Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

7 reviews

amanda_reads13's review

dark 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

2.0

Brighton University is home of the LORDS. A secret society that runs on  violence and includes the most powerful men in the world. Trying to escape her expectations of her parents, Blakely is thrown into this chaotic world when she agrees to be Ryot's "chosen". 

You need to check the TW before reading this one and check your feminism at the door, because this was dark. 

The LORDS, a glorified frat, have high expectations for their members. Their initiation process includes forced celibacy and murder. After three years of celibacy, each man gets to chose a "chosen" (essentially a sex-slave). Of course Ryat, psychopath that he is, is a member. 

Blakely's boyfriend of 3 years (another psychopath) is also a member of the LORDS, but she has no knowledge of it. She is also in a forced arranged marriage with this douche, no biggie. How has she been in the dark this long, considering both her boyfriend and father are members? 

Anyways, Ryot choses Blakely as his "chosen" after being told to do so from her FATHER. WTF! and it spirals out for control from there. 

Ryot is your typical controlling, possessive, jealous asshole. Blakely is the innocent virgin who is magically into all these intense acts .. ya ok... She is honestly the most idiotic and naive character. 

Their connection was very forced, shallow, and based on a physical connection. He protects her, she gives herself to him, that pretty much sums it up. This is basically Stockholm Syndrome at its worst. 

Tropes: dark, secret society, touch her/you die

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual content, Stalking, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Blood, Murder, and Sexual violence

cait's review

challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Body horror, Classism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

atranscryptid's review

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Classism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Domestic abuse

andeng's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Blood, Confinement, Medical content, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

siffpedersen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death, Drug use, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Vomit, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Violence, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

zc2's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Definitely a rollercoaster I wasn’t expecting…..read it 👀 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Vomit, and War

romancejunkie's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Well, it’s 5am and I just finished reading, so that says something. I have a crap ton of mixed feelings about this book, so I figured listing my likes and dislikes is the easiest thing. 

Likes:
• Ryat is obsessed with her. An OTT, crazed hero who refused to share her with anyone. 
• He was a bad man, but he had honor. Rape was off the table, and we saw that immediately. 
• The exploration of Blake’s sexual fantasies. I loved how he reassured her and allowed her to explore without judgement. 
• How he called her his good girl. UNF. 

Dislikes:
• Ryat is an OTT, possessive hero. He took it too far, IMO, his actions turning abusive in some situations. Some authors walk the line of possessiveness and can’t live without them vibes without teetering into abuse. This author did not manage that. 
• The drama. Sweet Christ, the drama. The twists and turns and BS coming out of left field. It was a fucking soap opera. 
• Wtf was with all the flashbacks? Why TF couldn’t she actually put those IN the current timeline. Zero reason as far as I could tell except for lazy storytelling. 
• She wrote an engaging story—I’ll say that—but her actual writing leaves something to be desired. She needed an editor. Badly. And someone needs to break her exclamation key. 
• The amount of violence. It was grotesque, unnecessary, and overkill. 
• The sex scenes got repetitive and boring. Yeah, I said it. But I can only read the same things so many times before I start skimming. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Blood, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Medical content, Gore, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, and Abandonment