That Time I Took Down A Cult

Cozy Cult Cuties #1

by Rebel Carter

My name is Buffy Martinez and I’ve spent my entire life training to be a wife, but when a cult is the one leading me down the aisle there is no happily-ever-after waiting for me and I end up a virgin that can’t drive because my family totally sold me out to be a virgin sacrifice.

Jokes on everyone who thought they could lie to me because the god they tried to sacrifice me to just claimed me as his bride.

WRATH-not a god but a demon, and my devoted husband all the same.

Lucky me, he’s made it clear the only thing he cares to do is be a good husband, and what better way to prove his devotion than helping me teach an entire cult exactly what revenge looks like because there is no WRATH like a woman scorned.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Dark Romance, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy Romance

390 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 14, 2023

About the author

Rebel Carter loves love. So much in fact that she decided to write the love stories she desperately wanted to read. A book by Rebel means diverse characters, sexy banter, a real big helping of steamy scenes, and, of course, a whole lotta heart.

Rebel lives in Colorado, makes a mean espresso, and is hell-bent on filling your bookcase with as many romance stories as humanly possible!

Reviews

[kendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ about 33%
the pacing was just so weird and it was possibly the most insta lovey insta love ive ever seen

like dont get me wrong i can ignore insta love sometimes if theres a connection but he literally went from 1 to 100 in the span of like.. two pages? not kidding


the background plot was interesting but as i stated the pacing of it was so weird and it made it hard to enjoy :(


i might come back to this at some point because it is really promising and maybe its right book wrong time?

but this is my review for now :((




——————————————————————————


pre-review:
cozy fantasy dark romance you say..????

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This read like a fan fic written by a 15 year old. Super cringe

[TheReaderVert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thrill is Gone


Puling up this read, it had a lot going for it 🤔 a cozy dark romance novel❓ It left so many questions, and I decided to give it a gander. The first 30 pages are a pure addictive blast. You just want to keep going, but looking at the page count, I was personally confused. No way there is that much plot to make this work that this length. I was giddy. We were getting straight to the nitty gritty... a cult going horribly wrong and a sumoned demon not taking the v!rgin kill but instead wifing her and exacting revenge Who wouldn't want to read that. Until things start to come to a crashing halt. 


😕Buffy is the protag/FMC, and she kicks some ah and takes names. Ok then, but this feels more like a women's lit exploration. The story is very singualry focused on her and her journey and her reactions. Of course, that's what happens where it's 1st person singular, but we don't see any good character points from the demon once he comes.

 

😕Wrath is called wrath! I mean, it doesn't get more stone cold vengence than that. With a great bloody intro, you know he's going to handle business. Until you realize he isn't. He feels like a condiut to the FMCs' thoughts and actions. He doesn't make moves unless it's moves that please her. He doesn't want to do anything except bow to her or acquesince to her.There is little passion when you think there will be tons. He feels defanged, neutured, or reduced. His lines feel like lines a female writer would give to a male character, but his lines feel very female and female-centric. 


😕Women's lit with a romantic entanglement is the best description. There isn't really a smoldering romantic tease here. Even though Wrath/Demon/Damon talks a good game (kinda), their bond is insta-love like but without any good romantic smexy tension. So much of the plot hits the brakes unfathomably for no reason as soon as we get to the Demon summoning.


😕Stalled out plot. We were promised vengeance. We have a vengeance demon. We were promised the FMC who grew up in a cult and becoming badass. We have to wait through a lot of plot being told to us and story points being told to us. Wrath is sort of leshed, and the reasons really are convoluted. The pacing would have worked much better as a novella with at least half the story cut out. We don't see his character growth or interest at all outside of the FMC. The whole story really is just her journey and tale. That's not a romance. A romance should be the readers feeling how they become a couple or why they are a couple. 


