Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Does It Hurt? by H.D. Carlton

118 reviews

stitchof's review against another edition

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

4.75


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mnap's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

MAJOR SPOILERS

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin with this book. All I’m certain of is that Enzo Vitale has me wrapped around his fingers. You know, just everything about him screams ”I own you.” And honestly, I don’t hate that. I love how he’s pretty much the literal definition of morally gray. He goes from wanting to kill Sawyer, to then only just hating her, to then hating her and wanting to fuck her, to then wanting to protect her from everything, to then basically admitting that he was pretty much in love with her. When he finally kissed her. LAWWWDDDD I just got up and I screamed. Happy giddy screams. I love his type of character very very much. His sadomasochism? Absolute yes. Extremely fucking hot to me. Choking and hair pulling (which he likes to do) are one of my favorite things. So those being a major aspect in nearly all of their scenes, makes me extremely… excited, I guess I’ll say. Moving off of dreamy (to me) Mr. Vitale, I’ll reluctantly move onto Sawyer. I will start off by saying fuck Kevin. The fucker completely fucked her over. He raped her, abused, her, and emotionally abused her. Just because he was the golden boy and her parents didn’t believe her when she told them, makes this even more fucked. I was so so happy when she said that she killed him because he completely deserves it. I do think she is an extremely strong girl who went through a lot of shit (obviously). Like it was said in the book, she was just living on survival mode and she reacted like an animal who was scared. She lashed out and ran away because that’s all she knew what to do. I’m kind of surprised that Enzo was able to lure her out of that mindset. I honestly wouldn’t think that he’d be the one to do it, but it was refreshing, I guess, for him to be the one to do it. What went down at the lighthouse? Absolutely insane. . I got the heebie-jeebies from Sylvester, obviously, at the beginning. But what he actually did, just gives me goosebumps. I seriously don’t understand how somebody can be so sick in the head to kill his own wife, after his daughter just committed suicide, and enslave his other daughter to stay. The shit that he did to her is disgusting. We obviously know that he cut her tongue out as he said, and he also stitched her fucking mouth closed. That is just plain torture obviously. And just imagining the other shit that he could’ve done to her is insane. We can gather from context clues that he raped her as a punishment, and I’m guessing that he basically did more terrible things to her. I mean who knows what he did to his wife before he killed her. He is just so sick in the head. Oh my God, I can’t even think about the things that he would’ve done to Sawyer had Enzo not gotten out of the cellar. Enzo’s just like pure protective instincts over Sawyer make my heart happy. If his own life is at stake and Sawyer’s is too, he would without a doubt die trying to save her. I love that so so much. He is just literally the definition of a morally gray character. He wants to protect her from anybody else who can hurt her, but he wants to be the only one who can hurt her. He will kill anybody who wants to hurt her, but yet he wants to hurt her, too. do I understand it? Not necessarily. do I find it insanely attractive? Fucking absolutely I do. I’ll steal this line from Enzo in the book,“ Does it hurt baby?” After fucking reading this book, yes it does. It hurts because I’ll never have an Enzo Vitale in my life. That is so fucking unfair after reading about a man like him. Am I predominantly attracted to women in real life? Yes. Am I extremely attracted to morally gray men in books? Fucking yeah. Do I like the sweet and innocent boys? Sure that’s always refreshing to just have like a golden retriever boyfriend you know. But those morally gray men who will kill anybody who looks in your direction, yet also wanting to be the one to inflict immense pain on you is just MMMMM. All I can say is me likey Enzo Vitale a fuck ton. 

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raychelleliz's review against another edition

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

4.5


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mjdedevis24's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

2.0


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lovepotion's review against another edition

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

2.5

𓆝𓆞𓆟𓆜
I kept going back and forth about I felt about this one. This is my first novel I’ve read by this author, so I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I really enjoyed the setting. Survival, stranded, lost, etc storyline is one I always thoroughly enjoy. The plot really hooked me in and I wish at times there was less smut and more plot. (Don’t get me wrong. I love my smut.) However, I needed less of them getting nasty in a dirty room and a little more storyline. 

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧, 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘵𝘰𝘰. 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶.”

