Review: Credence by Penelope Douglas

Ever wondered what being locked in a cabin with three sex-crazed men would be like?

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@shereadsbooks.sometimes

Dates read: 17/04/25 to 22/05/25

Word to describe: Boundary-pushing

Star rating:⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Romantic Fiction, Romance, Smut Fiction, Erotic Fiction

Trigger Warnings: Please read before considering if this book is the one for you.

Suicide, mental health decline, abuse, physical assault, sexual assault without penile penetration, attempted penetration, spoken plan for rape, building fire resulting in injury, family mental abuse, child neglect, pseudo-incestuous relationships, attempted kidnapping, pregnancy scam, drug and alcohol abuse, child abandonment, death of a family member, cancer, animal cruelty.

The answer to the above question for me is no never. But this wild ride of a story got chosen as part of a buddy read with my friend @natscrotchetandbooks I had the book downloaded on my kindle as part of kindle unlimited because it was in the "you may like this" section. I didn't read the blurb or had a single idea of the story ahead - yeah I should've pre-read the blurb and warned myself.

The story begins with Tiernan de Haas dealing with the recent deaths of her rich, famous, and utterly estranged parents. They didn't have the best relationship but to her a double suicide whilst she was asleep two doors down and didn't get to say goodbye was cruel. Tiernan, whilst struggling with deep harboured hatred for the loss of her parents, and a need to run away from the media storm that has descended on her childhood home, finds herself too grateful when it is revealed in her parents will that she is under the legal guardianship of her step-uncle who lives in the middle of nowhere in a cabin.

Ready for her fresh start Tiernan takes no time to pack her belongings, say goodbye to her favourite nanny, and fly herself to the cold mountains of Colorado to live out the remainder of her 17th year. Since her uncle Jake is only her guardian until her 18th birthday Tiernan just has to count down until after the winter so she can be free. But (and because of course it's a plot line) that doesn't happen. Tiernan finds herself in a small cabin with no only her attractive step-uncle but also two muscle covered, bike riding, and charming step-cousins.

Jake, Noah, and Kaleb, are opposites of each other and find their way into Tiernan's heart in ways she never imagined. Starting out as an awkward introduction to a stoic Jake and womanizer Noah, Tiernan settles into the life as a ranch-hand. Tending to the horses, feeding the animals, cooking and cleaning, maybe throwing a few tantrums and harsh words at the men of the house here and there.

Her meeting with Kaleb borders on a sexual crime and she comes to understand that Kaleb can't speak and expressed himself through physical touch. Tiernan and the men can only pretend their isn't a crazy amount of sizzling sexual tension between Tiernan and them all. And then winter happens and they're all snowed in the cabin for a very long and very streamy three months. Then without spoiling the ending, lets say the readers see an attachment form between two very passionate lovers.

I enjoyed this book. It was wrote fairly well if not better than your average smut book but the plot line felt incredibly predictable. I knew which of the family she would end up with in the end, and saw the plot twists from a mile away. These easy to guess plot lines ruined a lot of the dramatic moments for me and just felt like I was reading any old cliché romance. The emphasis on the characters being "step" related also made it feel illegal to be reading - I understand that for the main plot to happen and the legal guardianship to work there had to be some relationship, couldn't it have been dad's best friend and done without the weird incest subtext?

I also didn't particularly enjoy the lack of consensual relationships in this book, the familial ties between them all and the weird tag teaming with the brothers *idk* its weird. I hated how Tiernan was infantilised by the male characters one minute and then a strong woman in charge of her sexuality the next. Sexual acts just seemed to happen to her rather than her being involved, and there's never a true discussion about her readiness for some of these things (you can't just wing anal and double penetration after being a virgin a chapter ago come on!).

This book is deemed the ultimate smutty fiction across TikTok. A hot man fantasy to be shared amongst the romance readers shelves. It was okay.