Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

40 reviews

imskylow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

This book is actually psychotic. Like I’ve read/listened to a lot of crazy books but this takes the cake by far. What on earth did I just spend 15 hours listening to? I can’t even recommend this to anyone like I could the first book. The first book was dark BDSM but this? This is that x100. It’s some of the most twisted, toxic, violent situations I have ever heard. I mean, I’m not going to sit here and lie and say that my imagination hasn’t wandered in this sort of twisted direction a time or two but I have never put it to paper or tried to make a believable story out of it. Realistically, a life like this would give someone so much mental damage and trauma!

Ellington is not only groomed and preyed upon by her step father growing up but also his friends. And then when Sin swoops in and kills get step father, “saving her”, he then proceeds to force sex on her while masked. His identity is hidden but this is the extent of their relationship initially. Somehow he’s able to call what her step father did “rape” but not  what he does. He thinks tying her down gagging her and giving her no way to say no is perfectly okay because she was made to belong to him? Psycho. This book still could have been dark, toxic and erotic if a safeword was included as well as aftercare. But no. Sin really just discards her after he’s rung everything out of her and she’s passing out. There’s almost 0% tenderness at any given point. There’s no halfway believable love between them. Ellie is just too abused to know any different and all the characters acknowledge that several times. Ellie honestly just needs to ditch everyone, move across the country and get extensive therapy and possibly go to rehab. You cannot honestly get me to believe Ellington would be a good sex therapist after her abusive mother (also a sex therapist???) knowingly allowing her daughter to experience CSA. ALSO, on that note, it’s was so effing unnecessary to have some of those CSA scenes on page. That gave me a massive ick. Shantel, babe, backpedal please. Goddamn, like what happened between the Ritual and this one?? Granted there were dubious things about the Ritual but it wasn’t ALL dubious like this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy

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

kpress15's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

2.5

This was sex with a sprinkle of plot. It also just felt like one bad thing after another happened to our FMC. I wanted to like it more. - the spice was spicy! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

mana_reads's review

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

alis143's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

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

inkshadows's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcohol

jessanicolesingh's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

This was my second read in the L.O.R.D.S. series, and I have to say I wasn't crazy into it. I was really hoping it would be like the 1st one, where I eventually came around to not hating the MMC 25% through, but that was not the case; I found him very unlikeable and I couldn't find anything redeemable. I also felt the MFC was very flat, her ONLY personality traits seem to be that she's a sex addict with a dead dad 🤷‍♀️ Regardless, I am still invested in the series and will trudge on through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent

elizabethb_21's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Blood, and Kidnapping

xlaurareads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail