Okay, before we get into the real review, I would like to advise everyone interested in reading False Start to check your triggers, especially those relating to drugs, addiction, and the side effects of detoxing.

Now. Holy crap this is a good book. It is not a happy-go-lucky sapphic romance (although make no mistake, it is certainly a sapphic romance). It is a raw, down and dirty, sometimes ugly, sometime steamy, always realistic take on addiction, grief, and mental health. It's about found family and loving someone despite—or perhaps because of—their imperfections, because let's face it, who among us is perfect? Knox handles this with a deft and gentle hand, and Nia and Cat are so well written that I felt like I really knew them. The side characters are well developed and I felt a connection to virtually everyone who graced the page, and I say this as someone who didn't read Crossed Over, which is part one of this duet, so it can definitely stand on its own.

I had an ARC and I do hope that the published version got one more pass through a proofreader to catch a few things that I noticed, like missing closing quotation marks and a few incorrect words (heckles instead of hackles, too instead of two at one point, that sort of thing), but I'm not dinging this one for that since my copy may not have been the final edit. Honestly, even with that this probably would have stayed a 5-star read for me.

I received a free ARC from BookSirens, but my review is unbiased and left voluntarily.