Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Sea of Ruin by Pam Godwin

62 reviews

wickan2010's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.0

It’s 70% spice and 30% a pirate adventure. Enjoyable, but I do not recommend reading it in public if you blush easily. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Infertility, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

itriedtobegood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

bluestockingbookshop's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Colonisation

hereiskyra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

SPOILERS…. 🖤🖤🖤

Well, this wasn’t anything I expected it to be. I really went back and forth between bored and interested throughout the entirety of this book. I did feel like we got thrown into the middle of a story and I know King or Libertines  exists but I couldn’t finish it. 

I felt the progression with Ashley was more natural even though I really wasn’t his biggest fan. I really didn’t like either of the MMC’s until the point in time that their history was revealed… which, I had guessed this was the case a long time before it was revealed but still enjoyed the overall arc it provided. 

I think the last 30% or so really saved this for me. It wasn’t my favorite book of all time by any means but it was pretty enjoyable overall. I would’ve loved some humor or banter to break up the dark theme and make the characters a little bit more digestible but it was something different and interesting. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think pirate smut is a genre I’ll be delving farther into. 😅

Tropes:

Enemies to Lovers

Captor/Captive

Second Chance 

MFM

Spice:

🌶️🌶️🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Death of parent

mcroche's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

It's clear that Godwin did a lot of research for the book. Some context felt gratuitous and included for the sole purpose of establishing that research was done. The actions of the characters often felt contrived. It was an interesting enough read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual content

Moderate: Torture

kaitlintracy's review

adventurous dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

nofys's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

deathmetalheron's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

Sea of Ruin has a lot going for it. The setting is great, the character dynamics are certainly there, the author knows her chops. The romantic tension is palpable. 
But the delivery of many of these aspects is disappointingly subpar. The characters go through humiliation parade after parade. The garnish of shipping and naval vernacular immediately gives way to crude words for sexual interaction, the transition between the two being jarring at best and non-existent at worse. 
The height of this book comes at Bennett's capture by Ashley Cutler--the dynamics indicated before suggest a conflict between Bennett as a character and her struggle between two loves. I daresay the second fifth to quarter of this book is pretty much phenomenal. 
You could see it in my reading journal, but at the halfway point this book goes from a high tension pirate romance to an absolute slog. Some critical decision are made of Ashley's character that really draw the line and make him seem a bit more manipulative and Bennett (who's been characterized as being headstrong and skeptical) brushes them off. I get this is the appeal of a captor-captive romance but the characterization is quite literally strewn off the deck into the sea, NSFW

squirted into the ocean much like Ashley is described as doing repeatedly.

The final act is an absolute slog where Bennett is NSFW

kidnapped and raped

and then she is

kidnapped and tortured.

The end of the story basically just happens to her. I was turned off from this book at the halfway point, but by the end I was uniquely frustrated. 
Even during the good times, the way sexual interaction is written is hysterical and I saved numerous quotes. In a better story, they would be a fun aspect to giggle about and another layer to add to the story's atmosphere, but given the dark humiliating train to the end they come across as severely out of place and way too lighthearted. I was really hoping this book would be it, but MAN it was not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Infidelity, Racism, Slavery, Alcohol, and Colonisation

crwhite's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

leighlo_'s review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

A badass female pirate with two obsessive, possessive men chasing after her; what’s not to love?  This was a fun read! I wanted it spicier though. I would have liked more MMF scenes. Check trigger warnings, it gets pretty dark at times. 

- Age gap (11 years and 13 years)
- Enemies to lovers
- Captor x captive
- One bed trope
- Forced proximity 
- 🐱 spanking 
- 🍑 spanking 
- Non-con
- Cheating

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse and Slavery