Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Bad for the Boss by Talia Hibbert

9 reviews

reminiscences's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Body shaming

Minor: Stalking, Sexual harassment, Racism, and Panic attacks/disorders

peachani's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Gun violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Medical content, Racism, and Fatphobia

lesbegays's review against another edition

fast-paced

not rating this, since it feels unfair to rate a book talia hibbert has intentionally made “mysteriously disappear”. i absolutely understand why she did that. it’s a bit problematic, surprisingly dark, and very melodramatic in a way that reminds me of a wattpad story (if a decently written one) and not what i’d expect from having read her more recent books. it’s also rough around the edges and you can tell it’s from very early in her career.  i absolutely did eat this the fuck up, though. it still has her charm and early versions of some of my favorite elements of her more recent and polished writing. 
weirdly enough, this has made me more confident calling talia hibbert a favorite author, since i can trust that i’ll still enjoy even her worst works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Racism, Stalking, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Dementia

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

leahkarge's review against another edition

DNF @ 26%

making sexual advances on your employee when trying to convince her to report sexual harassment she faced at the hands of another employee is deranged behavior. as is threatening to put her over your knee and spank her for “bad behavior” when you’ve barely known her 48 hours. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder

zabeishumanish's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

Check trigger warnings! 
The book is absolutely stellar. 

These characters are remarkable well developed. At some points in the story the plot was weak for me, but the sheer vibrancy of every character on the page makes me want to entirely ignore that. Plot drawbacks that stand out are; not knowing why Theo felt comfortable pursuing Jen despite being so worried about her experience with workplace sexual harassment, Jen never meeting the sister Theo talks about constantly, information about Jen history with a panic disorder, and more backstory for everything surrounding the stalker situation. These are mostly small concerns and entirely overshadowed by the amazing cast. 

This is primarily a duel POV romance, with POV from the love interests. There are also three partial chapters from the perspectives of different side characters. I think I would normally find a break from story flow like that off putting, but I loved them. The first is Jen’s best friend Aria in over protective friend mode. When I read the section in her POV it felt like both a glimpse into Jen’s life that she would rather keep hidden and a potential way to introduce the POV of the next character in the series. When I got to the next side character POV though I got that these sections were designed to bring depth to the story and show the differences in human experience. The second side characters POV was Jen’s grandmother, who is suffering dementia like memory problems. The writing in the section made me cry as the familial love shown through earnest confusion and doubts. The third side characters POV was a lesser villain in the book. While hinted at earlier in the book, her internal monologue reveals her to be incredibly racist, which was jarring given the diversity of the book’s cast. The writing was artful, in all three cases, but especially with the racists perspective. The section made her both more distasteful and villainous while simultaneously a human with human worries, concerns, and feelings. There was so much marvelously more depth to the book that I was expecting from a romance. I’ve loved Talia’s more current romcom-y romance, but I adored how this book hit me in all the feels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Drug use, Fatphobia, Bullying, Sexism, and Racism

Minor: Pregnancy

jzthecatlady's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This was definitely a fun read, as Talia Hibbert’s books always are. Not sure how I felt about the boss/employee dynamic, but I think that’s just because it’s not my favorite trope, rather than the execution. I wish there had been slightly more plot, as I really enjoyed the story, and it was mostly spice. Theo was such an interesting character and I wish we’d gotten to learn more about him. I really enjoyed all the side characters, and I actually gasped at the plot twist! I just wish the plot elements had been a little further developed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Stalking

Minor: Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

sugardustedbooks's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

When a wrong email lands Jennifer in Theo’s office the attraction is instant for them both. Jennifer tells herself there is no way he’d be interested plus this is her job. Theo makes a futile attempt to squash his feelings because duh… but we all know how that works out don’t we? 

“But then her common sense returned, loud, demanding, and sounding frighteningly like her Grandma’s voice. 

Jennifer Johnson, you are not about to shit where you eat! 

Yep. Definitely Grandma.”

As the title suggests Bad for the Boss is an office romance and does contain a power imbalance which TH states at the start of the book. Although Theo is still technically everyones boss and obviously in a position of power I’m glad he wasn’t directly involved in her everyday work tasks/supervision and as always I am thankful that Hibbert always writes dual points of view so you always know what both Theo and Jennifer are thinking/feeling. That being said, the amount of times I did a face palm and said “oh my god” out loud were many. For someone who built & runs a business Theo does not think before he speaks/acts and I really wanted to tell him to just chill for a second buddy. It got intense fast and I felt like everything was moving at lightening speed but once I reminded myself it was a 200 page quick read I was able to set that aside and just enjoy. 

On top of navigating how messy this could make her job Jen also has a stalker. The girl can’t catch a break. I think it’s pretty easy to piece together but I don’t trust anyone so honestly everyone was a suspect. I liked the addition of a suspenseful storyline. It added some balance and intrigue throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

caseythereader's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Violence

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

This book is evidence that practice makes perfect. I see the spirit of Talia Hibbert’s later books in this, but it’s not as good as those. The main thing that kept taking me out of the narrative was Theodore. I felt like his actions didn’t make a ton of sense. He’s 40+ and a partner at a notable company yet he seems to never have any work to do. I know CEO types do not work anywhere near as much as those under them, but I’d imagine that someone would reprimand him for the way he was acting. 

Like others have said, the power imbalance is pretty uncomfortable, especially since Theodore is so controlling and doesn’t listen to what Jennifer wants, even about basic things, like not calling her Jenny. I just kept thinking about how easily an abusive person could and would take these same actions. I get that Theodore is supposed to be hot or whatever,

but the fact that he was THAT obsessed with Jennifer after only a few days after they met made me feel like he was fetishizing the idea of her more than anything else. This was giving me “shiny human syndrome” vibes. As great as Jennifer might be, he didn’t really know her yet.

I wasn’t expecting the stalker plotline. It felt like more of a distraction than anything else, especially since

plot lines like that of Lilliana didn’t really get resolved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Animal death, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Medical content, Fatphobia, and Drug use

Minor: Racism, Cancer, and Vomit

Sexual harassment