Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Hooked by Emily McIntire

267 reviews

cookreadrepeat's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Vomit, and Kidnapping

hralston88's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

1.0

Wow did I hate this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

crazybooklady89's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

🌶️🌶️🌶️ oh my! I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect when starting this one, but this wasn’t it. I loved this re-imagination of Peter Pan so much!!! James (“Hook”) was so endearing, and Wendy didn’t irritate the hell out of me like most heroines do in these types of books. Taking 1 star away because I do think it was rushed in many parts. I wish the book had been longer so that more buildup and detail could be added.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

sillyhumantricks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Drug use

ebreheny25's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

0.5

THANK F- I FINISHED THIS. I nearly DNFed this book and especially as an audiobook it was a struggle for me. I found some of the nicknames used for the FMC by the MMC very uncomfortable and it felt like this book went in circles at times. I found out that dark romance is just not my thing which is great for future reference. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gore and Murder

emptzuu's review against another edition

DNF for the second time.

Wendy has terrible taste in friends. Angie keeps pressuring her to go clubbing and hang out with people who are clearly bad influences. It’s frustrating how Wendy can't stand up to these so-called friends, yet she can stand up to James—albeit only a little. Wendy’s personality is as bland and dry as stale bread. She's also incredibly naive and, frankly, comes across as quite stupid.

James, on the other hand, is a carbon copy of every dark romance guy I've ever read about—misogynistic to the core. When he said that subduing a woman is all about control, I threw this book out the window. He harasses Wendy and even has thoughts of raping her.

How can anyone read this and not think, this is abuse? It reads like poorly written torture porn with zero redeeming qualities. I don't mind toxic relationships or dark themes in books—bring on the obsessive, murderous men who say things like “good girl” and “get on your knees.” But when the abuse crosses the line so heavily, that's where I draw the line. The smut wasn't enough to make up for any of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape

karalyndawn's review

adventurous dark fast-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

2.75

I don’t think I was in the right mood for this one. It was difficult to pay attention and I didn’t find myself enjoying it as much as I thought I would. Both Wendy and Hook’s characters bothered me for some reason. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping

bookishkitten3's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

bluz19's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

2.75

Hooked is a standalone story of dark contemporary romance. It is apart of the Never After Series which is a collection of fractured fairytales where the villain gets the happily ever after. It is not particularly a retelling as it is a complete remapping of the story. The book features very mature themes that must be considered before reading. 

 

I mainly picked up this book because I usually love the stories of Hook and for once I let social media talk me into a read. I didn’t hate it, I know not the best way to start a review. I am not big into smut, in fact I find it CRINGEY, BUT ultimately I loved the book. Putting the heavy smut aside, the story itself held a lot of parts I did like. This book is very dark and twisted. It definitely hooked me from beginning to end (no pun intended). I found myself enjoying the storyline and not as much of the romance because it was very harsh for what I generally like to read. Imagine if Hook owned a bar and secretly sold “Pixie Dust” and got rid of anyone who lied to him or opposed him and suddenly your enemy (Peter) comes to town and its the perfect time to get your revenge. That is  the entire real premise of the book with smut thrown in. Now I must note that there is a lot of trauma bonding and I would say inappropriate relationships because they are ultimately toxic, HOWEVER I’m here for the toxicity in book form. A lot of the decisions made by Hook and by Wendy in this book are aggravating and without reason but it did make for a good story. The twists in this book, the betrayals, and the lies had my jaw ON THE FLOOR! I felt through this story and nothing had me wanted to lay this book down (except for maybe the heavy smut scenes). This story never pulled punches and I felt every part of each line. 

 

I think if you enjoy smut or can look past the smut then you will definitely find joy in the dark parts of this book. This is probably one of the more mob-boss stories I have read in a minute. There will be torture, abuse, death and assault in this story so definitely be aware of that. I am not sure if I will pick up the other ones because of the sexy scenes but I did love the dark and twisted imagination of this author as well as the “bad guy” not always losing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Infidelity and Car accident

kelseyr09's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Trafficking, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Kidnapping