Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Mille ragioni per sfuggirti by Penelope Douglas

24 reviews

dkgreads's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

Oh man, I absolutely slogged through this book. At this point in the series, I feel like I’ve just read the exact same book four times in a row, so I got bored and totally drug my feet to get through it. There was a bit of excitement at the end, which was rushed, but overall it was  kind of repetitive. I’m not gonna read the last novella because I’m just ready to be done with this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Murder

francess_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Stalking

jen1804's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Difficult to rate this book because there was a lot I liked but also a lot I didn’t like. This book is so long and if I’m honest it kind of all felt a bit disjointed what with the time we spent in Blackchurch, the flashbacks and the trying to figure out how everything fitted in with the timeline that we’d been given during the other horsemen’s books. Parts of it felt straight up ridiculous and out of nowhere and left me feeling baffled. Like where did this rando girl Athos even actually come from all of a sudden who has now been adopted by Rika and Michael.
I also personally felt that the descriptions at times were lacking to the point where I found I was getting confused about where they were and what was happening and the logistics of it all.
The scenes of Martin abusing Emory were so graphic and so excruciating to read. I felt so sad for Em. I think Penelope Douglas did a good job of making us despise Martin and portraying the mind of a domestic abuse victim. Harrowing.
The friendship that blossomed between Em and Damon was so endearing, understanding each other’s pain and keeping each other’s secrets, though I feel robbed of not getting to witness Will’s reaction to Em telling him about Natalya and why they were in the school showers together that night. I love that Damon gave Em the carfax room from one abused child to another, and I love that Damon and Emory now have a design and building business together, plus him rebuilding the gazebo using her blueprints was just beautiful. 
So glad Martin fucking died. But I so badly wanted Damon to dive off the cliff after Will and be the one to pull him out of the water as a kinda full circle moment.
I loved the romantic scenes between Will and Emory so much, they were so cute, I bookmarked so many of their lines, especially their flashbacks from when they were in school. I liked seeing the female play a more dominant part too. There was not enough romance content though! And the ‘present’ scenes seemed too rushed. Like woah that marriage proposal did not have enough of a present day romantic foundation behind it after all the spiteful Blackchurch behaviour for it to make sense.
As much as I thought the marriage was quick though I can forgive it, because the four way wedding was everything and I adored that so much!
If I’m being honest Will’s Blackchurch agenda kinda doesn’t really make a great deal of sense to me, like whatever, and the whole Aydin/Alex sub plot is just a big nope. But I’m glad Will’s grandpa was a double crossing legend and seeing their relationship with each other was lush.
I did however really like that Will discovered Coldfield and the tunnels and I loved the idea of their own private access to all these places around Thunder Bay and Meridian City including tunnels to each other’s houses.
I wasn’t very happy about how angry Will was about the whole Em being ‘the reason they went to prison’ thing, because let’s be clear it was NOT her fault and she did not in fact owe any one of them an apology. This series is basically full of the guys holding grudges over miscommunication, lol.
The train carriage scene was weird but I guess also not unexpected from this bunch of characters! Pahahhh.
Overall I enjoyed it, and really loved the insight into their kids ten years later that we got in the epilogue. I love that these four guys who were basically entitled assholes in high school let’s be real, have all found a strong woman who’s their match and equal. I really enjoyed the context of found family throughout this series and the love that is woven through all of them.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

_youfloweryoufeast_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

3.5 ⭐️


Genre: Dark Romance
Age group : Adult
POV : First person / multiple POV
Characters: 4/5 ⭐️
Plot: 4/5 ⭐️
Setting/Themes: 4/5 ⭐️
Writing: 2/5 ⭐️
Spice : 4.5 ⭐️

• Please check TWs & CWs
• mature language, sexual scenes, sexual assault,
mentions of pedophilia, mentions of sexual abuse of a child, drowning, violence, death, gore, domestic abuse,
abuse of a minor, substance abuse, addiction, self harm & etc
• Dark romance
• Tropes : Miscommunication, revenge
• HEA

"Be Lilith," the girls said.
Athos pulled the Red Death over her eyes, all of us setting off as she whispered. “Never Eve."

Oh wow holie. This was a great end to the series. I can now say for sure that Will & Kai are my faves out of the entire lot. So much to unpack but nightfall was probably the most interesting and least misogynistic one out of all 4. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder

dianasofia8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, and Death of parent

araceli1022's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Death of parent

coligmueller's review against another edition

3.0

The book was ruined because they spent too much time trying to round out the series (which they did not do well) rather than focusing on Will and Emory. Also the complete 180 with Alex and Aydin was ridiculous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

tristaesque's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

minnaohrner's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Kidnapping, Car accident, and Murder

nymeria_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I loved this book to bits. Only two complains. One, it was too long. Two, it was too unrealistic and despite enjoying that, I couldn't help but be bugged by it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Violence

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism