Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

57 reviews

kaylmur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Murder, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Stalking, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

catladymeg's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

This book was hard to get into at first. I genuinely did not love the first 30% or so due to the characters and their relationship. However, after that point the story picked up, the fluff started, and the story held my interest. I even stayed up later than I should have finishing the last 75%. This book was a decent read, but not really one of my favorites. For me, there was too much roughness from the male characters, especially the main male character, for my liking. I did like the development of the main female character, it just took a while. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy the gruffer side of dark romance who do not require a ton of fluff with their smut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Infidelity and Pregnancy

colorcrystals's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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: Sexual content, Blood, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Rape

kelliruss's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

the smut is so messed up and so good. the story is so silly though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Stalking, Gun violence, Gore, Rape, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

tylahjayde's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

im_s_morgan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

It’s giving Damon and Elena with the toxicity, but yet still working. That being said, I still love this book and “touch her, I’ll kill you” trope is slowly becoming my favorite. I ain’t going to lie and say that I did google a certain part of the book(ifykyk) to see what actually happened because I couldn’t continue reading if it was true. I 100% recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Cursing, Blood, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Torture, Gaslighting, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol

bergha1998's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

3.75

Woah this is a dark romance, check those TWs. The plot was great, I’m not usually into college romances, but it being so secret society focused kept it very interesting. The spice is crazy: drugs, primal, dubcon, breath play, and a lot of BDSM. I loved how possessive Ryat was from the start. 

Dark Romance, Arranged Relationship, Secret Society, 4 1/2 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Gore, Murder, Alcohol, Body horror, Drug use, Confinement, Bullying, Cursing, Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

ghastlywicked's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Rape, Torture, Violence, Cursing, and Sexual content

teebearrr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

At first I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with how much smut there was and little to no plot but I knew with 600 pages, there had to be more; I just had to be patient! The plot got reallly interesting and when it finally picked up on it, the smut added to it made it very enjoyable. I wanted to hate Ryat with how harsh he was & it was all just a game to him but as the story went on, his character development was beautiful. While the fmc was great, at times I found her a bit annoying. I felt she was very naive / oblivious, like girl the puzzle pieces are in front of you - put two & two together! But I do feel like Ryat & Blake were made for each other. He loved her & accepted her for who she was as she did for him too. The epilogue was 🥹. Matt & Valerie can go to h*ll where they belong &

Spoiler

I’m surprise there was no growing relationship with her biological mother (I guess she disliked her that much)

. Other then that, the read was very addicting and I couldn’t put it down! Although I heard the second standalone in this series gets even more smuttier, I hope the plot will balance it out like book one! I cant wait to finish the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Blood, Bullying, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Murder, Sexual content, Stalking, Torture, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent

innae's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

About what I expected for a secret society college dark romance.   Blakely is a strong FMC, and Ryat is a nice foil for her…or do I have that backwards.   Good story, lots of secrets.   I appreciated how something would be mentioned almost off handily in one chapter and 8 chapters later we would discover the significance.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Sexual content, and Blood