Reviews with content warning for Death - Sea of Ruin

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Sea of Ruin by Pam Godwin

39 reviews

deathmetalheron's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

Sea of Ruin has a lot going for it. The setting is great, the character dynamics are certainly there, the author knows her chops. The romantic tension is palpable.
But the delivery of many of these aspects is disappointingly subpar. The characters go through humiliation parade after parade. The garnish of shipping and naval vernacular immediately gives way to crude words for sexual interaction, the transition between the two being jarring at best and non-existent at worse.
The height of this book comes at Bennett's capture by Ashley Cutler--the dynamics indicated before suggest a conflict between Bennett as a character and her struggle between two loves. I daresay the second fifth to quarter of this book is pretty much phenomenal.
You could see it in my reading journal, but at the halfway point this book goes from a high tension pirate romance to an absolute slog. Some critical decision are made of Ashley's character that really draw the line and make him seem a bit more manipulative and Bennett (who's been characterized as being headstrong and skeptical) brushes them off. I get this is the appeal of a captor-captive romance but the characterization is quite literally strewn off the deck into the sea, NSFW

squirted into the ocean much like Ashley is described as doing repeatedly.

The final act is an absolute slog where Bennett is NSFW

kidnapped and raped

and then she is

kidnapped and tortured.

The end of the story basically just happens to her. I was turned off from this book at the halfway point, but by the end I was uniquely frustrated.
Even during the good times, the way sexual interaction is written is hysterical and I saved numerous quotes. In a better story, they would be a fun aspect to giggle about and another layer to add to the story's atmosphere, but given the dark humiliating train to the end they come across as severely out of place and way too lighthearted. I was really hoping this book would be it, but MAN it was not.

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_terah_hansen_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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charlievershay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.75

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direguard's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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amandalachelle's review against another edition

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3.0

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stefaya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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? No

4.5

I devoured this book. This is not for the faint of heart, however, if you are strong enough, it is a great read. Dare I say one of my top 5 this year. Pam Godwin is a master at writing. The writing even elevates the smut. There are many triggers in this book (SA, graphic violence,… you name it.) I had to skip a paragraph or so that detailed SA. Nonetheless, I could not put this book down. I feel like I know the characters. I know I’m going to be in a reading slump after this. I would recommend a thousand percent.

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charliauthor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

Where do i begin with this...?

A few of my mates said this book was really triggering, a dark romance that was super dark so yes, i read it to find out what the fuss was about. What can i say, sucker for punishment! Ha!

So, Sea of Ruin had a promising start. Well written, engaging FMC with a touching back story and of course it was about pirates! All in all, a good smut rec to start but unfortunately everything after chapter 3 was an endless smut fest with no rhyme or reason for the excessive actions that took place.

Bennett, while a forceful and rebellious character at the start which was endearing and at a point life saving, by the end of the book was extremely annoying. It is not smart to run your mouth in the company of forty pirates who've not seen a woman in a reallly long time and are emphatically telling you what theyre going to do to you without your consent...

(Minor Spoilers here:) This incident aside - which involves some unnecessary and disgusting finger violations - there is a lot of mention of rxpe in this book. While there is only one instance of this actually taking place which we were thankfully saved from any truly explicit description, there was always the threat of rxpe at every corner. One of the standout issues for me is after she is abused, the love interest tells her that she has never looked more beautiful then in that moment because she was brave and endured her ordeal. Please note that she is tied down and naked at this point and this...arouses him?! WTF?!
What makes matters even worse is that she welcomes the attraction and is also aroused. This makes absolutely no effing sense!!! Why would you want rough - he's a spanker and bootyhole invader - after having been violated for two weeks?!

My issue with this entire book more so than the triggering and largely unnecessary content was how accepting the FMC was about her ordeals. There was never any questioning about the actions of those around her, instead telling herself to constantly endure and breathe through.
I found this vile and largely disrespectful to people who have been through such things.

It gets one star for the writing, the author really knows about pirate ships and terminology and there were some very emotional passages that i found interesting. Outside of this its sexually explicit and violent for absolutely no reason and plot choices make no sense.

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