Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

68 reviews

moonflower7's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction and Alcohol

Minor: Deadnaming, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kerrythefire's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

This was a sweet book. I don't really know what else to say about it. The characters were all dynamic individuals whom I liked (minus the scummy "villain" ones, of course), and the love story was honest, kind, and sweet. Viola and Gracewood were so good and gentle to each other so it was nice to quietly watch them struggle through and eventually find their happily ever after. 

This is one of those books where people just show up for each other, and embrace each other despite society and judgement. From Viola's brother and sister in law, to Gracewood's sister, to the company they kept, to Gracewood himself... this was a book about a bunch of slightly misfit, "different" characters, and that just made the whole experience refreshing.

The narrator also did a great job!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence and Kidnapping

Minor: Deadnaming

jess_always_reading's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Honesty, no notes. This was super fun and thoughtfully written. A friends-to-lovers romance with an awesome trans FMC and a lovable MMC. Hall's characterization is excellent and the story and side characters have some depth. It's a sweet romance with a side of gender identity exploration, queerness, and excellent disability and mental health representation. 

The intimacy was well written and realistic and it feels realistic enough to the time without being depressing - perfect escapism!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Sexual harassment and War

threeundertwopnw's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

4.0

The pace was very slow and repetitive and the plot tended to zigzag around, but the writing was beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

meat_muffin's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Misogyny, Grief, Abandonment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, and Transphobia

rheagoveas's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

ezwolf's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Been non-stop thinking of “How many times must I mourn you?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Transphobia, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Sexual harassment

akswhy's review against another edition

emotional 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

2.25

I love the concept of this book and the queer characters are handled with care, but the plot is typically melodramatic for the period romance genre. There was not a lot of comedy to break up the heavy drama, and the plot hinges on a very abstract pair of villains that don’t seem to do anything bad until the last 50 pages. I liked the characters and relationships, but the plot and tone didn’t work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Transphobia

erika_winters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I think this is the first time I’ve ever read a historical romance (as far as my memory is concerned), and I loved reading a story centered around a transgender woman named Viola (love the Twelfth Night reference here). Alexis Hall skillfully crafted this book where being trans was not a main source of conflict, but something celebrated and loved. I appreciated all the characters close to Viola, like her sister-in-law Louise, for example, care for Viola and never question her identity. The romance between Viola and Gracewood is beautiful and so well-written; the friends to lovers motif really created a layer of understanding and affection between the two as they grappled with their identities, PTSD, and for Gracewood, a disability that he has to come to come to terms with in a society that he feels will judge him. Viola is not the only character coming to terms with her gendered society; Gracewood is too in all of his personal struggles with drug and alcohol addiction from PTSD from Waterloo, and the harsh upbringing with a callous father who taught him a suffocating model of masculinity that he feels stuffed into. Overall, it is through each other that they find their strengths and discuss their weaknesses, which made this an effective romance, in my opinion! AND all the queer representation really made my heart happy; so, come for the regency romance, stay for the queer joy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Outing

lautreamont's review against another edition

emotional relaxing medium-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

3.25

I was ready to give this 4 stars or more because two thirds of it were great. I really liked the characters,  even though this book is like 90% insanely long conversations with little to no actual scenes taking place or descriptions. Weirdly, it worked, even though from a writing standpoint : wtf? I like the overall writing and tone.

But from Chapter 39 it gets actually insane in a bad way and nothing makes sense. They introduce this weird villain guy we've seen in only one scene and have 3 pages of him asking both characters to "suck his cock". I have no clue if it's originally some fanfic and the character is a nod to something in the og work so there's not much buildup, but that's how it felt. Like there was NO sex in the book at all until like 80% of it, there's a long long long sex scene of the main couple. Mind you, nothing at all sexual happened ro was mentionned before. there's no sexual desire buildup. Smut is not something I particularly enjoy reading in general, but fair enough. However, it's so weird rhat the whole book becomes just About sex suddenly (???).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness