Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Just a Bit Ruthless by Alessandra Hazard

9 reviews

bbygirl21's review

medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a fun one. I loved how protective and possessive Roman became of Luke. I really enjoyed their relationship with each other and how they don't let anyone tear down their relationship no matter how close they are to them. I also loved that this one is slightly darker than any of the previous books. It's not an extremely dark book, but there were some dark themes in this book that they're wasn't in the previous books of the series. I'm definitely still excited to continue with next book.

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haloblues's review

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4.5

Actually pretty close to a 5.

Details: Alternating POVs, third-person, past tense
Favourite character: Both
Happy ending?: Yes
Other content warnings: CNC (roleplayed non-con), brief M/F scenes

Favourite quotes:

He leaned to Luke’s ear, his warm breath tickling him, and murmured, “You don’t have to be manly with me, you know. You don’t have to be anything. You can let go, sweetheart. Anything that happens here, stays here.”

“I don’t know why I told you all of this,” Luke said with a small laugh. “I don’t know what I’m doing in your lap. Please do something evil soon. It’s freaking me out how nice this feels.”

Roman chuckled. “Maybe that’s my evil plan,” he said.

“Go brush your teeth. I want to kiss your pretty mouth.”

“Your morning breath doesn’t exactly smell like roses, either,” Luke grumbled, though Roman’s morning breath was fine.

“Evil men get leeway,” Roman said, his face dead serious. “It’s in the ‘How to Be Evil For Dummies.’ Latest edition.”

There was knowing, and then there was knowing.

He’s not a monster, you know. Yes, he can be harsh, and he can be an overbearing ass, but he’s the best big brother I could have asked for. Even when he’s a dick, he usually has reasons for it. I’m not entirely sure what his plans are concerning you, but he has reasons to want revenge against your father. He probably hasn’t told you, but one of the men who died on that train was Roman’s childhood friend, Michail. He was a good man. My brother may not be a very good man, but he has a quality not every man possesses: he’s unwaveringly loyal to those important to him, and would do anything to keep them out of harm’s way.

When his head cleared a little, Roman found that he had the boy cradled against his chest, his fingers carding through the moist curls. Luke was nuzzling into his collarbone, all but purring. He really was such a kitten.

Luke half-groaned, half-laughed. “You’re impossible!”

No, you’re impossible, Roman thought, looking down at Luke’s grinning face. What are you doing with me, letting my tainted hands touch you?

He didn’t say it aloud. He never claimed to be a good man.

“I love you, love you, love you!” he said breathlessly between kisses. Luke froze, flushing, and laughed awkwardly. “You don’t have to say it back. I just wanted you to know.”

“You’re an idiot,” Roman said and Luke’s face turned adorably confused and a little hurt. Like a kitten. A little kitten with his claws sunk right into him.

“I love you, too, you silly boy,” Roman said, his voice gruff. When Luke’s eyes widened, Roman’s lips twisted. “I wish I didn’t. They say love brings out the worst in a man. I’m almost scared of what I’m capable of if anyone tries to take you away from me.” He stroked Luke’s cheek with his knuckles, holding Luke’s unblinking, misty-eyed gaze. “You should have told me to leave while you still could, sweetheart. I’m not a good man. Not good enough for someone like you.”

Luke shook his head slowly. “You’re good to me. Is it bad that’s all I care about?”

Roman chuckled. “You’re asking the wrong person, love.”

Roman wondered when this soft-hearted, bright-eyed human being had become his home, his safe place. He didn’t know. What he knew was that he would do just about anything to keep his safe place safe.

“You know what I want right now?” Luke said with a small, happy smile. “I want to have slow, sappy vanilla sex for a change.”

“I think it’s called making love,” Roman said, nudging Luke’s nose with his own.

“Yeah,” Luke murmured, grinning against Roman’s lips. “Let’s make love.”

“Let’s,” Roman said and kissed his sweet lips, greedy and possessive. No one will take you away from me. No one.

Let them try.

Content Warnings

zhanghao's review

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dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

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friends2lovers's review

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emotional tense fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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mrsherrera's review

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challenging dark medium-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

4.0

Content Warnings

hungryhornyinsomniac's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

4.0

3/5 spice
Love a good mafia romance and some casual kidnappings and consent!

Love Alessandra hazard to always deliver a great story. Can’t recommend enough

Content Warnings

gluecksjunge's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Be ready to suspend your disbelief. This book is unrealistic.
I enjoyed this book quite a lot and I flew through it but it isn't too memorable.

The only things I want to mention are LOOK AT CWs and the therapist that comes into play at the end of this book does one hell of a bad job.

Maybe Stockholm syndrome cannot be diagnosed but being kidnapped, even when you fall in love with your kidnapper, and the other things that happen in this book are traumatic.

Content Warnings

stevia333k's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad

5.0

my thoughts pre-release

I always tended to read Rutledge as ruthless in book 1 in this series... well that and ruth-ledge, and ruthless edge... so yeah... the first thoughts be that...

2016-0509-2003

omygawd! omygawd! there's a blurb! there's a blurb! there's a blurb!

uuu Stockholm Syndrome is quite controversial, I wonder how much research that entailed, or if it will even be sensitive to the experiences of Stockholm Syndrome cases or if it will be trigger warning filled?...

`*raises imaginary champagne glass*` toast to a new book. good luck & don't fuck it up.

