Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

18 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Dysphoria, Infertility, Confinement, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Violence, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Bullying, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Stalking, Outing, Hate crime, Body horror, Kidnapping, Violence, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Medical content

Moderate: Self harm, Infertility, Grief, Cursing, Bullying, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Infidelity, War, and Car accident

themelodyofspring's review

medium-paced

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

2.0

Yuuuuuck!
Hate read with bestie 🫡 It was still yuck! Not improving as an author at all. The smut was phenomenally baaaad (getting worse in each book).
That said, the CHESS BOOK IS STILL ON TOP OF THE HATE LIST so I gave this one 2 generous stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Gaslighting

jadeandherbunny's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-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: Kidnapping, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent and War

goldenleafbooks's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

I could not put this book down. I absolutely adored the characters. Misery being naive to Lowe's feelings was truly believable, which is something that I feel like a lot of authors struggle to pull off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Confinement, Blood, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Colonisation, Classism, Bullying, and Abandonment

Moderate: Medical content and Gaslighting

abookwormspov's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.5

Look I'm a sucker for a

fated mates

shifter romance. Was it entirely cheesy? Yes. Was it extremely predictable? Yes. Did I enjoy every second of it? Absolutely!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Confinement, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, and Child abuse

trying_ceratops's review

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

4.0

3.5/5 spice. I always love Ali Hazelwood’s writing and this is no exception. I love the fantasy aspect she added and the arranged marriage trope is great. The relationship and the spice are well done and the building of the tension between the love interests are enjoyable. I didn’t guess the twist at the end but am very much hoping it means there will be future books with these same characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Confinement, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Abandonment

celestepaed's review

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

If Misery loves company then I will be seated at this table every single time. This was just a fun book to read. The mystery aspects were compelling and balanced well with the romance. 

I think the plot point that shocked me the most was the plot twist, which shouldn’t be surprising. And yet here I am, surprised. I think Ali Hazelwood did such a good job that even though the answer was clearly there (which I realized after the fact) the tracks she laid were so convincing that I was not just overlooking the obvious but letting myself be willingly mislead, which I believe is a much harder feat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Blood

Moderate: Gaslighting, War, and Infertility

Minor: Death and Death of parent

filipa_maia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. But between the very funny female character, the very cute little sister, and the big bad wolf, this was the only book I kept reading.

I love Misery, I connected with her instantly, I loved the way she, slowly but steadily, softened herself allowing others to get in. I love Lowe. He simply left everything behind to take care of others and put everything and everyone first. They definitely deserve each other.

The overall plot was really good, I love the development of all the different characters throughout the story.

Now, for the really bad things:
* Terrible cover. Ugly.
* The sex scenes: wtf? why? Ok, you can defend that she really needed to explain how things work. Sure. But one time was enough. We don't need to read (in full detail) every single time they have sex. We get it, they are hot and have a lot a sex. There are ways of describing sex scenes that are tasteful and well written. If I know this, Ali Hazelwood definitely knows this. She just choose to ignore them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Blood, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gaslighting, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Confinement, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, Genocide, and Kidnapping

lizzie_b99's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I didn't like this as much as Hazelwood's last book, but it has lots of great elements in it, but I wanted more depth in some places. It's stated repeatedly that there is extreme animosity between the Humans, Weres, and Vampyres, but where does the blood from the blood banks that Vampyres use come from? Does part of the arrangement between the Vampyres and Humans involve giving some of the blood that would have gone to medical care to Vampyres? Misery and all Vampyres rely on these blood banks for their survival, but how they're operated is never really spelled out in as much detail as I would have liked. 

Part of the epilogue was likely intended to open up the chance for a sequel to this novel, but I wished for more of a conclusion for the main story. The epilogue could have included

Lowe marking Misery and the customs around it; what punishment Lowe and Owen gave Owen/Misery's father and whether Misery ever finds out about it; what happens to the politician who conspired with the father; what the future holds for Serena and Ana and people like them; what Owen does in the early days of his leadership; if Serena finds her parents, etc.

. I get wanting to show that there's the possibility for a sequel, but I felt like there were multiple threads of the novel that needed to be tied up. The discussion about

Serena's background

was a bit confusing too since it sounded like

Misery's father was saying that Ana's parents were Serena's

I really enjoyed the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter that gave some insight into Lowe's thoughts. Those were definitely some of my favourite passages of the novel. I did enjoy the romance of the novel, but the depth of feelings seemed to develop too quickly for people who have just met.

I know the mate thing invalidates that to some extent, but still, it seemed to be a bit fast, especially since they didn't spend that much time with each other at first. I think the 3rd act breakup speech also needed some work

. I did enjoy this take on Weres and Vampyres and there interactions with Humans, but I felt like some more background info and the Epilogue needed some more work. This is Hazelwood's first novel in this genre, so I'm excited to see how her writing in it develops if she continues in it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cursing, Abandonment, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Minor: Injury/Injury detail