😕There was a slight immature glean to the story. If you are a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the tv show), you know there were episodes with goofy lightness mixed in with the dark horror/thriller. Here, I think that's what the cozy dark romance vibe was trying to accomplish, but it feels very strongly like a frivolous fluffy episode of Buffy. A filler episode when this could have been a contender if it was shorter and stuck to the original fast pace. 


Had to put up the ✌🏾 at some point because the thrill was gone.

[Rachel McCoy-Bensch · Rating 1 out of 5]

The concept of this was super fun- a gal being almost sacrificed to a demon by her cult but surviving & getting revenge on the entire cult- HOWEVER, delivery was such a letdown. It just draggggged on for me. It couldn’t really hold my attention unfortunately, it felt really juvenile in the writing as well. Should’ve been a DNF.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed my time reading this, there were a lot of things that would have benefited from a proof read or an editor. There were a lot of inconsistent details, for example she mentions wearing pants but then mentions her skirts, and those little details are very frequent so it was hard to over look. I also feel like this didn’t need to be as long as it was, but all of that aside this was a fun little “dark” romance

[Itsjustmelove · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 59 pages in. Inconsistent. Immature. I was drawn by the initial concept but it feels like it was written by a pre-teen.

[Fey Flowers (enbytweenthepages) · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 31%

I didn't get into it, I'm only annoyed by the insta love plot, because it's just much too much in my eyes and unfortunately I didn't like the way it's written... Sorry but I couldn't finish it.

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ pg 270 on Kindle.

I liked the premise of this and the whole devoted demon husband thing. However, the execution just wasn't what I was expecting. The writing felt juvenile - like a mediocre Wattpad story I would have read when I was a teen. The plot seemed to be all over the place with different side quests and never quite finishing the characters' conversations about important world-building details. Additionally, the cult aspect felt a little weird; of all the things to make a requirement, smiling is required of all women. It just felt like an attempt to make cults seem more tame and even kid-friendly.

One thing that I wish maybe would have played a bigger part of the story (it may have after I DNF'd) was the whole common cult towns. Carter alluded to the fact that many or at least cult towns like Sweet Tooth were common. It would have been interesting if Carter did Sweet Tooth as the initial takedown part of the plot instead of the side quests and then had getting rid of cult towns as the bigger plot point.

The romance part was a little neglected. It started okay with the insta-love between Buffy and Wrath - which is a trope I love in books. However, the romance and relationship took a back seat to the side quests. Overall, I wouldn't say that this book is bad, but it definitely isn't good.

[Katherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I tried—I really did. But this was physically painful to read; I just couldn’t get through it. Life is short, and I don’t want to waste any more time. Call it an act of self-preservation. Our time on this earth is precious. 🥲

[Yale Janguiê · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry. I really tried. Couldn’t get past 17%. I was bored. DNF.

[Haley McDowell · Rating 2 out of 5]

More cult less flower metaphors

[Melissa3108 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf! The writing was not it.

[Bookedondreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A COZY DARK ROMANCE? SIGN ME UP!!

I have been called a chaos gremlin, or classically chaotic, a few (lot) of times and I wanna say, this book matched my energy. I am always so happy to find books that fall into this category and with this exact energy and the idea is FIVE STARS!! but unfortunately thex are some things I have to criticise.

It felt chaotic and I love chaotic but it wasn't always a good kind of chaotic

There were a lot of inconsistencies in that book (like during one of the sex scenes Wrath pulled down her pants and on the next page he pulled up her skirt (which had me thinking first that this was a very questionable fashion choice on Wrath and Buffy's side, 2000's style) but because the book only has a timeframe of two days, it's highly possible that she was wearing the same thing chapters later that same evening when she said she was glad she didn't wear pants because she was hot.) And that's only ine inconsistency, (another would be saying demons don't sleep and then the demon sleeps). And now that I mentioned the time frame, that leads me to my next point:

I personally feel like the time frame was too short. 2 days is basically nothing and the main couple already confessed that they love each other on the first day and that threw me off. I get that there is a bond but I think the would would have benefited if it was a larger time frame altogether.

