Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

33 reviews

kdb_0620's review against another edition

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

2.5

A deep dive into the dark romance genre. If this is your first dark romance series, I'd recommend to start somewhere else. This book is fast-paced, and it starts exactly that way too. It is not for the light-hearted, and if you thought the first book in the series, The Ritual, was bad then this one is definitely NOT for you!

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hereiskyra's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

 Once again, off to a wild start and it barely slowed down. Sin wasn’t your typical MMC. It took a lot longer to warm up to him than I anticipated. I liked Elli a lot sooner, though. She was the definition of damaged and had a really rich, albeit traumatic, backstory. 

I felt a lot more emotionally for Elli and all the ways in which she suffered through her childhood and young adulthood. I can’t imagine a lot of women would be able to function if they had gone through some of the things she had. Not that she was “thriving” or anything, I mean she had some terrible coping mechanisms and surrounded herself with some of the most toxic people… but she was able to maintain some relationships and she still managed to live her life. 

Honestly, I feel like the way Sin handled her wasn’t what we normally see with victims like Elli. Usually we see them healing and being shown a healthy love… instead this was more toxic love and “push through the pain” vibes rather than any healing. Sin loved her the only way he could and that looked different. But I will say, he absolutely accepted her the way she was and didn’t try to change a thing about her. 

There were a lot of characters that absolutely sucked but her mother deserved a special place in hell. I love the element of revenge and that Sin made sure everyone got what was coming to them in one way or another, whether that be death or torture. 

I’m not sure how Sin and Elli got to a healthy enough place to have a family so quickly but I loved that 18 year check-in. It’s always satisfying to see a conclusion and happy ending for characters who’ve been through so much to get there. 

Tropes: 
Obsessed MMC
Stalker/Secret Identity
Best Friends Brother
College Secret Society
Touch Her and Die
Kinks/BDSM

Spice:
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

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fictionalized_bliss's review against another edition

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

2.5


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alis143's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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celeste77's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

This was a good, but dark read. This is about Elli's story.  This is definitely darker and with more triggers than The Ritual. Be sure to check your trigger warnings. If you're okay with the trigger warnings, then I definitely recommend this dark romance. This book definitely had more twists than I was expecting. From the very beginning, there were many intense, dark, kinky, and smutty scenes and they continued throughout the book. I did enjoy and loved the appearances of characters from The Ritual. 

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drjenn's review against another edition

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challenging dark

3.0


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alli_the_bookaholic13's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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amanda_reads13's review against another edition

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

1.0

Sin has been obsessed with Ellie for 
years and already claims her as his.  But she is promised to another.

This book is very dark and incredibly unhinged, so check the TW before starting (it's a long list).

Ellie has been through hell and back. She is convinced that she deserves all the bad things that happen to her and eventually just accepts that this is her lot in life. I really wanted to see her get her revenge and in a round about what she does, but I wanted her to be the one to light the match. She has been groomed by most of the men in her life and is SA a lot... Even by Sin who apparently "loves" her. (It's not CNC, it's R@pe). It honestly feels like Sin is just continuing her grooming- he never using a safe word, ignores her pain, tries to control her, r@pes, and just keeps damaging this poor girl. 

Sin believes Ellie is his, yet he can never quite keep her safe. With all the cameras and stalking, you think he would be able to protect her better. He is the typical sadistic, obsessive, possessive, and unhinged MC with the personality of a wet blanket. Frankly, he is not likable or redeeming at all. 

Tropes: stalker, dark, college, forbidden, secret society

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elizabethb_21's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective 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? It's complicated

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xlaurareads's review against another edition

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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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

okay so i reallyyyy loved the ritual and after seeing fanart of sin, i had to read the sinner as well, but holy hell i was kinda disappointed with this book. i mean, the spice was quite nice sometimes but i absolutely hated that sin did almost everything without elli's consensus. there really was some fucked up shit in this book and i say that as a girly who LOVES dark romance...but hell, this was sometimes even too much for me, like bruh 80% of the book felt like sin should be kept in a single room deep in a psychiatry. while i do understand some reasonings behind the things he did (to elli), i hated most of them and found it really fucked up at times. i also felt like elli was, even though her backstory was ultimately tragic, was such a weak character and even sin, who claimed that he loved her and all, didn't care for her mental problems and never even thought about getting her to a therapist? weird for someone who says they love you, nope he was like "i'll fuck her up some more and she'll be fine". and they never even talked about things?! nah they just fucked them away. idk but i'm just not that happy with their relationship. the story itself was, however, quite good at times and really fucking dramatic. i liked how everything came together in the end, but still, i expected more from the book after reading the ritual. ryat will stay my no. 1 lord for the time being but i must say i'm quite excited for tyson's book, so glad he got one after all his help in the first two books. ps:
why is shantel so obsessed with getting the women pregnant? i get the being obsessed with my girl vibe but duh i just hate the pregnancy trope so much and really didn't need it twice in a row. and why tf do all the kids in these books have such weird names?!!
also: read the trigger-warnings!! 

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