Reviews with content warning for Torture - Sea of Ruin

I’m pretty sure this is gunna be a big review so buckle up
1) this book was hard to read for many reasons, the first being the writing. The writing was BEAUTIFUL, like ms Godwin has a way with words, but it was suuuuuuper wordy and while the pirate old time dialogue made the vibe of the book immaculate, it was also tedious and dense and yea very hard to read. Also it was a lot of internal dialogue and I’m more of a fast paced talking dialogue kinda gal, and it was also only 1 POV which I find frustrating as well.
2) holy fuck this book is DARK. Im torn between not liking the use of r*pe to move the story along but also it made the story way realistic cuz thats definitely what would have happened back then, ya know. I also didn’t like that while Bennett physical healing was discussed almost too much, the mental and emotional healing after living through almost three weeks of horrendous r*apes and torture wasn’t even discussed. How am I supposed to believe she went through what she went through and then just bounced back. No way.
3) this book was way too long in my opinion. The first 15% of the book was excellent and drew me in, the last 25% had me staying up all night trying to finish it, but HOLY COW the middle of that book took WWAAAAYYY too long. It was very slow, kinda confusing, and in no way did I believe the budding Romance between Ashley and Bennet (I wonder if that’s because it wasn’t dual POV and so I struggled with understanding Ashley’s character until near the end).
4) okay the last 25-30% of the book was WILD. Bennett could just not catch a break at all like oh my god. One bad thing after the next, and then just when you thought it was over, BOOM another hurt occurred like damnit.
5) I’m not sure I would call this book a spicy romance. In the order of what this book is it’s : pirates, dark, romance, spice, mmf. If that makes sense. And I know the king of libertines novella is where you get to understand the relationship between priest and Bennet but I think that kinda does a disservice to the rest of the book, because you don’t really get the undying unyielding love he has for her without reading that novella … idk kinda wild. And it’s definitely not smut, so please do not go into it thinking it is.

All in all I would say it’s a very unique book that yes I enjoyed the prirating of it all, even though the really dark aspects of the book were really fucked up and hard to read (I know that’s the point of dark romance, I’m not faulting the book for it, just saying) but I went in expecting more of a dark ROMANCE and was disappointed that a majority of the book was not that.

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jburson's review against another edition

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I hit the point where the first true hookup between one of the two romantic leads for the FMC happens and it's him literally anal raping her and like 10 min later she's forgiven him so... this is definitely not my thing. I sometimes enjoy dark romance but, and I guess this is a hot take, but IMO physical, emotional, and mental abuse isn't romantic no matter the situation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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aew1331's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

Really loved the main character and how she handled just about everything

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dragnfary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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sophiesreadingjournal's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

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whathollyread's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Woah… this was a whole lot. A friend recommended this book to me and I trust anything with pages that she throws at me. I went in thinking this was going to be a fun smutty pirate book. And it was! But my god was it sooo much darker than what I bargained for. Once it started it didn’t stop and I felt like I kept reading for the light at the end of the tunnel!

I absolutely loved the author’s dedication to writing in the narrator’s voice for her time period and adding in all the nautical terms (like we knew what any of it meant). Speaking of the narrator, Bennett, I loved the strength of this woman! She was strong and I loved her inner dialogue and her will to live through every horrendous thing that happened to her.

I’m not going to get into all the issues with this book (e.g. white savior, rape, rape-ish behavior that is quickly forgiven…), because I read other reviews that I think do it better justice.

At the end of the day this book… it didn’t steam roll - I need a boat metaphor- maybe it gave a big heave ho over my heart.

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jillianclark25's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

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mollyjeansutter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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