Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Den of Vipers by K.A. Knight

137 reviews

sara_locke's review against another edition

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The dialogue was so poorly written, and the characters were totally unbelievable. The spice would only last about 1 page before it was on to more incoherent banter. Everyone needed therapy; not codependent and toxic kink. 

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marleyjade123's review against another edition

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

3.5


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byuniespromise's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-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? No

3.0

OKAY WHERE TO START

I loved it and hated it.

I loved the overall storyline and the characters ended up being more lovable than i expected in the beginning.

And the female main character is such a badass i really enjoyed her to not start out as a weak frightened person but already fierce. That had me rooting for her from the start

But OH MY GOD DID I ALSO HATE IT. The smut is a lot and i simply did not expect it to be THAT full of smut and i also think it needs a few more clear disclaimers and warnings…

But again, the actual plot i really did enjoy… i couldnt not finish it, no matter how much i disliked the amount and type of smut

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starryaqua's review against another edition

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HARD DNF at page 49

CW: domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, rape, coercion, violence and uhh…. gross misogyny, etc, etc

I took a risk with this one. I thought this was gonna be a chill, turn-your-brain-off kind of romance. I can do dark romance without an issue. But this? Is truly something else.

The writing is extremely immature and barely edited. Way too shallow to handle content of this nature, even if it’s supposed to be mindless. I was catching blatant errors (like forgetting the character’s pov mid-chapter and having them accidentally say their own name in dialogue). Physical descriptions were giving teenage Wattpad fanfiction. Like filling a paragraph with the main character talking about her getting dressed. Ebony D’arkness Dementia Raven Way type of prose.

Speaking of, the fmc was THE most “not like other girls”, edgy and damaged and “tough” fmc I’ve ever read. The ~silver~ hair and piercings and tattoos and clunky boots. Not her calling herself a “rocker chick” as she put on a concert shirt for The Killers. I wish I was making this up. Just her and her bat and her overpowered skill to knock out four huge men against the world. She was bland, tired, and miserable to follow. I simply did not care about her and definitely didn’t care for the fact that we were told EVERYTHING about her. Like she was directly blabbing to the reader.

The other main characters (love interests? I guess) are equally insufferable and horrendously trope-y. All comically huge and tough and spewing the most constant stream of misogynistic vitriol it was actually gross to read. Their inner monologue was either annoying and boring or downright disturbing. All of them were insanely sexually charged at all times, some getting off on gratuitous displays of gore and violence. If any of them were supposed to be redeemable in the eyes of the reader or if their actions were justified, I didn’t care to keep reading. Nor could there ever be an excuse to their calling dibs on their new “property”, discussing raping her, and immediately sexually assaulting her, or threatening her with needless violence.

The plot was as thin as a tissue. Mafia made a deal with fmc’s dad, he falls through, they collect the debt by kidnapping his daughter to “own” her. Why? No reason. 2013 fanfiction was calling I guess. I didn’t read more to find out what happens, but I don’t need to to know that whatever sex occurs won’t be consensual. Dubious at best. Coercion isn’t consent. Threats aren’t consent. There’s nothing safe and sane about holding someone captive and immediately pushing your <i>actually</i> psychopathic murderous sadism on someone. That’s not how this works. It’s a shaky line of fantasies and actual harm in its portrayal, leaning hard on the incredibly unethical practices.

For the level of strength, sheer walls of muscle mass, and penitent for violence, it truly made no sense that the men were even human? Everything about them (especially Diesel) read like they were some sort of inhuman force. His lust for blood and biting at people’s skin (he ripped an earlobe off with his teeth?) was so unnatural for just a regular human dude. An extremely fucked up human, but still. Human. If this was fanfiction of some kind I wouldn’t be surprised.

TDLR: yikes. If you want to write unethically violent rape-y fantasies, at least get an editor with better eyes.

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georgioporgio's review against another edition

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dark fast-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

1.0


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shellind75's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

2.5


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flora_fcrp's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The book was great.
A perfect example of men that we love in book but not in real life !

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kmad16's review against another edition

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

3.0


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kaymck930's review against another edition

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  • No plot
  • Characters are all 2 dimensional 
  • Reads just like a * bad* Wattpad

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rory_drake's review against another edition

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2.0

Listen...this book started out really promising. Dark romance? Heck yeah. Smut? Give it to me! But at about 90%, all I could think is, "why is this book so GD long?" The unnecessary spicy scenes. The chapters of just info dumping. The cringey descriptions. I just can't do it anymore. You could take at least 3 of the unnecessar  spicy scenes out, and I swear this book would be 200 pages shorter. And much easier to get through. 

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