“When my mind wanders, it is always to you.”

Spent Identity is surely exactly everything that it is marketed as: romantic and suspenseful.

I should mention that I haven’t read the first book in this series but this book can stand on it’s own in my opinion. If you are interested in reading Spent Identity and are wondering if the first book needs to be read before getting into this one: I completely understood everything that was happening, you’ll be fine.

— overall thoughts: 3.5 —

First of all,

Spoiler

that dead guy in the barn in the very first chapter

completely caught me off guard and captured me right off the bat. Just from that opening scene I already knew that the mystery would be intriguing.

I have honestly not read that much adult mystery but I seriously enjoyed the atmosphere of this book a lot more than I thought I would. It’s safe to say that it reached my expectations of a romantic murder mystery. The writing style is not overly flowery, the actions scenes were fantastic in my opinion, and I just really loved following Alec and Annalise.

Other than that, the suspense is definitely there and the mystery was my favorite aspect. The overall intense and dark atmosphere played a big role in my enjoyment.

Alec and Annalise’s dynamic was so easy to flow with, especially given that I did not have the the emotional connections to them as people who have read the first book did. Aside from the significant lack of diversity I have to say that it may be slightly cliché but still definitely romantic. Anyhow, there was far from a shortage of characters to be attached to even if you are not sold on the romance.

I do not have much of a say in terms of character development from the first book since I did not read it prior to reading Spent Identity but here the characters remained mainly consistent. With that said, it’s safe to say that this is more of a plot-driven book and I would recommend this to you if you enjoy the romantic mystery vibe.

Unfortunately, the plot felt like it was dragging in too many parts for me personally and that was the main reason that I was not able to give it the full 5 stars. It is slow paced so I get that was for the suspense aspect. Spent Identity follows a one track plot for the most part but it was not a bug letdown, just a personal preference. At the same time, I liked that it was easy to listen to and the plot was not overly complex.

I would recommend this to anyone into romantic murder mysteries, you’ll get what you are looking for.


— I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobook Empire. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it. —

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