Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Caught Up: Into Darkness, Book 2

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Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Caught Up: Into Darkness, Book 2 by Navessa Allen

55 reviews

atsy6's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Navessa Allen warned us it was going to be dirtier than Lights Out and she delivered. It was a smut fest lol. Junior was an intense red flagger and absolute perfection. Lauren had a lot more insecurities and faults than I really wanted. Maybe I missed most of Junior's faults because they didn't really seem like imperfections, and Lauren carried the bulk of the issues which made her feel like a more flawed character who was the main reason for any issues they had. I loved the brief drop ins from past characters. The audiobook was excellent duet narration! I absolutely loved the narrators.

Content Warnings

singingshooter's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

Content Warnings

anne6's review against another edition

2.0

dark funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rdaacvhiesl's review against another edition

3.0

funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The best thing about this book was Navessa's writing style. She does a great job at infusing every character and relationship with unique qualities. I didn't particularly love the plot of this book though. It absolutely revolves around Junior and Lauren's relationship, but the sprinkling in of all the side characters and side quests made it hard for me to be invested. It was easy to see the conflict coming from a mile off and had this been by any other author, I would have DNF (I really, really hate the miscommunication trope). The celebration of and respect for sex work was a pretty cool theme throughout.

Story moral: let people find their own happiness and consider yourself lucky if you're along for the ride.

Content Warnings

sophiarogney_'s review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

aklein712's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark funny medium-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

Content Warnings

atjanedoe's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional 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

Perhaps I judged lights out too harshly (actually no, that book needs help). Caught up was much better. I don’t care so much for erotica so I did skip around quite a bit but I really liked the story telling on this one and the very slight cliffhanger/hint to another book at the end.
Navessa is good at creating interesting characters and propelling a story line at the length an ADHD reader would appreciate. I wish she would stop leaning so heavily on existing pop culture, internet colloquialism, and boomer humor. Some scenes that were supposed to show lightheartedness felt like they were missing a 80s laugh track, ick. There’s also a character that uses “they” pronouns which I actually liked but unfortunately they were just tossed in there to further the plot without having any real substance. And again, animal sidekicks that have the intent of showing the males gentle alpha side — lazy lazy lazy writing.
Ton of repeat kinks, phrases, and themes. But, I do like Nick’s story better than Josh’s cause it’s not filled with self-deprecating humor.
I also found it tough to think about how 2 books of hers in a row show mutual secret pining spanning over years, receptive attention to Italian features, and cannabalism warnings (much more detailed and disturbing this time). You okay girl? Do better

Content Warnings

jesshart8's review against another edition

2.0

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

unwantedimagery's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

astoldbychelsei's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?!

Loved the twist with Tyler and can't wait to hear how tf he ended up where he did by the end of the book...interested to see where things go in the third and last book of the trilogy.

I need the last book right now, Navessa!

Content Warnings

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