Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Ritual - A szertartás by Shantel Tessier

68 reviews

allymurphy's review against another edition

4.0

is this even close to a somewhat decent book? no. did I have a great time and fall in love with Ryat Archer? hell yeah I did
it lost a star due to

everything that happened with her mom at the end and that Matt didn’t have a painful enough death, it felt a little like throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck with not a ton of success. the rest of the book was fantastic

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Death, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Rape, Vomit, and Physical abuse

Minor: Stalking

kdb_0620's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Murder, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Torture, Medical trauma, Blood, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Violence

chels984's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

oh my god hello i need to reconnect with nature

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Stalking, Blood, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Bullying, Sexual content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Cursing, Death, and Emotional abuse

thereadaholic's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I ate this book up. It's a dark book and I would not recommend this for beginners because ryat is dark really dark. I absolutely loved every part of this book I thought the way the plot builds up was perfect , loved the way the characters were I just wished authors would stop making FMC'S so naive and make them strong willed , and just maybe once up the MMC'S
 
Other than that the book is just wow , I loved the way ryat's character development progressed through the book I also wished we could have gotten a bit more of how they started loving each other but again other than that the book is great.

I devoured the book , ate it up so quick and I just really enjoyed it. 

If your not a begginer looking for a dark romance book this is ur book bestie 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Gun violence, Torture, Murder, Sexual harassment, Gore, Grief, Blood, Cursing, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Kidnapping, Death, and Abandonment

Minor: Pregnancy

smilestarshine's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Torture, Gaslighting, Violence, and Rape

wandering_seal's review against another edition

dark slow-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? No

4.0

Look it was fine. There are some really fucking questionable decisions going on storywise - the

kiddos names at the end

for one, and the weird need to write out the name and artist of every song they hear playing.

This is one of those books where I'm somehow meant to believe the MMC has only had sex as a teenager and has been abstinent for the past three years before getting a pet sex slave and is somehow amazing at everything he wants to do with a solid working knowledge of all the kinks and how to navigate our FMCs body. Oh and he's a super awesome killer. With a future in law. Yep. Yeah. The suspension of disbelief was hard in this one.

I think you know what your getting into with these books. The lack of kinkshaming was really nice, and the emphasis on consent was also good considering this is a story with lots of dubcon aspects. I listened to it on audiobook at twice speed so the length of the plot didn't really bother me, but it is a loooong story and the later part in particular could have been tightened up.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, Drug use, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse

laplusbelle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

0.25

Nope. Just nope. From the first pages, the MC are not intersting. He is just a sadist and she is stupid. I like my SMUT to have some attraction between the MC and consentment. He firs  abuses her when she's drunk (rape in my book) and when she's drugged. Then she decide to belong to him. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Drug use, Rape, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

cheeserue's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

"I’d go to war for my wife. One man was nothing."

and go to war they did; just, not the kind he expected.

wtf was this book? why did they build up a good plot only for it to suck so bad in the end? WHY DID SHE KEEP TAKE THE DRUGS WILLINGLY?! why did they take (approximately) 1000 showers?

force sex fantasy and CNC but not one conversation about limits or safe words, GHB fed to her every 5 seconds, fucking next to dead bodies, secret society plotline barely touched, FMC having just about no personality, obsessed ex bf who didn't want her when they were together but now wants her because his enemy has her, random elopement so she doesnt have to be forced into marriage to said ex bf. it just keeps going. 

I love dark romances, especially CNC/FSF but this wasn't it. this book didn't need to be 600 pages. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment and Child death

litzy56's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was pure smut. There wasn’t really a plot it was just telling a story. 

I guess I do like Ryat he can be hot because he’s so protective but sometimes the things he says like her being his slut is not it. I loved how the story was fast paced it helped me continue and it didn’t make me bored. I guess the whole system of being a lord was somewhat good since it showed them values and everything but the fact that they lied too much to Blake was really inconsiderate. Matt was desperate for Blake’s pussy but when she was begging him to fuck her he wouldn’t do shit and I’m glad that because of that they slashed his balls. I love that Ryat actually cared about her and although he might seem tough he was open to listen to her crazy ideas. I didn’t like how there wasn’t a plot like the story was cute but it was more let’s see what happens next. I didn’t really like Blake’s mom and the fact that she had so much power is crazy she was very controlling of Blake’s life and it ended up being what she wanted but I hope they ended in good terms. I actually cried when I thought Ryat was dead because she said he was turning pale and it also sounded like he was saying a goodbye so I didn’t like that. I liked how everything turned out but the boy they had in which he said that he wouldn’t leave pussy for 4 years made me disgusted because it made it sound as if we were an object.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Death, Body horror, Alcohol, and Drug use

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.

---

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