Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Credence

"One phone call, a coach seat, and four states later, it finally occurs to me . . . I don’t know these people."

I have mixed feelings about this one. it was entertaining enough to pull me in and want to finish reading, but also the characters made me want to scream.

Tiernan is a meekly little thing who's never felt the love of her parents, not because they weren't there, but because they are too far up each other's asses to care about the fact that they chose to have a child. this causes her to not develop a personality or any self survival skills. she ships herself off to her "uncle" whom she's never met and barely heard of.

the boys are a combination of a 40somthing year old 'step' uncle who fucks the 25 y/o neighborhood skanks, a who psychopathic mute who immediately tried to rape her upon meeting, and Noah who I kinda liked.

I will never understand why she chose keleb, they barely spend time together and when they are in the same room he has the most red flags out of all of them. you could play a drinking game with all the shitty things he does to her; but for some reason she forgives every little thing he's done the second she finds those books.

I'll give it to Penelope, she did have me feeling a bit for him while I was reading those 'journal' entries, however his trauma and inability to speak does not cancel out how toxic he was the whole book.

that threesome scene had me sweating like a sinner in church.

don't even get me started with the ending. automatic loss of star for pregnancy trope, not all stories need to end in a marriage and kids.

Content Warnings

ashburttt's review against another edition

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medium-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

0.25

Content Warnings

abbysingh'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

mproper1's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

I have never felt compelled to leave a review for a book until now. I was nervous to read this book after seeing such mixed reviews about its content. I recently discovered Penelope Douglas and made quick work of both Punk 57 (which I liked) and Birthday Girl (which I loved). Credence was definitely not an easy read due to the heavy topics and taboo relationships, but I couldn’t put this book down!! It was emotional and dark and intense and quite honestly one of the most heartfelt and genuine romances I’ve ever read. This story provides an emotionally raw visual of loving fiercely and unapologetically.

I would not recommend someone read this without reading the content warnings first!

Content Warnings

rshelton's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

yoshi_4's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

illegal, if i didn’t buy this 2 years ago, i would have never read it

Content Warnings

nicolaj1994's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

if_books_be_the_food_of_love's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-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

I loved this book! It’s the first Penelope Douglas I’ve read and I flew through it in 24 hours.

When Tiernan’s parents commit suicide, she goes to live in a remote mountain cabin with her father’s step-brother and his two sons. Her uncle and cousins, for all intents and purposes.

But when the snow sets in and the cabin is cut off for months, can the 3 men resist Tiernan’s allure? And can she resist them?

I loved the spice in this book; I thought it was really well done. What stopped this book being a five star read for me was that the why choose turned into a, she chose. And I’m not sure how I felt about that message that monogamy is the “right” path to choose, after so skilfully creating the why choose narrative.

Content Warnings

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