Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Deal by Elle Kennedy

50 reviews

britwalsh16's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad 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

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I have new obsession with hockey romance! How have I only recently discovered the joy of hockey romance?! I love hockey, I love romance, & ofcourse I love books, so why have I only recently started reading hockey romance books? 
I loved this book!!! It brought together the joys and confusion of finding love, the fun of hockey, with the trauma of the past, & the healing journey  to move on. The author wonderfully mixed all these aspects together, in such an incredible way! 
And Hannah & Garret have such an amazing story; both healing from their own separate traumas, but coming together to support eachother in their journeys! They are #relationshipgoals 💜💜💜

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use

Minor: Stalking

lyleville's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent

edietz22's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

cait's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful sad 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

gabi_715's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent

lydialou419's review against another edition

3.5

emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

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I just wish it had been longer! This book was good, it just left me wanting a little more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent

annica_fourie's review against another edition

4.75

emotional funny lighthearted 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

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I love this book so much. 
The characters were fun to read about, even though I didn't love all of them equally the whole time. The banter between the two MCs was so fun to read.
The story itself was pretty good. As with most books, there were some problematic parts but it did not subtract too much from the reading experience as a whole.
10/10 would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol

briebliotheque's review against another edition

5.0

emotional lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail

aleclghtwood's review against another edition

1.0

funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Why would an author take such heavy themes like rape and domestic abuse and simply decide not to deepen the subject or raise awareness, but to use as a tool to character development, like they need to have that experience to be who they are today? And even that is made poorly. And talking about character development: the only two characters in the book that she gave a personality are the main ones, the other ones are just shallow as this book as a whole - Justin, who is the main catalyst for everything in the beginning, is totally forgotten at some point, even with all the hints about his shady personality and potential he had for the overral plot. Hannah is the worst, she spends most of the first half of the book claiming that she's soooo not like other girls (istg she actually says the words at some point) because she's not interested in many guys and thinking that other girls are whores for it. Garret is actually a nice guy if you excuse the way he thinks how men and women relationships work in the first chapters, but Hannah and the narrative treats him like some sort of savior and I think it's disturbing when we are talking about a rape victim. She's not a strong female character when she needs to degrade other women to feel better about herself and needs the help of a man to overcome a trauma. And about the domestic violence, it was written a little better, but when Garret

sees that Cindy is a victim, he tells that "it's not his place to intervene"??? WHAT THE FUCK??? It felt so ooc after everything his mother and him went through.

I understand why we would like this book when it was released in 2015, but right now? I thought we're over the pick me trope, disappointed to see we aren't. The only thing I hope could be good were the smut scenes, but not even that, they're just a few and not satisfying. I started this book with low expectations, but it was worse than I thought, hope I never read Elle Kennedy again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol

Minor: Grief

lilyyyy_b's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring tense 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol

one character (Hannah) was raped and doesnt like drinking in public as doesnt trust she wont get raped again. the other main character (Garrett) looks after her drinks to make sure shes ok. she went to therapy afterwards, also sees someone who testified against her saying shed given consent.