I don't know what happened. I remember the first book being so good and I was excited to get my hands on book 2, but I couldn't even finish it. This book is a woke woman's wet dream...

Within the first 28% of the book, we have:

- Mentions of fat phobia, which does not exist. No one is afraid of fat people and this is coming from a fat bitch who has been fat her whole life. Fat is a choice, it's something you can change. When someone makes fun of you for being fat, they are not fatphobic, they're just a bully. If someone makes fun of your nose, are they nosephobic?? No. Stop making excuses to make yourself feel better about something you can change but refuse to. If you want to be fat and you're happy, more power to you, but stop trying to push this dumb narrative that people who don't like being fat are fatphobic. Grow up.

- Women are amazing: Women do no wrong, they're all so beautiful and wonderful and should be uplifted even when they are terrible people because women are a gift from god and way better than men.

- The stereotypical sex-crazed perverted caricature male character: because all men are evil, dirty horrible perverts that shouldn't be left alone with children. Mind you, I know there are bad men out there just like there are bad women, but the way this character was written is just bad. It doesn't feel like a genuine, real character, it feels like the author being mad at men and wanting to take a dig at them.

- Skin color is all that matters: How many times can you fit POC in one chapter? We get it, their most important quality is the color of their skin, you know, that thing they were born with and can't change. Who cares if they are kind, hardworking, good people. No no, we only see their skin color and must lift them up because we all know POCs are too weak to stand on their own. No, you gotta help that black woman because she's too weak to make it on her own. How do people not find this insulting? How do people focus this hard on race? They are so much more than their skin color but that's all people focus on. It's sad.

- The incompetent detective: Because everyone knows a detective will turn to a group of gossiping women to help him solve a crime because the cops are incompetent. They're so bad at their job, so desperate, that they will actively seek out civilians, putting them in danger, because he can't handle the job himself. And if he was truly worried about her mental health like she kept pushing he is? He wouldn't do that. But again, man bad, man dumb, man useless without a woman.

- The token lesbian: Because no book is complete without forcing a lesbian character. Don't get me wrong, I've read a lot of books featuring lesbians and gays and they were well written. The characters felt real and focused on their personality, not their sexuality. This one, though? It doesn't feel like a genuine representation, it feels like inserting a lesbian character for the sake of having a lesbian character. There's no depth, no feeling. Just a wet blanket that happens to like girls.

Speaking of the characters, they are all terrible. They're either stereotypical or complete wet blankets. There's no in-between. I know the author wrote this from a dark place and, honestly? It shows. It felt like I was listening to her diary or her therapy logs instead of reading a cozy mystery. Instead of venting into a book, I think she should have gone to therapy and gotten genuine help because this book ain't it.

I hope she's doing better now but I'm done with this series. If I wanted to be preached at like this, I'd go on X 😂