Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Den of Vipers by K.A. Knight

101 reviews

bunandababy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Addiction, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Cursing, Animal death, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Stalking

kaitlyns22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, and Rape

maskihaan's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.0

I absolutely loved this book. 1000% worth the hype. There were a few moments that really pushed past my personal comfort zone and a good number of typos in the book so I’m not going to give it 5 stars but I really loved it otherwise. Roxy is such a badass and I love the growth of all the guys and the way they all compliment each other. I was blown away by some of the timeless wisdom about life woven into the book as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Vomit, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Blood, Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Body horror, and Car accident

tanadeet's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

So. Check your trigger warnings before you decide to pick up this book. I include some below. I would also suggest you check the tropes and themes, just to be sure it's within your reading comfort zone.

Did I enjoy the book? Yes and no. I went into the book not knowing what it was about and with no expectations. In a nutshell, it's a mafia RH, enemies to lovers, finding family story. It sounds so... pretty normal if I put it like that.

Don't expect
* Good or morally grey characters, they're dark to the core 
* Any bad characters converted to becoming good and upstanding citizens
* Romance or respect 

That being said, the storyline intrigued me enough to finish the book but I'll admit, I skimmed over a lot of the chapters.

The plot was soft. The timeline vs how the characters changed towards each other, was unrealistic. There was so much spice, it became boring and just too much. 

It felt as though the author was trying to keep the story alive by drowning readers with spice scene after spice scene, adding some attempted CPR in the form of increased shock value and torture, especially in the sex scenes, hints of brotherly banter and the most cringy pillow talk I've heard in a long time. 

Don't misunderstand me, I don't mind spice, the dark and morally black characters or even the cruelty and darkness(it's supposed to be a mafia story after all), but this story could have been wrapped up in 300 pages instead of over 600. Roxy could have had some more self-respect seeing as she is such a fighter. And be less cringy. And the plot could have had a lot more meat on its bones. 

Maybe the author didn't have intentions of a strong story, maybe her intention was 600 pages of cringy smut and if that's what you're into, you are her target audience and I should have done some research before picking up this book...

🔥Trigger warnings!
* Abduction
* Crude language 
* Sexual abuse
* Physical abuse
* Graphic sex scenes including some kinks which might disturb some readers
* Graphic torture and death scenes
* Pyromania

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Sexual assault, Violence, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

zc2's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The overall plot kinda gave me haunting Adeline vibes. Which is the worlds biggest compliment for a book. However the last 25 percent of the book they were doing it every chapter. Kinda set me back. Like I wanted the plot back the spice was great dont get me wrong but at one point it just was a little extra if that makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Car accident, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Physical abuse

allietayok's review against another edition

dark tense

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

1.0

I read this book from a ton of recommendations from booktok/bookstagram/other book groups and it was so bad. My goal was to not DNF any books this year and it was only February and I wanted to DNF this. Not my cup of tea at all. I ended up finishing it out of spite so I could make sure I was properly complaining about how awful it was and wasn’t missing some great part based on how many people recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Body horror, Cursing, Sexual content, and Physical abuse

svjak's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.75

I have... a lot of conflicted feelings.

First off - idk why the author decided to name all the characters some buff hotrod dudebro names but they sound like the names of generic biker gang characters. Ryder, Garret, Kenzo, Diesel, Roxy... c'mon lol. I'm not one to be super picky on names because it's so subjective but these were bad even by my very low standards. To the point it almost pulls you out of the story sometimes with their sexy one-liner phrases and these names.

Second - if I never hear another mc ever say 'they were afraid because they all knew what they were. they were vipers. and they were dangerous' ever again I am telling you it will be too soon. If you tossed out all of the repetitive mentions of how badass and dangerous these men were - how nobody messed with the vipers because they've got fangs, how they were so feared and notorious nobody touched what was theirs and they bite back harder - I swear you'd be cutting out half the book. It got SO REPETITIVE I just started skimming pieces because there would be several paragraph explanations of people's reaction to them followed by a monologue of why they're scared and/or why they should be. It got to be a bit too much.

Third - the author does have a tendency to show-not-tell and at times it gets very very old.

However... lets not pretend I picked this book up for it's masterful prose. The book was spicy. But in a surprisingly depraved and dark way. I picked up the book expecting a dark romance and a dark romance I got. It was almost like a buffet of every kind of 'not good for you' relationship there is mashed into one book. Each one of the 'brothers' (not actually brothers) filled one of those stereotypical roles had had a very different relationship dynamic with the mc.

I will probably never reread this book, but I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Abandonment, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Stalking, Torture, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

I'm not even going to try to go into depth on each one of those but I need you to know that if you want to read this book that it is DARK. The MC is kidnapped and held against her will. She experiences what I would call stockholm syndrome and falls in love with her captors after they abuse/sexually assault her. There are graphic depictions of torture, toxic relationships, violence, and emotional abuse both in and outside of the proverbial bedroom. Take these TW's seriously. This is not your average 'dark romance.'

emilyg213's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, Rape, Torture, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Some seriously heavy themes are tackled with a light hearted narrative style. The worst of the triggers are depicted early in the book to give the reader an easy out if it's too much. Easy to read smut with a casual polyam twist

axaja's review against another edition

I was curious about this book because of the various reviews I read and I must say it's really bad. I enjoy reading dark fiction and mafia but this has almost no plot, just some brutal action scenes that are there just for the violence and gore. The main gang men are described as different and unique from each other but their characters are so flat and personalities so alike that you can't really tell. The sex scenes are violent and border on dub-con, there's nothing interesting/enjoyable about them, they're just disturbing. The whole story is so unbelievable it hurts, main female lead is a cliche straight from a Wa**pad story written by a teen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

damnyelle's review against another edition

1.0

Can't say it was plot or character driven when there seems to be no driving factor for 600+ pages. I spent most of the book confused and/or concerned about what was happening or plain fixated on the logistics of what was being described to me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, and Kidnapping