2016-0527-0106

So basically I read the trigger warning info on the author's website for this book, my thoughts
+ God damn it, I have to wait until June 3. but yay an actual date! `*moves pointing hands in air like fricking maracas*`
+ ew, homophobic language scares me, then again when in Russia, do as Romans do.~
+ + cuz god damn it! I'm a fucking queen! I need to get a thicker skin if I ever want to rule these assholes someday.
+ + + `*z snaps fingers*` um-hmm girl!! you just schooled!!! - cool.

got the book 2016-0602-1630

29% 2016-0602-1755

Spoiler
this book seems to merge my two favorite books this series #0.5 & #3 (though it had elements of #1 because the seduction has to do with gaining survival advantages, #1 isn't so coerced & actually on that book Shawn is the seducer for gain & the straight guy, while the teacher is essentially Richard geere although I have never watched pretty woman i know there's a note job scene in both & Richard geere is like notably rich and is one looking for companionship with the poor one desperately turning tricks with him.)

so this pairing is basically Xavier & Sage the next generation. granted there's a lot of D/s dynamic but Roman is a lot like Xavier with consent & between these 2 "mind games". and the prisoner/real world dynamic happening.

also there's more healing involved in discussion about not living up to people's expectations like with Gabriel & Jared, though with Gabriel his insecurities from appearance and orphanhood hoarding/possession (like with how American households that have to clean up the houses they inherit from their family members who lived during WWII & the great depression because they adopted a hoarding mentality, kind of like that with orphans in Gabriel's case) while with Luke it's more the loss of his strongest ally and best friend, aka his mom, when he was like 8 because his dad was insecure with his son's embrace feminine gendered culture (in gay communities effeminate gay could be called "camp" in contrast to "Castro" which analogous to "butch" and "femme" subcultures in the lesbian communities, butch & camp being possibly most stereotypical of their communities) a culture that his son at 23 still craves to embrace & also his having the appearance of a kid/twink in an environment where it's less favorable to more rugged masculine features that Castro gays tend to go over the top with. so basically Gabriel & Luke are alike that they have mainly developed without allies/parents/love & they have self conscious issues with their appearances.

so yeah that and my love for Russian history like especially the pre USSR era, the USSR & Russia after the USSR, it's like this book was made for me!!! 4 stars for now. I would give 5 stars but that be too soon for my comfort. [2016-0602-1835]

2016-0603-1000 just finished this book like less then 5 minutes ago

so I saw this book combine a lot of the dynamics from each of the other books. i like screamed when I read that the next book is likely the last book in the series. on one hand I have a tendency to want to see everyone get married & crap like that because victory tour. so yeah it makes sense though because there's not a lot of spaces to run to left with the chain continuing.

but yeah, I liked this installment because it seems to be reusing dynamics not entire plotlines so yay always for that. i also liked Spoilerhow the convention of figuring out that they are a couple in final sex scene convention was not used here (it makes for very wordy cuddle sessions...) but I liked how it was distributed over the final chapters. so yay.

I love this.

2016-0603-1010 about this review and my rights on this series & comparison to other series

people might have a different opinion on it if this it their first book in the series, but yeah because I didn't read it isolated from the others I can't give that long of review.

I think this is my favorite series of MM romance novels because it's kind of sappy but also healing for the social misfits of desire. Brazen Boys by Daryl Banner is like that, but they don't get sappy. and First and Forever by Alexa Land of very sappy, but it doesn't deal with misfitted love as much, though it's funny like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. This series kind of uses dark humor at times which is always a plus for me. So yeah, I'll be sad see this series end, but I do tend reread this series unlike other book series (Although I perhaps do reread The Hunger Games Trilogy) but like I've reread "Book #3 Just a Bit Unhealthy" like more than 10 times (I've lost count and I tend to reread certain scenes over & over compared to others). so yeah this series is of my favorites.

Thank you too Alessandra.

PS
Red hair is a source of proudness (like of my heritage & it being my latent hair color) for me, so, yay!

PSS
holy crap the next book is a remix of book 3! yay God yes yass gawd yay yay yay!!! like that book is literally my favorite USA book (well, is like they are in the UK most of the time, but they do go back to USA while the others after it don't) along with Sage/Xavier's book Straight Boy. this book here it like Sage/Xavier reincarnated and now I get to see Jared/Gabriel reincarnated! woo!

Notes for book 7/Just A Bit Shameless, but it ain't out yet, so I'm putting down here since Dominic/Sammy are first mentioned in this book & about how they are Jared/Gabriel reincarnated

so at the end of Jared's book he tells Gabriel that he has wanted to fuck him since he saw him but was like in denial at the time. also that being said I gleaned that he was in denial until Gabriel got discharged & was headed back to the UK, and got drunk as hell & slept with a barely legal blond guy with green eyes... Basically with Dominic, other people see the attraction before he does, he likely carries shame... & is therefore in denial.

Gabriel's injury was a back type injury that prevented him from walking. when Dominic comes home and Sammy is excitedly walking towards Dominic, Sammy's legs are described as clumsy as a baby giraffe's. also Sammy has green eyes like Gabriel. However, Sammy is more reading of other people, so kind of more like Tristan from books 3, 4 & 5 (they both have dark hair by the way, but Sammy's dark red & thereby more exotic, which would be like Gabriel). also Sammy is deemed totally straight by the other person in the pairing, and if considered quite possessive, although while Gabriel's motive was unsaid amongst people (though made explicit in Gabriel's thoughts on Jared being in love with him), it matches the reasoning/motive of Sammy, though it's more rationalized as child/parent type thing instead of nurturing friend.

Content Warnings

double0j's review

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dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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