kinda disappointed with this book. the writing and plot was good, but the chemistry and character work was very stilted. the relationship between raya and strickland felt very stiff, and the attraction part came out of nowhere. i can’t even call what they had romance because when they had non-physically intimate moments i didn’t feel any emotion, it just felt like they were info dumping to each other and then reacting in the most bland way. 

there was no growth in the trust department; every time the other person did something bad or untrustworthy instead of communicating about it they would try to get ‘revenge’ or just flat out ignore them. miscommunication is okay but it being repeated throughout the book really irritated me. 

the murder mystery aspect also was very rushed, sparsely discussed through the majority of the book and then dumped towards the last three or four chapters. i really struggled through nearly all of the chapters, and only really liked it towards the last ten.