Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

23 reviews

margaret_k30's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

this is very much like a certain popular book series

kshertz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I’m hooked. This formula will always work on me. The human girl that the two princes can’t get enough of. Fighting over her. It’s explained more why they are so interested in her later and then you REALLY get into the story. It seems simple and cute and romantic at first and her love for her sister driving her mission makes you love the protagonist. But once you really start to see that every single character is a lot deeper that they appear and every single one has multiple motives, then it gets interesting. The ending was a total cliffhanger and I immediately got the next book in the series and will be reading it very soon. Excellent book. The similarities to so many others romantasy books is the only reason it’s not 5 stars for me. But I’d still recommend to anyone who even wonders about this genre. This book is excellent and meets my high standards around romance. There’s not enough smut for sure, but the little that there is, is 🔥

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual content

elskede's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

emis_books's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

It was good, but sometimes it missed that little part to “oh my god i need to continue reading, i can’t stop”. But at some point it took turn after turn and i couldn’t put it away. Easy to read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

It take’s some real unexpected turns.

toastedoats42's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

An interesting story and I'm excited to read the sequel. The author uses male and female instead of man and woman in most instances which, despite understanding the reasoning behind it given the story, still gives me an ick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

viselik's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

At first, I just thought this book was boring and predictable but then it just started to get worse and worse. The book only gets good in the last 30-ish %, but I still had numerous issues with this book.

Please look up content warnings for this book, it deals with some pretty dark topics and the version I had did not have any content warnings in it.

1) There is no content warning and this NEEDED to have one.

•  There is a fucking
  concentration camp
  in it and there was no warning about it before we find out about it. We find out about it in Chapter 15.
• Emotional manipulation is a super big thing in this book, there is no warning about that.
  •  
    Like the entire character of Ronan/Sebastian should have had a content warning
     
    
    

2) 

The whole plot twist about Sebastian actually being the prince is just so bloody predictable if you have read romances before. He's written like a love interest for crying out loud.

 

•  
  Once we learned that Prince Ronan was missing I instantly knew that Sebastian was Ronan. It was too obvious to me after we had it stated that Sebastian was going away the night after the first day of the ball.
   

3) The naming system of this world. Characters and the land.

• We had the Seelie lands, the Unseelie lands and the Wild Fae lands... This just felt too basic for me.
• Then there are the characters. 
• Let's start with the main character's nickname, Brie. That is a cheese, a rather smelly cheese. I may or may not have just started calling her cheese girl.
• The two love interests! We have Ronan/Sebastian and... Finnian. I was left slightly disappointed by these.
  • Finnian's uncle is called Mordred or something like that and his father was called Oberon. I expected more considering the name of the people around them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexism

booksarefriends_notfood's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this book for the fae drama and the struggles with the romance but other than that it really wasn't that great of a read for me. I didn't find the character development enjoyable and the plot didn't kick in until the last thirty percent of the book or so.

Even though one of the big plot points was getting MC's sister back, she's completely forgotten about often throughout the progression of the story.

  All in all it was enjoyable but not one of my favorite reads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Okay hear me out: I know, objectively, this is not very good. The writing is very lackluster and repetitive and the book as a whole lacked editing. BUT if you have a fairy world fantasy itch that can’t seem to get scratched, this will do it. I really enjoyed this, despite the predicability and eye-roll worthy protagonist. It’s fun! So sue me. You get exactly what you expect, in my humble opinion. 
Side note: there are a lot ( a LOT ) of reviews calling this an ACOTAR rip off and, while there are some minor similarities, I don’t feel that way at all. Sorry not sorry. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

Personally I didn't enjoy this book. The premise was promising but the execution fell flat. The whole first half felt very much like ACOTAR fanfiction. 

And the ending was not satisfying for me. I guessed a lot of what was going to happen by chapter 10 and almost everything else by chapter 19. 

This felt like the miscommunication trope to the extreme which has never been a favorite. There were so many places where honesty could have made a better story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Deportation

Minor: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War