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lady_h_reads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️½
“Taste that, dollface? That’s the taste of a woman who is properly owned and used. Not a woman who hates her situation. Remember that the next time you want to spout nonsense.”
Heavy on the bullying and emotional damage, Not a Peep is a gripping new release from MT Addams. It was a one-sitting read that kept me up way past a reasonable hour.
I recommend checking the TW, as there are some uncomfortable bits – the MMCs are assholes incredibly hard to love. They never really grew on me (see the below spoiler for details). Perhaps I would have found them easier to like and forgive if we had been allowed their POV, but we were kept with the FMC’s POV throughout. I never had the chance to connect with their characters.
I would have liked the FMC to take a stronger stance against their actions. This is a reverse age gap on paper, but the FMC’s maturity level didn’t match her age. The men claimed they had picked her, and enjoyed torturing her, because she was such a strong and independent woman, but I didn’t get that same impression. I NEEDED her to push back more than she did. The desire to see her finally grow a backbone kept me racing through the pages.
This book is fast-burn and very spicy. The majority is MF or MFM+ with light MM with multiple kinks explored - Dubcon, coercion, blackmail, degradation, forced o, punishment, cock warming, and more.
This book ends on a cliffhanger, though it’s billed as ending in a HFN. I didn’t feel the relationship arcs were 100% resolved by the end. The good news is that if MT revisits their story in the future, there is room for the emotional growth I was craving and perhaps a true HEA.
Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance
Tropes/Features: Dark elements, forbidden romance, reverse age gap, librarian/students, bullies/enemies to lovers, forced proximity, found family, angsty, blackmail, coercion, stalker, OTT J/P, who did this to you, kinks (includes punishment, dubcon, cock warming, spit play, DVP, TP, and more)
Narrator: Single 1st Person POV
Relationship Type: Why Choose MMMF, fast burn. spicy
Book Type/Ending: Standalone in Groveton College series, billed as HFN (I would classify it a cliffhanger)
TW/CW: Available in book
Spoiler Below:
Where were the grovel and redemption arcs? The whole reason I read Enemies to Lovers is for that “oh shit” moment and subsequent grovel, or at least an attempt at contrition.
Not a Peep lacked that crucial element and left me wanting. Minimal attempts were made toward forgiveness, and the efforts didn’t match with the abuse the MMCs put the FMC through. “Ooops, turns out we actually like you now but we still want to play with you,” isn’t a valid apology.
The MMCs were just forgiven and let back into the FMC’s life without earning her forgiveness. This was a true case of Stockholm syndrome, or letting her pussy make the decisions in her life. I needed more from them.
I think making this a multiple POV story would have helped here. They would have still been assholes, but we would have had a chance to connect with them at another level.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Bullying
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