This was just weird… and not in a good way. 

One of the main problematic elements of this was that the audiobook narrator sounds like a 60+ year-old man, whereas the main male character is a 30ish-year-old hot, hot, hottie. This meant that I could only ever think of Ryan as a grouchy old man, making the ‘romance’ stuff with Anna feel ever grosser than it already was. 

It also meant the ‘romance’ stuff felt really creepy because it meant there was a LOT of a 60-year-old man reading a 30-year-old man’s sexual thoughts about a young woman AND a 60-year-old man reading a young woman’s sexual thoughts about a 30-year-old dude. All very weird. 

And then it comes to the actual ‘romance’ itself, which was just disturbing. Ryan’s possessive thoughts about Anna after knowing her for LESS THAN 24 HOURS are nothing short of psychotic. She should be running for the hills. He got blazingly angry finding out that she has had partners in the past?? 

Not to mention the two of them making out pretty much the second they find out her sister is probably dead??? I don’t care if they both wanted it, and that they were both aware it was wrong, it was still gross. And the language used throughout was also insanely gross – “plundered her mouth”??? Blurgh. 

And lawd what a misogynistic, judgemental dick Ryan is. Not a single part of me could root for, or even care about him, in any way. 

The actual mystery of the book did seem interesting, but in no way does it make up for the fucked up ‘romance’, constant weird sexual overtones, Ryan being an utter dick, and generally judgemental writing from the author. All of which was then compounded by the absolutely fucking bizarre and gross choice of audiobook narrator. If I didn’t know this book was written by a woman, I would be 100% certain that a male incel had written it. 

No. Thank. You.