A review by xabbeylongx
Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx

adventurous tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

SPOILERS AHEAD
Book Review: 
Where do I even start with this book? Firstly, it was so long that I put off writing this book review for ages, because I couldn’t bring myself to review it. There’s so much going on, so many different names and things to remember, that you need to be paying attention. Because I was listening to the audio, I often found myself having to rewind it back, because every but I missed seemed to be crucial to the plot. I hardly ever remembered the names - just the important ones. Writing this book review has been a nightmare, especially the summary! 
I’ll start off by saying that Gabe end Sera’s relationship is so cute. I loved reading about it, much more than hers and Leroy’s. There is a genuine bond there, genuine love. Very well written. I think Sera and Leroy loved each other in their own way, but Gabe and Sera’s love was definitely more conventionally sweeter. 
I found this book hard to understand at points, especially with all of the names. Some of them were just thrown in there with little information, and all at once, so it was hard to take in, especially with everything that was going on in the plot - and believe me, there was a lot: 14 hours of it! It was also very repetitive. 14 hours long, and half of the words were said more than once. Seraphine kept on saying about how she wanted Leroy dead, and how she wanted to taste his blood. Fair enough, not my cup of tea, but we move. However, when it is said at the end of every chapter, it gets a bit tedious. Especially considering somehow, at the end of the book, they admit their love for each other, and even though we all saw it coming, how did Leroy end up putting up with someone who wanted to kill him multiple times? It’s mad. 
Honestly, I think that the part of the story where Evangeline, her mother, has actually been alive this whole time is severely overlooked. I just would have thought there would have been more of an ending for that storyline? Like how does Seraphine feel about it, and what happens to Evangeline. There’s minimal detail of it, and I think that would have been good to know about. 
The plot itself is bizarre, and sex driven. Definitely not for the faint hearted. Lots of trigger warnings, and scenes that are very uncomfortable. And half of the characters are not likeable, I’ll be honest. Leroy’s cousin, supposed to be a good guy, I’m not sure about him at all. All of the characters are very peculiar, in my opinion, but I suppose it fits with the theme of the book. I also saw from another review that the ending was very similar to another book, and that’s why it mostly picked up the pace towards the end, which isn’t great. 
Be wary when picking this as a read, and make sure to look at the trigger warnings. 
 
Book Summary: 
We follow Seraphine as she is put on another mission. Seraphine has been trained as a ‘Lolita Assassin’ (having researched what that is, I am even more disgusted). She has a trainer, who has taught her how to fight, endure battles, and also how to kill by herself. Her family is being used as blackmail. Her mother has already been raped and killed by her father and his cronies, and he is keeping her grandmother and her brother captive. She is sent into a club to kill someone who is a lot older, and preys on little girls. She’s over twenty, but she looks quite young, and manages to lure him in, before administering the poison she was going to use to kill him. When the job is done, she leaves, transported by a driver, and she is left a note, saying her grandmother has died from being kept in captivity. It is now just her and her brother, whom she hasn’t seen since being whisked away from her family. But she hasn’t seem him in a while, and is unsure if he’s safe. 
When Leroy is on a job, trying to find dirt on the people who falsely accused his cousin of murder and sent him to prison, and he kills Seraphine’s father and everyone else in the house, he stumbles across Seraphine in the basement. He isn’t sure why, but he wants to save her. She looks only young, and he has an urge to protect women like her. So he takes her. He takes her back to his house, and he wants to look after her. But he doesn’t know who she is, and how dangerous she is. 
When he brings men into his house to find out information, and one of them tries to touch Seraphine, she goes mental. She chops off his dick, until he bleeds out, and then makes it into a sandwich, ready to eat it, to show him she has power. And when the rest of them end up dead just by being there. She and Leroy make a deal. If she tries to stop her killing urges, he will give her orgasms. He has rules, like they can’t kiss. Eventually, they do end up kissing, and crossing a invisible barrier, even though he doesn’t want a relationship, and she isn’t capable of one. 
She wants to avenge her mother, who was murdered by her father. She vows to kill everyone who had anything to do with harming her. Those are the only people Leroy allows her to kill, and he vows to protect her. Somewhere down the line, they end up falling in love, which is forbidden on both of their ends. But also, with it comes a whole lot of distrust. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings