Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Cruel Seduction by Katee Robert

28 reviews

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? No

4.75

I'm sooooo glad I enjoyed this one! I was put off because compared to how much I enjoyed the first three books, the fourth book let me down. It was just lackluster for me. But this one! I don't think I could ever rate any of these books five stars, because they're just so silly and the world-building and character development is too subpar for me. However, this book is probably the closest to my rating of these books five stars. I really enjoyed this one!

I've been loving why choose/poly books lately (something I never thought i'd enjoy). This book has more depth to the characters and we learn more about our main two especially (Aphrodite and Hephaestus). I really enjoyed the characters' dynamics with one another. Loved the Aphrodite and Hephaestus dynamic the best, their 2nd spice scene was everything. Honestly, they're the type of enemies to lovers that I enjoy. I'm hoping to find more books where the characters are actually enemies and hate each other. Although I enjoyed the dynamics, I wish we got more Adonis and Aphrodite scenes because I feel like we were told about their relationship instead of shown. Also, I thought they were going to all be crazy for one another and sadly that wasn't the case.

  Aphrodite is the common denominator amongst the foursome.

Something else that I enjoyed but that was lacking in the previous book was the plot. There were a lot of things going on in this book that made me want to keep going and see what happens. Lowkey wish Hercules gets a book. This is the 2nd book where he's been mentioned.

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 (one of her least spiciest in the series in my opinion; also love how much consent and protection is prioritized in these books)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Grief

smartcookiesca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

literarymary95's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.25

This wasn't my favorite of the series, but it was slightly better than Wicked Beauty.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

alicelalicon's review

dark tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

ghostmomxoxo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and War

annahamburger's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Stalking, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and War

apirlroge's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, and Death of parent

nolalee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

Cruel Seduction follows the complicated power struggle that concluded in Radiant Sin. Aphrodite, formerly Eris, marries the new murderous Hephaestus in a bid to keep him on a leash in Olympus. An absolute poly-pocalypse between Aphrodite, Hephaestus and others ensues as Olympus falls into unrest.
This addition to the Dark Olympus series left so much to be desired. The chemistry that Katee Robert can make so effortless felt clunky and confusing. The timing was rushed, the relationships didn't have time to fill out and at 3/4's of the way through I could not believe it was almost time to close the book.
Eris/Aphrodite is such a complicated and interesting character and I wish we would have spent more time with her and the mess Katee Robert's promised.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

kiwicove's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Abandonment

missdewza's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Listened to the audio book. One challenge for this one for me was that there are four POVs in the book, but only two narrators. The narrators obviously tried to have different voices for each, but sometimes they blended together. If you missed the brief name mention at the top of the chapter, it could be difficult to tell who was narrating just off the cuff.

I love the Dark Olympus series - definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. I find the plot-to-spice ratio to be relatively well balanced (both are buck wild, so it evens out). I also love the variety of relationship types that Katee represents in her stories. This one is heading towards a polyamorous throuple +1. 

As with all Katee Roberts books that I've read so far, check trigger warnings on her site. Some notable triggers for this book include: mentions of abuse, violence, murder, blood

Spice notes: FMM, FF, MM, dual p-in-v, rough

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder