I have to admit that actually I had already read this book but turns out there are some things I totally forgot (like the fountain scene? IYKYK). I don’t generally like contemporaries or miscommunication tropes and so I liked it a little better the second time because I knew the miscommunication was coming and also that it would be resolved. Of course, that’s what romance is, conflict and then HEAs.

4.25 🌶️ 

Usually we don’t do partial peps however I am reviewing this on here myself and not for the website SO I will do as I wish. It’s got some good spice and a little bit of something extra (like the fountain scene? IYKYK) but I would tell my friend who isn’t a romance reader about the spice tomorrow. I can’t use my mom as the metric anymore because she borrows my romance novels.

I will start with a preface that is - I don’t like scary media. I am so easily scared and it lasts a long time and fucks up my already busted sleep schedule. However I will make an exception for a few authors that I know will explain the phenomenon in a way that I will no longer find it scary and Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of those. I definitely stalled out a bit at 60% because I was sure the next chapter is where the spooky really got going and I was absolutely correct, that next chapter was so spooky. But I’d given myself enough time to keep going and get to the answers. As always, the book would feel slow if you’re a proper horror-reader but as someone who likes a lot of classic mysteries, the pacing felt right for the story.

🔥

Normally in my reviews (of romance), I would review the spice here but this isn’t a romance. Also it is a gothic horror so here’s the thing about me…

I always end up reading books or watching movies or starting shows that turn up having incest in them, and that theme continues.

I think that Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes gothic romantic stories, where you want the characters to find love at the end, but it’s not actually a romance so it doesn’t always happen.

I had tried to read an Alyssa Cole contemporary before and, would you believe, I prefer historical (as always). I love the adventure of two spies doing spy shit and constantly stepping on each others toes about it, but some of the reveals were a little on the nose.

4.0 🌶️ 

The thing that really draws this book into spiciness isn’t the actual scenes but the sheer tension that is somehow maintained throughout the book. From minute one I was 100% on board with the will-they-won’t-they even knowing it’s a romance novel so the answer is yes, they will.

It only seems fitting that I start my year off with the latest Nicola Davidson, which is the same thing I did last year. It’s not my favorite of hers, but it was a great way to start the year as I intend to go on: with a bang.

8.0 🌶️ 

The first sex scene in this book happens in a room specifically rented for BDSM, complete with toys and boys (if they want). Very spicy! Which is why I read it.