Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Pucking Sweet by Emily Rath

17 reviews

garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

📚 Ugh why is this series so good??? And why isn't there more of it to read yet??? This book did a good job of bringing in events from books 1 and 2 in the series and putting them in a different context, so even if you knew what was happening from the previous books' MCs' perspectives, it felt familiar but still felt fresh.

📙 This was a great story. There was emotional vulnerability, there was rivalry, there was love and discovery and tons of sex. And I really liked all three of the MCs in terms of personality.

🎧 All three of the narrators (1 female, 2 male, all first person POV) did an excellent job with the material.

🌶️ 5/5 it didn't get into like deep/hardcore kink but other than that, this book (like the others in the series) is constantly on.

🏳️‍🌈✊ We of course have the diversity in sexuality involved in a 3 way relationship (and it is truly 3 way). There are also other team members who are queer (some from book 1 and some others). One of the MMCs is biracial: Black and (I think) white. This is a hockey romance, and it does seem like most of the side characters are white. There's diversity in backgrounds: one of the MCs grew up alone and basically on the streets, one had a loving middle class family, and the other comes from a powerful and moneyed (but cold) family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, and Death of parent

1yn23's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

ebb16's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.25

I’m honestly getting very tired of this series. As someone who is very involved with hockey, the books are extremely unrealistic and I feel like the stories are just too exaggerated. I think these books could be about 200 pages less and still get the point across (less sex and less fluff about what the characters are thinking) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Pregnancy

strawberrycasualreader's review against another edition

emotional funny slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Blood

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent

waitthisisntproductive's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Toxic relationship

theblackstepford's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

So this was run of the mill for this author. It was 20 hours long and really didn’t need to be. FMC has an awful family throughout the book. That situation was solved… kinda. Things came to a head and then we, the reader, never heard anything else about it. Even in the epilogue, which happened YEARS later. The relationship was cool. The spicy scenes were above par, but this could have easily been a 12 hour listening experience, instead of 20. Spice 3.5/5 🌶️ storyline 2.75/5 📚

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

nanastradamus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny fast-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? Yes

3.5

gooped and gagged tbh!! in all seriousness i rly need to know more about that

violet and olivia

situation 👀 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

skb163's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Abandonment

lunahale's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

oh boy i loved this so much!! i’ve been in a horrid book slump for weeks, living on fanfic bc my brain was dead, and this was the absolute best book to read to get me out of that. poppy and lukas and colton were all just so lovable and i loved their dynamic so so much 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

tyras_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was super long! 

There were two story lines:

1. Poppy getting independence from her old money, politically motivated family. It’s rough and emotional and Poppy hangs on to the idea of a loving family far too long after having proved again and again that her family doesn’t treat her right. 

2. Poppy coming to terms with her attraction to two men while prioritizing her career ambitions. Also rough, also emotional but then it was sexy at times and

they make a baby.

Poppy proves that women can “have it all” though it’s no easy thing. 

While often pretty funny and a decent mix of plot and smut, these characters are hella dramatic and I was over them after a while. I can only take so much cheesiness and melodrama. 

Pros: Poppy’s eventual acceptance that she doesn’t have to take abuse from the people that are supposed to love her is nice to watch. Colton is my favorite, mostly because he’s not self-destructive and mean but Novi just had some growing to do and that’s his own journey. 

In the end, love healed all past wounds (slightly sweet, slightly noxious) but dragging out the story felt like a disservice to it. Does a book ever need to be 85 chapters?! By the time plot one wrapped up, I had nearly forgotten about those characters! It ranks pretty similarly to me as the other two interconnected standalones. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders