Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Games We Play

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

robinainthood's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

3.25

"Do you like that you can make me weak?"

What I Loved

This book was, honestly, a pleasant surprise for me. The steamy scenes were hot and enjoyable to read, and for a change, I actually enjoyed the characters. The object of affection, Quin, is a defiant and headstrong journalist who knows what she wants. She's not a plain Jane like most of our female love interests in stories like this; she's on the curvy and chubby side with tattoos and piercings, a fiery attitude, and energy to match her dominant counterpart. Speaking of our mysterious protagonist, Joker is a seductive and possessive streamer with dark fantasies and pleasures, deciding very quickly what he wants out of their exchange. You can't go wrong.

"I wanted this kiss to communicate something to her I was too afraid to say out loud."

What I Didn't Love

Short, sweet, and to the point, this book ends at a 154-page mark; I started and finished it in 2 hours. To be clear, I'm impressed with how well the story was written in such a short amount of pages! The characters had genuine personality - I found myself invested in them despite only knowing them for a short amount of time - and the scenes were all fun to read. My only criticism is that it wasn't long enough! Joker's possessiveness and Quin's relentless defiance could have been really spicy and fun to experience in other contexts outside of their sexual encounters. Similar to Fifty Shades of Grey, I suppose, but minus the one-sidedness and lack of consent in their relationship. Gross.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed this book and had fun reading it which is arguably the most important thing a book can do. It's by no means a knock-your-socks-off masterpiece but it was fun and hot and if it's your thing, the writing definitely holds up!

Content Warnings

anouverlinden_'s review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

*Possible spoilers ahead*
What the hell was this? Like I did not expect this book to be any good because it is literally 90 pages, but I also hadn't expected this book to be this bad.

I picked this up because I was in the mood for some good smut but this was no good smut. It is so cringe to read and everything was just so weird and out of place for some reason, it did not feel like a comprehensive story, like at all.

The main characters are also super weird, like 'Joker' is supposed to be a gamer but he doesn't game? He only says he is gaming, yet the only time we see him do a life-stream is when he is saying sexual things to the audience, in his supposedly very low and sexy voice (seems to me the author was trying to portray Corpse here and failed miserably). Quin is also very weird? When she walks into his house she is all though and saying things like 'I'm no prude, so stop assuming' but when he talks in *his very low voice, which he drops a few octaves to seduce Quin* she is all flustered and doesn't know what to do. Like you're either 'no prude' or you're easily affected by a 'sexy' male voice.

I've seen it in another review but this novella (because this is no damn book) is just a fanfiction of Christian Grey (you know the handsome (?) dom of Fifty Shades of Grey) and, like I mentioned before, Corpse Husband. Now I read FSoG, questionable reading choices, and when Joker described his dom clothes (I assume he is a dom because he is telling us all this dark inside of him and his need to control and punsih Quin) it was a literal description of Christian Grey. Like he said he wore a plain jeans, and an old white shirt. YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT IS THE DESCRIPTION OF CHRISTIAN GREY. After that, I only saw Grey and it honestly was torture. Then, Corpse Husband. When the author decided to use 'a faceless gamerboy/man with a sexy deep voice which turns his audience on', you cannot convince me she had Corpse on her mind. Like she is just describing him but weird. I don't follow Corpse but this was enough for me to know she was talking/ writing about him. It made everything just so weird and cringe.

There was no plot in this story, at least there didn't need to be a plot in this story because it was just supposed to be smut. But at 60% in the story, the author decides she wants a plot in this novella. So, she attempted to write a storyline, next to the smut, but it honestly made everything worse. I could feel that the plot was implemented to introduce these side characters so she could continue this series (which I will not be reading). Everything fell flat and made this terrible book even more terrible.

I do not recommend reading this for obvious reasons (as I hope, I have made clear in this rant). I will leave one last thing: pet kink - Quin has to play his dog.
Do with that what you will, I am traumatized quite honestly.

Content Warnings

michellemaas's review

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dark emotional fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

* Beware of minor spoilers

3 - ⭐⭐⭐

The first installment in a series of standalone novellas. Adult Dark Romance with lots of sexual exploration (specifically degradation kink).

I have always seen this book be promoted as "short and spicy" so when I picked it up I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into: a quick and face-paced read to help me get ahead on my reading challenge and enjoy some good old smut along the way. Which, in fairness, it was short (only 108 pages) and it was spicy (I'd give it 🌶🌶🌶🌶) but it was also so much more than I bargained for and I'm kind of shocked no one talks about it.

"She thought we were done. How cute."

Games We Play follows Jack, a professional gamer, and Quinlan who is sent to write a story on him. When Quinlan makes a remark about Jack's side job, he offers to make use of their undeniable chemistry and help Quinlan explore sexually.

"You are everything to me, Quinlan. You found me when I had honestly given up on ever finding anyone. I was alone, hiding, and shut off to anyone, and in you walked with your big eyes and sass mouth and swept me right off my feet. You gave me something I didn’t know I could have."

However, this wasn't just 100 pages of bedroom shenanigans like I expected, but rather a surprisingly well-developed start to Jack and Quinlan's love story. They have some scenes where they get to know each other aside from their fondling, including discussions of some pretty serious topics along the way. We also get to meet Jack's ragtag but likable band of friends who will each get their own novella in the future.

The one thing I didn't like was the way the characters were written as individuals if that makes sense. Now I try not to take character analysis too seriously when I only have 100 odd pages to get to know them, but their personalities just seemed weird and unrealistic? For example, Quinlan talks about not understanding the appeal of a degradation kink, and after agreeing to explore it with Jack he keeps mentioning the defiance still in her. Literally, he's talking about how defiant she is against his wishes, and them the next chapter (which is less than a page later) she is perfectly submissive and comfortable wearing a collar and lying in a makeshift dog bed. Now with the story being purely from Jack's point-of-view, we don't even know what happened. . . Did she decide to just trust him since she was out of her element and give him control? Did she come to realize that she liked giving up control and that's why she was suddenly open to it after clearly being against it not too long ago? What happened? We don't know and it's never really addressed. It feels like there was at least an entire chapter exploring this transition that just got edited out? This would have been a perfect opportunity to explore how Quinlan came to some realizations regarding BDSM and how she liked trusting someone enough to submit to them in the bedroom but there was just nothing? Needless to say, it irked me.

"The deal was one night. One. But I wasn’t sure now that it would be enough."

Ultimately I was shocked at what Dana Isaly was able to fit into this book while still maintaining a natural progression of the plot and delivering on what was advertised. There was a perfect balance of sweet and spicy, along with good relationship development. The characters were likable, the story was paced nicely and you get some piping hot spicy scenes . . . All in all what more can you ask for?

Please note that this is an adult dark romance, therefore not suitable for minors or sensitive readers. Be sure to check the trigger warnings on Dana's website before reading. Your enjoyment is not worth risking your mental health for!

Content Warnings