Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

92 reviews

xlaurareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.75

a dark romance masterpiece! i really enjoyed reading this one although i was actually expecting it to be a bit darker than it actually was because of all the reviews i read and heard about on bookstagram. i mean, don't get me wrong, it was really dark and there were lots of quite morally questionable scenes, but it still didn't get me totally freaked out if you know what i mean? i fell for ryat the second he appeared (don't we all love the broody, morally-grey dark-haired guys?!) and i found blake to be a quite nice fmc, too. nonetheless, she sometimes seemed a bit too..idk eager?? to be degraded and all that and it didn't make her seem like a very confident fmc. however, she got some real nice badass properties and some real bite, which i enjoyed pretty much. some twists and turns felt a bit overdramatic and didn't make that much sense to me as to why they were incorporated in the story. and i am not the biggest fan of all the

knocking the fmc up, breeding kink, loads of kids kinda stuff

to have a happy ending. still, it was a great book and as a sucker for dark romance i highly recommend reading it! i am also looking forward to "the sinner" as the fanart of sin is already making me drool lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Sexual assault, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

clairelisebella's review against another edition

dark fast-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? No

3.5

Fun book but could’ve used a good editor to tighten it up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Stalking, Violence, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, Medical content, and Death

Moderate: Abortion, Confinement, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcohol and Infidelity

lillerstehund's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Kidnapping, Drug use, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Rape, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Vomit

klsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Death, Addiction, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Torture, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pregnancy

gottbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

This book is fucked up. Read the trigger warnings. That being said if you like dark romance with some traumatic and complex issues then you will enjoy this book. Standalone but so in-depth it feels like a series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Gun violence

sabrina7's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

i tend to be wary of secret societies in books as they’re often incorporated into college or high school settings which kinda feels ridiculous because omg all of the characters are just kids !! knowing this, i intentionally attempted to go into this book with an open mind and yet it still felt soooo silly to me and the characters just came across as dumb as much of their behavior made little sense. i definitely liked the first half of the book way better than the last half mainly because as the author tried to wrap everything up and explain all of the mysteries that had been perpetuated throughout the book, the final acts and explanations for everything just felt somehow lackluster and absurd at the same time. also given that this book is classified as erotica i want to comment on the sex scenes. there were a lot of intriguing kinks in here that were fun to read but i felt like the sex scenes were not really detailed or long enough to be that great. some scenes were definitely more involved and better than others but i kinda finished this book feeling underwhelmed by the sex scenes. i loved ryat’s response to blakely’s feelings of shame regarding her kinks. i think the amount of sex that it is implied the two main characters have throughout the book is concerning lol but i guess given that none of this book is very realistic, the preposterous amount of sex these characters are said to have is on brand. overall i guess i’m glad it be in the loop about this book since a lot of people have read this book and have things to say about it, but i definitely won’t be reading other works by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

clareasday's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Torture, Medical trauma, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Stalking

loganswifey's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Pregnancy, Violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, and Emotional abuse

alexklop's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

4 Stars!

I can’t say this was the best dark romance book I have ever read, but I can say with 10% certainty that after reading half of the book and then attempting to sleep. I got no sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about what might happen next, and how Blakely and Ryat were going to either fall in love or kill each other... Most likely the latter. 

While there were so many amazing kinks in this book, I did find myself tensed and anxious at how some of them were portrayed and played out in the book. I wish at some point during their relationship a little more discussion about boundaries, hard limits, and safe-words would’ve happened, but alas… it will not keep me from reading the next book in the series next time in I’m the mood for something super dark and kinky!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, Bullying, Death, Violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

booknerdcoco's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Cursing, Drug use, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual violence