I read this in one day but that’s more of a reflection on the amount of free time I had available today and the plot being very easy.

This was…….ok. A trope I really dislike is…maybe I’ll call it fake identity? And the subsequent intense lying that must ensue to maintain this fake identity. I strongly dislike this. It is almost always a man lying to a woman, and then shit happens and the jig is up, the woman must say “yes you’ve been lying to me for weeks/months while in a pretend relationship where we had sex many times but I forgive you easy peasy!! No worries here!!” No thank you.

I like the female friendships and how that group formed, the convos on being a Black woman in STEM, familial and societal pressures/expectations, and the undercover plot (idk why that part isn’t discussed in the description as it’s what the entire book is about).

ALSO another criticism: because we don’t know about the secret undercover plot, for the first 25% during Daniel’s POV he seems like a calculating manipulator who uses women to get what he wants. It’s weirdly cold and clinical and then as soon as the two get involved it immediately disappears, never to be addressed again.

I will still read the second one and then decide if this series is for me or not.