Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Corupt

3.5/5 (TWs listed at the end, plz read)

If you take the 2006 film The Covenant, remove the magic, flesh out the plot a little more, and add smut...that's what this book is. An untouchable group of mischief-causing, incredibly attractive bad boys who enthrall everyone with their mystique. Old money posturing and politicking that leads to a revenge plot that uses the sweet blonde FMC as a pawn. Dramatic confrontation scenes that could have been resolved with a much-less-attractive, logical conversation. Some unexpectedly homoerotic tension that I don't think was intentional. The vibes are identical between the two.

And those vibes are immaculate for the first 2/3 of the book. But around 67.5%, this takes a weird atmospheric turn that I didn't vibe with as strongly. Idk how to explain it, but the storyline just didn't carry the same oomph after the 67% mark (the spicy scenes still did for sure, but I'm talking specifically about the actual storyline). It went from this hot push and pull between Rika and the whole Horseman group, to a different dynamic that I didn't enjoy nearly as much.

Also as much as I enjoyed the Rika and Michael circling each other, I really just felt bad for her the whole book because everyone around her objectively sucks. This girl deserves better than the thousand red flags surrounding her entire social circle. I hope she finds a genuine friend eventually or that at least the ones she does have treat her better.

But this was greatly enjoyable as a guilty pleasure read. I see why people like Penelope Douglas if this one was any indication, and I am going to read the next one for sure.

⚠️ TWs: lots of sexually explicit scenes, sexual assault/harassment, violence, murder, arson, gaslighting, manipulation, bullying, alcohol use, death of a parent, death of a dog (side note: wtf did this need to be in here for?)

Content Warnings

assesgrass's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

annareadz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

Content Warnings

quietmarki's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

1.0

Content Warnings

_terah_hansen_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

jen1804's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book is an absolute rollercoaster. I read it within 24 hours because it just got me totally hooked. This is a very dark and twisted romance with a lot of dark and twisted sexual content thrown in. Alongside that is a really interesting and mysterious narrative with P Douglas flitting between the present day and the past, keeping the reader engaged and wanting to find out more about what happened three years go. Despite how fucked up the characters are in this book, I actually really dig them? I love that I can get lost in this dark fantastical story which is full of the type of guys I’ve been taught from a young age to avoid, all from the the safe confines of my own reading space. I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series and exploring the rest of the four horsemen’s stories.
Drops points because some of that shit I read was disturbing and also because of the high number of spelling/grammatical errors! Penelope, get a new editor girl.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

Content Warnings

gswagatron's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

midnightrose_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Corrupt is the first book in the Devil’s Night series. It’s about a young woman named Erika Fane and a young man named Michael Crist. Erika and Michael have felt a connection to each other that they’ve both tried to ignore their whole lives. It finally comes to a head on Devil’s Night, and changes all their lives forever. This was a strong start to an exciting and well loved series. Michael and Erika have a crazy amount of chemistry together. Also reading about his friendship with his fellow friends The Horsemen (Kai, Damon, and Will) was really enjoyable as well. The found family aspect of their friendship was really beautiful. Suspenseful, sexy and shocking this is definitely not a book for the faint of heart!

Content Warnings

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