Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Darling Venom by Parker S. Huntington

8 reviews

_koreen_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book destroys you, it clutches onto your heart and rips it out. Shredding it into millions of  pieces,  only to tape the edges back together by the end .  

Such a heartbreaking, raw, beautiful, love story within another love story. 
I cried three times so be warned lol 

By far one of my favorite reads ❤️  My heart left a piece of itself within this book and I frankly don’t ever want it back . 

5✨❤️😭

Favorite quote : 
“I realized, with depressing clarity, that she wasn’t the venom at all. She was the antidote. But the quantities were all off.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Stalking

rubellaface's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

I read this novel without really reading the synopsis. I just knew I liked books by this author. And my god, while I wouldn't recommend doing that if you're faint of heart, this novel gut punched me. Haymaker to the heart. I was not okay. 

Then together with our FMC, we learned to grieve and heal and try to make the best of things. 

The author has a magical way with words, and having a novel within a novel takes the reader on a journey through the neuroses of being a writer and the power words have within and without the author's intention. 

And somewhere along the way we also get to fall in love with older brother Tate-- a man we've been groomed to hate from the beginning and an OBGYN who made me regret for a split second choosing to have only female gynos in my life. But like all main characters in a Parker S Huntington novel, there's more to him than meets the eye, and like all of us, he's a little broken inside too. 

I loved this novel. I loved Tate and Charlie. I still love Kellan. And I'm going to look closer at those I love and check in more. Just in case. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Sexism, Vomit, and Stalking

readwithkb's review

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy

kittens_say_meoww's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-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

4.75

Where to begin, maybe by addressing the very few things I didn’t like. This book is…devastating. I cried often. It’s so well done and not at all what I expected. I will be buying a physical copy to cherish. The biggest cons are the HEA epilogue and the marketing both of which come off as cheap and inauthentic. This is marketed as romance and I suppose it technically is. However, it’s more apt to say it’s about grief, and flawed humans, and complexity of the human experience. It’s a book within a book. Why this story is marketed as dark romance is beyond me. It’s not “spicy” as it’s marketed and intimate scenes (albeit one) seem pretty authentic to everyday life. The cover(s) don’t represent the story, at all. It doesn’t even match the description of any of the characters. Moving on, some reviews mention the length of this book. And I can see that for a “best friends brother romance” it would seem long. But, as I’ve said that’s not actually a good description of the book in the first place. That being said, it feels like the ending was rushed. Without spoiling, it’s the classic everything sucks and is pulled together in the last chapter and the bow is the HEA 5 page epilogue. I hate thattt and in this particular story it cheapened it. Some of the angst in the middle (particularly as it pertains to Terri) could have been cut out to give more attention to a more authentic ending that honored all that the main characters had been through. All in all, I loved this book and it will be hard to move away from. I desperately wish I knew someone that had read it so I could talk about it with them. Best of luck, it won’t be what you expect it to be if tiktok sent you to it. Please realize it’s a messy, devastating, not overly exaggerated story of broken families and trauma and death. Even though it betrays some plot points, please  check triggers if you’re sensitive to almost anything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

samix3reads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

ruthhmarieereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

marybsimp's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

lisacanteven's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

This book is everything that enemies to lovers should be. It’s a slow burn with plenty of angst. The cast of characters is superb and so well developed. Everything in this book makes sense. I felt like the MC should be a psychologist with the insight she had into others. Charlie is definitely an empath. I loved her so much. There are so many good lines in this book. I was not expecting it to be as deep as it was. The ride was wild, and I did not want to get off the ride. I will cherish this story forever. 

I laughed as much as I cried. There were some really light and funnily awkward scenes that served as great comic relief for the turmoil this book out you through. I thought that the author did a great job portraying grief and how different grief can be from person to person. I was thankful for how long this book was. I felt like it needed to be that long and raw to really pack the punch it intended. This book is so much more than a contemporary romance. 

Note: heavy, heavy themes of suicide and infertility/pregnancy loss. Do not read of these subjects are triggers for you because you cannot skip over them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy