Reviews tagging 'Torture'

I loved this book, but while I understand the ML's bad actions at the beginning of the book- it was a little extreme and I felt really uncomfortable reading about it. I almost put this book down because of how dub-con it felt, even at the point right before their bonding.

BUT

He is a good guy at heart, and he genuinely feels remorse for his actions (and she not only grows a spine under his attention she also learns not to take his shit).

I love both the ML and the FL, but know he is really messed up in the first half of the book- half mad. He grows and realizes just how bad his behavior was, but please know it doesn't erase what he did and that he will make it up to her every day for the rest of their lives.

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theshrew's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-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

4.5

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restlessreaderjay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-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

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katyhosbein's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.0

I blasted through this book! I really enjoyed the lore in the book because there were slightly different takes on classic lore. Knocked it back one star because it definitely didn’t age well in the sense of non consensual sex but I knew that before reading.

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friends2lovers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

4.0

Reread Review from December 2021

I picked this up to do a quick skim through while waiting for my holds on The Warlord Wants Forever and Dark Needs at Night's Edge to become available. I wanted to refresh my memory about some of the characters/events, since the books in this series overlap timelines. I became so engrossed that I stopped skimming and started rereading in earnest. I think having some idea of where this series was heading made it a much more enjoyable reading experience. So, I'm raising my rating to 4-stars. A couple of thoughts:

These books all have heroine-centric story arcs, which is not what I expected from a series with alpha heroes. In this, Lachlain has been imprisoned and tortured for the last 150 years by Horde vampires. But, the story doesn't focus on his escape and revenge. Instead, his character serves as a catalyst for Emma's character growth. Lachlain is a fairly static character, while Emma a dynamic character and undergoes a drastic transformation. I love the structure of these books - the hero finds his mate (or bride) which sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to the heroine coming into her full powers.

This is kind of a road trip romance! Lachlain demands that Emma drive him to his castle in Scotland and a big chunk of the book is them on the road and sleeping in hotels.

I am not a fan of the Valkyrie as they were depicted in this book. I very much disliked how they babied and sheltered Emma. And they seemed to overreact to a lot of things. As a group, they're very eccentric and weird. I liked Kaderin in her book and I'm open to changing my mind about them as I progress through the series.

There are elements that may bother some readers, like dubcon and a tortured, violent, alpha hero. (Other content warnings are listed below.) Considering what Lachlain had just escaped from and that he found his mate at the same time, his extreme emotions, unstable mental state, and lashing out were understandable to me. I loved that, through dreams, Emma was able to experience what he went through and come to understand how much her happiness meant to him.

Original Review from March 2021

A Hunger Like No Other is the first full-length novel in the Immortals After Dark series. I have been wanting to explore the paranormal romance subgenre and figured I’d start with IAD since it’s so popular. Lachlain is a lykae (kind of like a werewolf) who has been imprisoned and tortured by vampires in the catacombs of Paris for the past 150 years. Emma is half vampire, half valkyrie and in Paris conducting research in the hopes of finding out the identity of her vampire father. When Lachlain catches a whiff of his mate, Emma, he escapes (by amputating his own leg!) and tracks her down.

Surprisingly I’m giving this a 2-star rating not because there were elements that particularly annoyed me or made me uncomfortable, but just because I found it kind of bland. ‘It was okay’ fits this really well. I started it 2 or 3 weeks ago and read bits and pieces every now and then. Which was probably not the best way to read it. I’ve said before that romances are best when they’re read over a short period of time (like a weekend). So, spreading it out probably negatively affected my perception of this.

There’s a lot of worldbuilding and introductions to characters that I should have paid more attention to. Especially since I do plan to try at least a couple more books in this series before deciding if I want to continue. I was too quick to dismiss all historical romances after trying and disliking Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series a couple of years ago. I don’t want to do the same with paranormal romances and judge the entire subgenre based on this series alone. I’m sure if IAD doesn’t work for me there are other series or authors that will. Crossing my fingers I like the other books in the series better.

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chiarara's review against another edition

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Normalises rape, abusive relationship, glorifies the fragility of the female protagonist.

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