Another point is, which is my personal preferance, that I would have liked more found family scenes. The crumbs we got were ADORABLE and maybe the an epilogue farther om the future could have centered more around this?

Also formatting and punctuation marks were missing partly as did "speech marks"

But this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book. Obviously, I gave it 4 stars. Did this damoen my enjoyment? A little because with a little more editing this could have easily been 5 stars but all in all, I enjoyed it. The characters were fun, the banter was fun, the way Wrath was so smitten with Buffy was fun. The length of the book was good. I've read it through in a day.

If the author would write a sequel to this ot even another book in the very same category as this, I would read it. I would jist hope that they maybe focus more on little details and remember these details throughout the book.

[thelittlereaderthatcould · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots to say. Lots to say.

First off , the idea of a cult survivor and the demon the cult was worshipping falling in love was so weird and wacky and wonderful. I must admit the insta love thing never really tickled my fancy but i definitely did internally swoon when Wrath immediately started worshipping Buffy. It was incredibly funny but also very sweet.

I liked Buffy enough. I think she was quite childish though( I don’t think that can be helped because she was both a brainwashed girly and also very very young) but I liked her spunk and how she took to revenge the way a fish does to water. Wrath was precious and devoted and I loved his competitive baking persona.

What really made this book so funny and likeable was the gang. Buffy was collecting strays like no tomorrow but it was honestly just really really precious. The whole cast of characters was really entertaining so much so that I didn’t want the conflict to be resolved purely so I could continue to read their banter.

Overall, weird and entertaining but also sweet as hell. If you want to read a romance/ paranormal book that feels like a crazy but good trip then this is for you.

[Gabz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall? Phenomenally meh. I think it's meant to be a very lighthearted take on fiction, in the vein of Undead and Unwed, or perhaps the general work of Eve Langlais. The problem with that is that because it's very tongue in cheek, it's very hard to keep your patience with it and not skim through for the interesting parts.

I think it's a me issue, but I struggle to enjoy a book that doesn't really take itself seriously, because then how should I? I'm not talking about serious in the sense of debating the merits of eugenics compared to negative eugenics, but a general commitment to producing an entertaining work, either through the plot it follows or the tribulations of the characters portrayed.

[Jess : Library of Scorpio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had so much potential! I loved the idea of the plot, cult member meant for sacrifice chosen by the demon they worship and they agree to help take down the cult.

I struggled through reading it though. I'm not entirely sure why. I got confused in certain parts of the book about who certain characters were, or what they were doing. It almost seemed like there was too much going on for only 300 pages of book. I found myself skipping back pages trying to figure out what was going on or who someone was, and it totally took me out of my reading flow.

Entertaining but lacking that spark. 3 stars.

[Jodi Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could’ve been better

I had high hopes for this but to be honest it could have been better. Without spoiling it for you, in my opinion the timeline was a mess and it had too many “side quests”. It felt jumbled and unnecessary at times. The end was good and the plot had promise but the middle was just meh.

[Nerdyviv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it if I could give this book ten stars I would! It was funny and cute. Wish we knew more about the cult or how Buffy’s parent meet. I’m hoping based of the way this book ends we will get a second book or maybe a new town, cult and a new harbinger.

[Marjaan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Immature, cliche, boring and a waste of time

[Sheza Saeed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am never going to follow bookstagram/booktok recommendations, because what the hell was this?

[Brave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really torn. This was genuinely so fun and I would recommend it overall...but:

The pacing felt weird, the tone was weird, some of the storytelling choices were weird...I couldn't ever really grasp if this was intended to be dark or cozy or a mix of both, to be honest. There were also some errors and things that absolutely should've been caught with a good editor which my autistic ass DID notice and DID get jarred out of the story for lmao. The stakes start not to feel as serious when you're like "I must save my friends! Jk here's a literal bake-off scene." It's also wild to have your main character like "the cult in my town" right from the jump and be reading in present tense/not a flashback. Surely if you know it's a cult, you know the connotation of the word?? Idk. Weird choice.

