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charliauthor's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Blood, Sexual harassment, Death, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Confinement, Rape, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Violence, Sexual violence, and Colonisation
cgn's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual content, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical content, Sexual violence, Infertility, Blood, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Vomit
katieluvs2read's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Rape, Violence, Pregnancy, and Death of parent
_katesund_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Rape, Body horror, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Murder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Death
Moderate: Slavery, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
cryptidcucumber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Kidnapping, Gore, Blood, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, Confinement, Slavery, Murder, Grief, Death of parent, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Death
Moderate: War, Rape, and Vomit
mimi30's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide, Sexual content, Rape, Violence, Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual violence, and Death of parent
Moderate: Misogyny, Colonisation, Racism, Slavery, Infertility, and Pedophilia
bridgette_reads's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual violence
livi_bunniesandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
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.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, and Violence
dragnfary's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Infidelity, Grief, Vomit, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Rape, Violence, Pregnancy, and Death of parent
whathollyread's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Confinement, Slavery, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Death of parent, Racism, Vomit, Grief, Gore, Death, Classism, and Sexual violence