abicaro17's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Honestly I would have loved this book had it not been for the blatant sexual assault in the first %50 of the book. Reviews mentioned something that was hard to get past in the beginning of the book but nothing prepared me for that. Quite honestly I was debating DNFing about 100 pages in. If you're uncomfortable with anything resembling CNC I definitely wouldn't read this. Once you get past that, the relationship between Ginerva, Liam, Rian, and Cormac is actually very balanced and pleasant for a mob poly relationship. It never feels like one member gets more time than another and everyone has important roles both in the mob and the relationship. The plot is well written and sensible, making every choice reasonable and action sensible. This being said I wouldn't read this again or recommend it solely based on the first 150 pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, and War
sarge_books_galore's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is a dark mafia romance that is also a why-choose romance. This book deals a lot with Dom/sub relationship dynamic’s. It has CNC, knife play, and a few other kinks that I don’t know the specific names for. The CNC is strange at first and I did not like it. It felt like it was missing the first C in the CNC, if you get what I mean. It wasn’t really r***, it was more like she was reluctant to like what was going on. The men also didn’t have the best intentions at the beginning of the relationship, as in they had full intentions to harm her. A safe word is talked about and used but not until later in the story. It was kind of a hard read at times, but I really liked the relationship at the end of the book. All things considered the ending is way better than the beginning and it’s not really worth the read unless you have a hard core CNC kink and don’t mind the consent being ambiguous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Blood, Gun violence, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexism, Eating disorder, and Misogyny
Minor: Domestic abuse
Her eating disorder is more of her not taking care of herself and then they feed her.
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