Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann

39 reviews

fink1129's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Rape, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Animal death, Dementia, Pregnancy, and Vomit

hannibanani29's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Kidnapping, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, Self harm, Cursing, and Alcoholism

Minor: Grief, Homophobia, Car accident, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Torture, Dementia, and Death of parent

kimkybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I’m trying to gather my thoughts and feelings on this.. and put them into words. 

“𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝, 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐝 — 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐖𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐞𝐭, 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞.”

This was like one big trip down PTSD lane and it was beautiful yet heart wrenching. 

Cora and her brother in law, who she despises are being held captive by a serial killer. 

They try to survive for 3 weeks in horrible circumstances and become each others lifeline. 

“𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧..”

While reading this book you get a little glimpse of how people try to survive after trauma. When you are still mentally chained and unable to get free. When you are trying to float but feel life is pulling you under and you’re drowning. Every day. The romance isn’t easy, nothing about this story is. It’s complicated, raw and messy. 

I wouldn’t say this is a dark romance perse but this is definitely trigger heavy, especially in the trauma department. Some potential triggers: 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙚, 𝙥𝙝𝙮𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩, 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙚, 𝙨𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨, 𝙨𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚, 𝙥𝙝𝙮𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙚, 𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙋𝙏𝙎𝘿.

The reason why I rated it 4,5 stars is that I might have preferred it to be a non-HEA.. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Alcoholism

rose_ndrd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.0

This was really dark like dark Af. PLEASE check trigger warnings.  I didn't expect it to get so dark and explicit. Cora got on my DAMN nerves, I get it she was traumatized. The author did a great job raising awareness to the trauma and tribulations she went through and how NO ONE understood  her at all. It was so realistic, this is what victims/survivors go through, it is not an easy thing to get over.  
It was a hard read because of the graphic content because of the explicit scenes because stuff like this actually happens in real life and we don’t know how to move on or how to deal with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Pregnancy and Suicide attempt

mamede's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Dementia, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

aliceloyallaleon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Rape, and Self harm

emilyreadstoomuch's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

very unique book, but it tried too hard and also was somehow not enough at the same time. don't know why when they were screaming at the abductor, of all the horrible things he did that they could've thrown in his face they just kept calling him fat?? they were like "you are FAT" like why not murderer, rapist, creep, etc.????? so insane. also it was just annoying at parts where cora was soooo not like other girls and mandy was villainized for no reason at times lmao mandy was a really terrible person though. this had a TON of potential like i could see the vision so clearly but was honestly underdeveloped. very fake deep!!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Infidelity, Gore, Gun violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Violence, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, Confinement, Blood, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Torture, Rape, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

_vanessa_13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

5.0

Dark, intense, love story 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Rape

craesreads's review against another edition

4.5

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨🌶️🌶️ I didn’t realize this was a dark romance until obviously the first 10% in you find out real quick. This was my first one &I loved it! Well loved it might not be the right words because it was hard to read at times but it went better than I expected.

Jennifer Hartmann did such a fantastic job writing this book. There was such sensitive subject matter throughout this book &yet she still has you falling in love with the story. She did a great job portraying PTSD &life after traumatic events. 

Dean Asher is 🥹🥰. He’s just the perfect person to be in that position with. He only got better &better as the book progressed. 

The narration was alright. I didn’t really enjoy the voices to start but I eventually got use to them. The male voice was trying too hard to keep his voice as deep as possible which made it almost hard to understand.

There was not one second of this story that lagged or made me want to rush through it. I totally get the hype of this one &definitely recommend but check trigger warnings prior!

Themes:

• PTSD
• Kidnapping
• ⚠️TW: Rape
• Enemies to lovers 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Rape, Alcoholism, and Kidnapping

sjbookslut's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Kidnapping, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Death, Blood, Miscarriage, Self harm, Dementia, and Pregnancy