Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Merciless

It was enjoyable, though more towards a psychological thriller than a dark romance. I liked seeing how captivity affected the mentality of the protagonist, the romance not so much. The romance was non existent. It was mostly just sexual tension and the love interest being possessive, which I suppose some people would find romantic, but in this context is eh. His motivations and backstory, especially regarding the main character, made no sense.

He basically blamed her for saving his life in the most indirect of ways, and then goes on to hate her because... he didn't die. He blames her for him becoming a mob boss and 'tainting his soul'. Like, what even is this.

On the whole, the characters are rather formulaic for a romance novel: innocent doe-eyed girl meets the bad boy- borderline abusive- love interest. And I get that it's a dark romance... but the characters still need to have some kind of romantic feelings, right? I haven't seen any spark of chemistry between the main characters other then the smut.

The writing is basic and has weird sentence structure sometimes. It repeats itself very often. There's a new paragraph for every sentence. This book is more of a turn-your-brain-off book than an intricately plotted one, so just read it for the smut.

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cliterature's review against another edition

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0.25

Stockholm syndrome. Carter basically abuses Aria to break her so she submits to him. He succeeds, she becomes completely broken and it made me so sad and mad.

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melissathereadingnerd's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.0

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ashkilg13's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.5

I feel like saying this was really cute might be misleading considering it’s a dark romance… but this was surprisingly really cute.

Definitely gives Sons of Anarchy vibes. With an MC like Carter—someone who is cold to the world yet protecting what’s his it would be difficult not to be interested in the rest of the series. Aria took me a little longer to like but she’s a great MC as well. Strong, perceptive, and intelligent enough to know how to act in different situations.

They both seem just as stubborn as the other Carter showing it in a more possessive way so it was rather interesting seeing them interact and get more comfortable around the other.

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makenziecomeau's review

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emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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bookswithbrie's review against another edition

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2.5

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theotherboleyn's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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