I came into reading this about a year after reading the series, so I enjoyed this quite a bit! I knew going into it that it was a prequel, and while you could definitely read this first before the other ones, it’s kind of fun to read it in release order. There’s something about going backwards and making connections as to why characters are the way they are. 

I also love how this fuled Pipa’s crime obsession. It was a fun little extra story that I as fun to try to solve along the way!