the ick. Also I was not a fan when they mentioned getting Tiernan pregnant in any manner (whether preventing it or in the epilogue where she has a kid ).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment
dark
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:
Complicated
I am not sure what I've just read! This book was messed up in so so many ways.
I can deal with dark romance and some of the taboo topics but I feel at times she went too hard. I also felt that there was no real story, just a lot of awkward and at times gross spice scenes. Penelope Douglas seems more into the 'shock factor' then actual story line or plot.
It was like a train wreck though and I just had to see how it finished. The writing itself was bland and repetitive. These characters were constantly licking their 'parched lips' for example. It was just armature.
This is definitely not a book I will be recommending to others or reading again. I don't quite know why it's taking the #booktok world by storm.
*NOTE* Credence is a full length, stand-alone romance suitable for listeners 18+.
I can deal with dark romance and some of the taboo topics but I feel at times she went too hard. I also felt that there was no real story, just a lot of awkward and at times gross spice scenes. Penelope Douglas seems more into the 'shock factor' then actual story line or plot.
It was like a train wreck though and I just had to see how it finished. The writing itself was bland and repetitive. These characters were constantly licking their 'parched lips' for example. It was just armature.
This is definitely not a book I will be recommending to others or reading again. I don't quite know why it's taking the #booktok world by storm.
*NOTE* Credence is a full length, stand-alone romance suitable for listeners 18+.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I see the appeal
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence
Moderate: Death of parent