BDSM Hogwarts, but Everyone’s Hot and Emotionally Damaged | The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

Let me just preface this review by saying: I read the trigger warnings and still yeeted myself into this book like a lamb into a woodchipper. So if you’re expecting a quiet little dark academia romance with brooding stares and occasional hand-holding—RUN. This isn’t Dead Poets Society. This is Fifty Shades of Fuck Around and Find Out, with a secret society so unhinged it makes Skull & Bones look like a chess club.

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

It’s hot. It’s deranged. It’s like someone stirred Eyes Wide Shut, a mafia romance, and an Ivy League fever dream into a blender and poured it over a red flag smoothie. And I drank every. Last. Drop.

Let's Talk Plot!

I think there’s a university. Classes are allegedly taken. But who has time for lectures when you're too busy getting branded by a shadowy frat-cult and getting railed in increasingly illegal locations? This book does not pause. It throws you headfirst into the spicy thunderdome and shouts, “Survive, bitch!”

Genre & Tropes/Themes

Power. Control. Trauma. Lube. The usual.

Things That Made My Brain Go “WHEEEEE!”

Okay, yeah, it’s unhinged. Some of the emotional arcs feel like they were written during a manic episode. The relationship dynamics will make your therapist sob into a bottle of wine. And yet... it works?? Like a really messed-up clock that still tells the time, but also whispers “safeword” at 3PM.

Also, Ryat says things like “You’re mine” in a way that should get him a restraining order but instead got him five stars and my soul.

What my Braincell Has Spoken!

If you want to read about rich psychos doing unspeakably hot things in secret cult dungeons while emotionally imploding—this is your Roman Empire. It’s dark, sexy, chaotic, and just the right amount of “Ma’am, this is a Wendy’s.”

But for the love of your sanity: read the trigger warnings. Unless you, like me, are already too far gone.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to join a fake cult and make questionable choices in the name of literature.

🧨 QUOTES THAT SLAPPED 

ME ACROSS THE FACE:

"It's not the violence I crave (...) Although I like it rough, I think it's more of the idea of a man being so overcome with desire for me that he can't be stopped. And the fact I have no say over what he does. The feeling of having no control makes me feel in control. I let him catch me even though I run. I let him do it even though I fight him".

⚠️🚨 WARNING: This book is basically a trauma piñata. If your brain is held together with emotional duct tape, turn back now. Major trigger bombs in there. Proceed only if your coping mechanisms are wearing combat boots. 🚧🧠💥

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