Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

143 reviews

book_lover_irl's review against another edition

I just can't do it. I cannot finish The Sinner by Shantel Tessier. I knew it was a dark romance but this is something else. I've read plenty of dark romances and enjoyed most of them. I read Still Beating by Jennifer Hartman, Pretty Little Savage by Lucy Smoke, Riches to Riches by Ames Mills and Mindf*ck Series by S.T. Abby. Those had dark themes and tropes. The Sinner feels like it is ENCOURAGING violence against women, pleasure of a man above the humanity of a woman, and straight up awful misogyny - expecting women to quietly slip back into the 1950s. with zero rights over their own bodies. 

I guess I have discovered a trope I cannot condone -- dub con and consensual non-consensual. I might also have an intolerance for bully romances. Previously I didn't think I had many TWs, now I know better.

I cannot get on board with the violence that continues to happen to poor Ellington. Every time I think perhaps Sin / Easton is mellowing a teensy bit to be a less despicable human being (not even good -- just less horrific), he proves that violence in the name of his s3xual pleasure is king and he has zero regard for Elli. I get that, in theory, someone who has been abused so severely for years may have a skewed idea of what intimacy and pleasure should be. However, I cannot understand why Sin wouldn't at least attempt to give Elli pleasure in a way that isn't straight up considered sexual assault and abuse. Try BDSM and drop the need to make her bleed and cry. If Elli is never shown a different way to experience pleasure, how will she know if she does or does not like it?

I know my opinions will be unpopular and I totally get it if you love this book and these tropes. I'm not here to yuck your yum. I'm simply unable to hop on that train and enjoy the ride. I really wanna know how The Sinner ends, but not enough to keep reading the book. 2025 is supposed to be the year that I embrace DNF if a book isn't for me, so here I am. Cheers to The Sinner being my first DNF for 2025.

Stars: 0 -- DNF for me

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ -- according to BookTok. I couldn't get past the violence.

POV: Dual

HEA: No clue. DNF

Cliffhanger: No clue. DNF

Tropes: Bully romance, touch her and d!e, friends to lovers

INSTAGRAM: @Book.Lover.IRL 

STORYGRAPH: Book.Lover.IRL
GOODREADS: Book_Lover_IRL

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I loved this book

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really liked this book

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I liked this book

⭐️⭐️ Meh…  bored or annoyed

⭐️ Seriously? Not worth it

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ INFERNO. P@nty melting

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Blazing hot

🌶️🌶️🌶️ Now we’re talking

🌶️🌶️ Meh… uninspired missionary

🌶️ Does weak foreplay count?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

feminist_icon_888's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

The Sinner is a wild erotic ride that isn’t for the faint of heart.

Let’s be honest, plot flow & writing quality aren’t Shantel’s best traits, don’t expect it coming into this or ANY LORDs book.

Heavy on the abuse and trauma Elli has suffered, there is a lot of pain in this book and a lot of moments where you want to hate the MMC (Sin), but you find reasons just like Elli that you can’t let him go (namely his pierced hoo-ha).

The trigger warnings on this read shouldn’t be taken lightly. The sinner is (as per the LORDs series) a twisted journey further into the world of the LORDs and the ending (as per Shantel’s style) continued to throw you right up to the epilogue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

the_pudster's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

kimreads2022's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕩𝕚𝕔. 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕞𝕒𝕕𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤. 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕨𝕙𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕖 𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕞𝕪 𝕤𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪

Genre-Dark Romance 

Series- The L.O.R.D.S. Series Book 2 

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

You will like this one if you love the tropes 

🖤Anti hero male lead 

🖤Enemies to lovers 

🖤Mafia/organized crime 

🖤Secrets and betrayals 

🖤Forbidden romance 

🖤Dark/gritty atmosphere 

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

My Review 

This book was so dark. If you made it through the first book you know how dark they are but I felt this one was darker. I couldn’t help but love Sin even though he did some crazy stuff and I shouldn’t lol This series reminds me a lot of the movie The Skulls. They’re in college and a secret society that they’re initiated into gets away with crimes including murder. The only difference is the amount of smut.  This is along the same darkness as haunting Adeline so if you couldn’t read that duet I don’t recommend this one. However the twists were pretty good. I wasn’t expecting the betrayals when they happened at all so my jaw dropped. Shantel definitely kept me on my toes with this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Pregnancy

paoitz's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

sweetpinkambi's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Murder

morgiebee303's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This book was thrilling to say the least. More triggering than the ritual but also filled with more plot twists. I thoroughly enjoyed this dark read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

nikkia_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

My number 1 🩷

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

elinandi's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Death of parent

ashleynp24's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This was a rough read for me. The entire book was essentially Eli getting abused sexually or drugged. I think she spent half the book unconscious. And every man in the entire book abused her. Also the twin? Come ON. At least Sin’s dad was an actual plot twist. Like Sin and Eli were toxic as hell. He’s like “yeah I know you were abused by everyone and I’ll continue to abuse you but it’s ok bc I’m not sharing you it’s just me abusing you.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment