Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

32 reviews

ameydireads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

"Some people said that broken bones grew back stronger. On the good days, I told myself that was true, that each time the world tried to break me, I became a little less breakable. On the bad days, I suspected that I would always be broken, that parts of me would never be quite right—and that those were the parts that made me good at the job. Those were the parts that made this house and the people in it home."

The Naturals are back! In this book the FBI investigates a serial killer that is copying the MO of Dean’s father. This case provides a deeper insight into Dean’s character and his difficult history with his father. Honestly, his father is a POS—the devil incarnate who thrives on manipulation and mind games. As this case concerns Dean’s father, there is no stopping the Naturals from getting involved, much to the dismay of Agent Sterling. 

Agent Sterling, an FBI profiler, is an intriguing new character in this story. At first, her strictness and stern attitude made me unsure if I would like her, but this changed as her backstory unfolded. I understood her better and she quickly grew into one of my favourite characters. 

I’m not a big fan of love triangles, so I appreciated that this came to an end after they solved the case. I hope it doesn’t return! On a side note, I also hope that they will improve the security of the house the Naturals reside in. You ‘d expect they would have learned their lesson after their previous encounter with a serial killer, but apparently not.

Overall, it’s a thrilling and fast-paced read. The psychology of the criminal mind, particularly that of Dean’s father, was both interesting and deeply disturbing. We see what drives him and what his ulterior motives are. Additionally, the nerve-wracking ending where Cassie finds herself in a life-threatening situation with again another serial killer made sure I could not put this book down.
I’m excited to read the next books, especially now that the Naturals have permission to work on active investigations!
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aclifshitz's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

Such a good book. I am loving this series so far but the “you” chapters still make me so incredibly uncomfortable occasionally i feel like im going to be sick but i had to push through it because this series is incredible.
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esme_28's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The romance angle continued to be very cringe in this one, and the plot was predictable.  It was odd that towards the end it was laid out as a kind of twist when it felt so obvious that I was questioning if maybe it was circling into red herring territory but nope.

Serves it's purpose for being a book I don't care about in between other books I do.
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lottie_j's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

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sharlapeggy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Liked this book a lot. Didn’t grip me as much as the first but I still really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next one!
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abbiebonnyman's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

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fairychos's review against another edition

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fast-paced

5.0

HOLY SHIT. I LOVED THIS EVEN MORE. ALSO OH MY GOD THE DEAN BACKSTORY AND ANGST ???? ALSO PROGRESS NOT ONLY ON DEANCASSIE (i love michael sm btw but sorry dude… i’m team dean…. michael can be team #me tho idm :3) BUT WE’RE SLOWLY BUT STEADILY GETTING CLOSER TO PROBABLY SOLVING CASSIE’S MOTHER’S CASE??? ALSO LETS FUCKING GO?? THE ENDING? YEAH??? starting book 3 IMMEDIATELY. (yea i finished this book in one day again :3)

basically this book’s review in memes: 

sterling the beginning of the book: What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

sterling the end of the book: i’ve only known you (guys) for X days, but if anything happens to you i would kill everyone in this room and then myself
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lkristin2018's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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samreen_f's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book went from an easy 5 star to a 4.5 star to a 4 star which although I’ll admit is still high the book got worse and worse and WORSE. First thing I need to talk about is the STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE. Love triangles are my LEAST FAVOURITE TROPE because someone always gets hurt in the process and my heart actually broke
when she chose stupid Dean over MICHAEL ALEXANDER THOMAS TOWNSEND 😭😭😭😭 she chose the wrong dude. It was actually heartbreaking when he asked her if he found her first instead of Dean would she choose him and she didn’t even respond😖😖😭😭 and he was SOO SAD and he said “that’s what I thought” 😭 NO NO PLEASE I SWEAR SHE CHOSE DEAN ONLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE THIS WEIRD TRAUMA BOND CRAP RIGHT NOW. Cassie really said “ Ew I DoNt WanT tHe EmPatHeTIc ( literally) SwEEt ChArMiNg FuNnY ToWnSeND I WaNT tHE EmO DePrEssED TrAUmaTiSed ReDDiNg! WTH WAS THAT GIRL THINKING!?  
anyways….. (sigh) apart from that dumb romance the plot was actually very entertaining and I love the development of Agent Sterling but it was like
Omg there’s 2 killers then last minute it’s like op nope we have 3 I felt like it was waaayyyy to late int the book to add another killer
ALSO is it just me who feels so bad for Sloane she literally deserves the world she always enthusiastic and sweet but LIA?! she really gets on my nerves sometimes and I’m like please 🙏🏻 be quiet 😌🤌🏻 so I really liked the plot the romance in this book I could get through better as it wasn’t as cringy and I really liked the plot twists some of it was obvious though. Overall I did like this better then the first book and I hoping in the next book things get a little better!
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