I wasn’t really a big fan of either fan of Sawyer and Enzo. (Besides their obvious problematic behavior and personality traits) 

Sawyer had some “I’m not like other girls” moments that was pretty obnoxious.
In the beginning, we already know she is in hiding, and try to conceal her identity. So why does get a tattoo? Something that would make her easily recognizable and identifiable. I get it, it was one of her “I’m so quirky” moments. But hey, maybe be smart when you are on the run and in hiding. 

Also, when she gets rescued, and she poses as Trinity, no wonder why she is speaking with American accent? When she pretending to be an Australian woman. Oh and she just “happens” to have to her note from Sawyer that was supposed written years ago. I think one of stupidest moves she makes is changing her name back to Sawyer. Like I get she changed her last name to Enzo’s and she wanted to have her own name back. But you don’t think anyone would still be looking for her? Easily one of Kevin’s friends could still be, and they could just assume that she just got married by the last name change. It just seemed to risky. 

There was one scene, I was rolling my eyes at. They decided to hide in the cave for the night, during a storm, in shorts. They were trying to hide from Sylvester, but if he doesn’t get them, hypothermia will. 

I felt like myself asking over and over again how realistic some of these characters choices were. 

Enzo was bit of hothead. For someone who is so erratic at times, I expected his backstory to be a little more dramatic than just his mom leaving him. But then again, perhaps the author didn’t want Enzo’s backstory to be as traumatic so it would take away from limelight of Sawyer’s.
Also, for someone who is tall, big bulk of a man. It took way to long for him to take down the old man. 

Their relationship was so hot and cold. I don’t mind a hate and love relationship. But it was a little off putting when they (especially Enzo) would just flip flop feelings as quickly in a couple paragraphs.
Like in one moment Enzo is one his knees begging for for forgiveness and the next he is angry at her, telling Sawyer he wont forgive her. The same thing happens with Sawyer, we are one this never ending loop of begging for forgiveness and the anger of the betrayal. 

I will say, I did at least enjoy the banter between the two. They did have some fun and interesting conversations. And some playful moments. 

The smut- oh boy. Some of it was alright. Some of the scenes, were not for me. The way the author would describe the actions, was a little bizarre. Like a few times, Enzo would grab her by the teeth? That just seemed so odd and very unnatural. There was a few moments that Enzo would say he could he smelled her coochie- and I’m not talking like him being in between her legs- I’m talking like he was stand beside her, talking to her. 

The writing in general lacked depth for me. I would have like it to be a little more descriptive. There was a lot of short paragraphs. A lot of back and forth dialogue. For a dark, mysterious, setting - the narration was lacking. 

I like the overall idea, but I really wish it better executed. I enjoyed the mystery and the suspense. It was just an okay read. I don’t know if I would recommend it. 

~~~~𖠳~~~~
 𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨
✓Dual Pov 
✓ Forced Proximity 
✓ There is only one bed 
✓love-hate

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paperdreams's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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samigilbert's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
i dont even know how to rate this. it was so unsettling yet i couldn’t put it down. this book made me feel so many different things that i need to process….

i again don’t care for the repetitive phrases like “shell of my ear” or them constantly saying they hate each other lmao. like we get it!!

the spicy parts were SPICY!!!!! but also some made my stomach twist. also, the graphic/gorey scenes were almost too much for me and i couldn’t get images out of my head. 

i did enjoy the moments of sincerity and intimacy sprinkled in in the later half of the book. idk if dark romance is for me??? or maybe just not this dark.

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shealawlis's review against another edition

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1.5

Wow this book was the most f’ed up thing I ever read. The MC Enzo was the most toxic, abusive, controlling man ever. The other MC Sawyer wasn’t my fav either. There were multiple smut scenes that were borderline non consensual and assault. Very triggering for some. Also I love a good smut book but holy cow it was every singe chapter. Halfway through the book I found myself skipping every smut scene just so I could find out the mystery of the light house which was a let down as well. Anyways yeah would not recommend  

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orangeaiya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this book though I definitely should’ve read the warnings first. I knew it was dark but the smut was even darker! The mystery in this was amazing! Kept me wanting to read more. I think the romance was a little toxic but I was down for it anyway. (Some of the things he said / did would be unforgivable in my book.)
Happy ending for the MC! It was looking bleak but that made it worth it!
 

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dyanimae's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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