So overall, a fun time, I did laugh out loud, and I'd definitely read more from Rebel Carter, but this just didn't QUITE work for me (but ALMOST did!).

[Terra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - storyline, humor, and characters were all great! My only issue was actually the smut (a big shock to all who know me). This would have been perfectly fine without it, or with some better timing. Overall, lovely book

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was incredibly cute, cheesy, and well bloody. I love the female empowerment and taking vengeance on evil men. It was insta-love, humor filled, and mildly spicy. I love the side characters, I really hope we eventually learn Velma’s whole ordeal.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more like a 3.5 to me. It was fun but also violent and I love it. You guys know I’m always down for a woman getting her lick back and that is exactly what this book is like. 1.5 stars deducted because I didn’t like how all over the place it felt, but the story was still good!

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Absolutely loved it. If you are a Kimberly Lemming fan, and you (like me) have been chasing the high of reading her Mead Mishaps series for the last year, this book is your next read. Its fun, funny, absolutely off the wall at times, and feminist to its core in a way that doesn't feel like its shoving anything in your face. I think the MMC is my perfect male love interest, he's dangerous and evil but he doesn't do anything *for* the FMC. Instead, he uplifts her to seek her own revenge and revels in the joy of watching the woman he loves tear the world apart. Its hilarious, sweet, bloody, and so satisfying. Its a cozy fantasy romance with a guaranteed happy ending but lots of blood, gore, laughs, and "good for her's" along the way. I whipped through this book and am honestly so sad the next one isn't out yet. I'll probably just tide myself over by reading everything else Rebel Carter has written in the meantime. Also, I read the entire book without knowing that Rebel and Kimberly Lemming are friends and just had to laugh when I read the Acknowledgments because finding out they know each other just confirmed all the things I was already thinking. They both have a way of creating stories that feel rooted in very real experiences of women while taking place in the fantastic fantasy lands. Its exactly the kind of romantasy I like. If you are also tired of hearing about the booktok famous books and are looking for something fun and entertaining to give you a break from the real world while satisfying a need to watch badass women murder evil oppressive men, this is your book.

[CL Carman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed TTITDAC. Carter's humor is right up my alley and this story kept me giggling. It's a perfect novel for those who's guilty pleasures are British thriller comedies (think Simon Pegg/Nick Frost style films like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead).

The insta-love made me roll my eyes at times but it was sweet and it made sense given the context. Buffy went full send on being Wrath's Harbinger and the ending was exactly what I needed to be content with their story coming to a close.

The side characters really gave this story the comedic relief it needed considering the trauma Buffy and the other Blossoms went through.

I hope to see more from the gang! Definitely with a story line containing a bake off. 🤭

[Cee · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 10%/ 5 chapters

meh I think there were moments that were supposed to be funny which I found annoying, so the humor isn't working for me. I was trying to push through that, but by the end of chapter 5 when Wrath does show up there are so many plot holes! And yes, maybe it is because I don't have cult-brain so I'm asking more questions than Buffy, but I don't want to wait, continue reading, and hope that one of the adults explains to her all the things I'm questioning.

[Marissa Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m afraid this one just wasn’t for me. It had some pretty fun parts and I was hooked in the beginning but unfortunately it lost me somewhere in the middle around where they meet a character named Charlie.

It just got a little too silly for my taste. It’s still a fun book that I’m sure tons of people will love!

[Beth Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely

So cute and murdery.
Everything about it was so cute.
The love between the main couple.
The banter.
The overzealous acolyte. Lol
If you love culty cozy books this is for you.
Something light.
😊🫰🏻🖤

[Sarah Fay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had so much potential but was such a let down