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A review by lilythebibliophile
Credence by Penelope Douglas
dark
reflective
tense
slow-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
2.0
TW: rape that is not acknowledged as rape by the characters or the author
I feel like you know you might've made a wrong turn in your life when you have to clarify to your friends that the book you're reading does not technically have incest in it.
I cannot justify why I picked up this book. I will say that sometimes I want to live in a fantasy world where relationships that would undoubtably be despicable and abusive in the real world are not undoubtably despicable and abusive in a book. Obviously, everything that happens in this book should be punishable in a court of law if it happened in real life. Power imbalances that are exploited for sexual purposes, adult/minor relationships (and yes, technically Tiernan turns 18 before anything happens, but if we're talking about that technicality, she should still be considered a minor), GUARDIAN/WARD relationships?!?! Deplorable.
I go into romance novels wanting to know how characters get from knowing each other to dating each other. In this case, I wanted to see how Penelope Douglas would try to pull off such a taboo romance. I wanted to see if she could get me on board with it (as a fictional relationship; again, I would never get behind this in real life). Plus, I needed to read something to bide my time before Motel comes out, and Punk 57 looked too angsty for me.
Penelope Douglas does a great job at writing female heroines who have goals for the future, but are a little socially isolated and introverted. She writes young women who would be content with having a successful career and a stable life partner by their side, and nothing more. That is deeply relatable to me, and I'm sure it's deeply relatable to a lot of introverted romance readers.
At first, I liked the relationship building between Tiernan and Jake. In my head, Jake was just Pike from Birthday Girl, and he was not Tiernan's father's stepbrother. I like the "stable, older (but still hot) man whose sole purpose in life at this point is to provide for his younger love interest and support her while she's pursuing her dreams while not being creepy or taking advantage of her because this is a book and I want to live in a fantasy world where this is possible, okay?" trope. Did Jake say a few weird, caveman-like things that rubbed me the wrong way? If he did, I blocked them out (he did).
But then, once the tension was broken between Tiernan and Jake, they barely interacted again. It was kind of odd, since the book was almost halfway done by that point. Tiernan had some chemistry with Noah and Kaleb, but she only really began developing her relationship with them after the halfway mark. Plus, the relationship development between Tiernan and Noah and Tiernan and Kaleb was exclusively told, not shown. Unless you count all the smut? But the smut in this book didn't give me the same warm, fuzzy feelings the smut in Birthday Girl did.
Also, Kaleb is not my type of love interest at all. Violent, unpredictable men will never be romantic to me. And, I'm sorry, but when your heroine starts crying during a sex scene because her love interest "doesn't hear her say no", the smut stops being taboo and becomes a sexualized depiction of a rape scene. That was repulsive to me.
And after that, we're supposed to root for this couple? I only kept reading because I wanted Tiernan to realize her worth and end up with Noah. I did not want her to (view spoiler).
I know that I enjoyed the first half of this book, so I can't rate it one star, but it is disheartening to me that Penelope Douglas crossed over the "taboo sex scene" line and wound up in the "glorifying rape" territory.
I feel like you know you might've made a wrong turn in your life when you have to clarify to your friends that the book you're reading does not technically have incest in it.
I cannot justify why I picked up this book. I will say that sometimes I want to live in a fantasy world where relationships that would undoubtably be despicable and abusive in the real world are not undoubtably despicable and abusive in a book. Obviously, everything that happens in this book should be punishable in a court of law if it happened in real life. Power imbalances that are exploited for sexual purposes, adult/minor relationships (and yes, technically Tiernan turns 18 before anything happens, but if we're talking about that technicality, she should still be considered a minor), GUARDIAN/WARD relationships?!?! Deplorable.
I go into romance novels wanting to know how characters get from knowing each other to dating each other. In this case, I wanted to see how Penelope Douglas would try to pull off such a taboo romance. I wanted to see if she could get me on board with it (as a fictional relationship; again, I would never get behind this in real life). Plus, I needed to read something to bide my time before Motel comes out, and Punk 57 looked too angsty for me.
Penelope Douglas does a great job at writing female heroines who have goals for the future, but are a little socially isolated and introverted. She writes young women who would be content with having a successful career and a stable life partner by their side, and nothing more. That is deeply relatable to me, and I'm sure it's deeply relatable to a lot of introverted romance readers.
At first, I liked the relationship building between Tiernan and Jake. In my head, Jake was just Pike from Birthday Girl, and he was not Tiernan's father's stepbrother. I like the "stable, older (but still hot) man whose sole purpose in life at this point is to provide for his younger love interest and support her while she's pursuing her dreams while not being creepy or taking advantage of her because this is a book and I want to live in a fantasy world where this is possible, okay?" trope. Did Jake say a few weird, caveman-like things that rubbed me the wrong way? If he did, I blocked them out (he did).
But then, once the tension was broken between Tiernan and Jake, they barely interacted again. It was kind of odd, since the book was almost halfway done by that point. Tiernan had some chemistry with Noah and Kaleb, but she only really began developing her relationship with them after the halfway mark. Plus, the relationship development between Tiernan and Noah and Tiernan and Kaleb was exclusively told, not shown. Unless you count all the smut? But the smut in this book didn't give me the same warm, fuzzy feelings the smut in Birthday Girl did.
Also, Kaleb is not my type of love interest at all. Violent, unpredictable men will never be romantic to me. And, I'm sorry, but when your heroine starts crying during a sex scene because her love interest "doesn't hear her say no", the smut stops being taboo and becomes a sexualized depiction of a rape scene. That was repulsive to me.
And after that, we're supposed to root for this couple? I only kept reading because I wanted Tiernan to realize her worth and end up with Noah. I did not want her to (view spoiler).
I know that I enjoyed the first half of this book, so I can't rate it one star, but it is disheartening to me that Penelope Douglas crossed over the "taboo sex scene" line and wound up in the "glorifying rape" territory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape