Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

66 reviews

alyssasmith917'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol

katelyndunne01's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

hilary89's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

Basically just trauma porn with a super convoluted plot. I'm not sure if it's because I listened to the audiobook rather than reading it, but midway through I totally lost the plot and spent most of the rest of the book confused. The only reason I stuck with it was I had to many questions that needed answers (and I guess they were answered by the end, sort of). It was especially irritating because the book was ridiculously long (17+ hr) and it took forever to get any answers.

The only character that received any real development was Ellie... it was never explained why Sin is the way he is and how he became so shitty. 

Lots of sex... all exploitative and very little of it consensual. That's not really a dealbreaker for me, but it got super repetitive. 

Basically, it was a book trying desperately to push dark romance/erotica boundaries but it was all just poorly executed. 

The only side character in this universe I'm interested in is Tyson and he's the focus of the next book so I might still give it a try, but if it's as much of a mess as this one I'll just DNF and cut my loses.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

tayler_morg's review against another edition

dark fast-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

If you want 450+ pages of pure sex, this is the one for you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

iida_a's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

mana_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Pedophilia, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Gaslighting

hereiskyra's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

fictionalized_bliss's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

celeste77's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Drug use

drjenn's review against another edition

challenging dark

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail