Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman

16 reviews

alexiafox's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

jessicatanderup's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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

4.75

This book is roller coaster of well-written emotions. A mystery and love story, mixed with horrifying and sobering depictions of the circumstances women and girls endured in Regency England. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Murder

rotkrox1521's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

3.5

The romantic development between the main couple felt unearned & its pacing was unrealistically quick (from first meeting to love). Not so much a collection of mysteries/cases as a collection of daring rescues of vulnerable women and children. The book is quite the juxtaposition of the light tone of the London nobility and the darkness of the crimes that the Colebrook sisters encounter. Also some interesting historical tidbits, like mastectomies were already being done in the early 1800s.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Racism, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape

tebs's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

akiskies's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Darker than expected. Well written and engaging. The novel is broken down into a few different episodes/investigations which kept the story moving. Looking forward to the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

lorialdenholuta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

 I noticed other reviewers expected a lighthearted romp, based on the book’s cover. This is a fine lesson in NOT judging a book by its cover. Our Ill-Mannered Ladies, while quite prim and proper in appearance, are anything but. In the Regency Era, women were treated as less important than men. If the trio of adventures in this book are based in some truth, women were treated horribly, often to the point of torture and even death.

The stories are dark, revealing the worst aspects of Regency men’s behavior. But, this is balanced a little by the inclusion of a good man with a sympathetic heart, who believes in the value of women. You won’t recognize this at first, as he’s a character that’s not fully revealed at our first meeting. This was one of my favorite aspects of the book. the slow revelation of a truly good and worthy man.

But back to our Ill-Mannered Ladies. 42-year-old twin sisters Lady Augusta and Lady Julia Colebrook are close enough to share ‘twin language’, with the ability to exchange entire sentences via a meaningful look. They are also financially independent and quite capable of looking after themselves.

Together, they fight crime!

Okay, that was flippant, but really, they do. Specifically, crimes against helpless women committed by men who believe their gender makes it all right to do so. This book follows their exploits during three adventures. Each deals with different situations featuring ladies in distress, though I found the sister’s cunning plans to be very similar in each story. This didn’t detract from my interest in the stories, it was just something I noticed.

I mentioned earlier that these stories are a bit dark. They need to be in order for the women’s plights to be meaningful. I must caution though, the final story is *very* dark, and to my mind goes completely overboard with the use of a certain substance that all humans produce but are usually not compelled to wallow in. My goodness. The digging of a short trench and a daily bucket of water would have solved the problem right away. But the author clearly felt the need of some shock value to underscore the horrors of the situation.

That aside, I was quite absorbed by the lives and adventures of the two sisters, and all the women who benefitted from them. Also, I’m a big fan of the Victorian era but my knowledge of the Regency era has lots of gaps. In particular, I liked learning about sealing wafers. I knew about sealing wax, but wafers were new to me, and now I love them. So practical! Go google them and see for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

lea's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

2.5

The trigger warnings are no joke. I have barely ever been triggered by a book but this was hard to get through at times. 

It's insta love too and the ending was kinda unsatisfying. 

For how hard it is to read, I am still giving it 3 stars because it felt honest in those parts. 

Edit: nah the more I think about it the less I like it. Lowering. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cursed10fold's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

rhi_'s review against another edition

adventurous fast-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? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Deportation

churrocaitie's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What a fun book that felt like an adventure of a lifetime for women in the “Bridgerton” era (aka Regency England). 

It took me a good halfway through before I saw where the book was going but when I got there, I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. I enjoyed how special each new character was that was introduced, and I loved how unique and dark Alison Goodman wrote the storyline with “history” as a baseline. I’m always a sucker for anything not-modern and I totally got my fix in this, while also enjoying a story that was perfectly adventurous enough for my liking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexism, Violence, Excrement, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, and Kidnapping