What this book suffered the most from was the fact that it’s a standalone. Too much happened in such a short amount of time. I was never able to build a deep connection to the characters because their arcs happened so quickly and constantly. I was just along for the ride, never with them. Plus, while at times the writing is beautiful, there’s many other points where it gives me the ick because “she wanted to see their demise” or whatever sounds like a cartoon villain cackling and twisting their mustache. The ending leaves the story open to a sequel, but if that’s the case, there should’ve been three books to build this tension, plot, and characters.

The potential was there— just not executed correctly.