I enjoyed the Lost Apothecary and also really enjoyed this one. The setting was more enjoyable to me because it’s familiar. A nice summer read

I feel like I’ve either read this book before or something with a very similar plot. The twists were very predictable and I knew what all the players were going to do about 25% through the book.

I’ve come to the conclusion that audiobooks aren’t for me. This was better than the other one I listened to by this author because they actually had a male reader for the MMC, but it still irritated me. I can polish this book off faster than they can read it, so wound up listening at 3x speed. 

Characters suck and I didn’t buy their romance because most of it happened through flashbacks. Maya was sooooo freaking immature. Not my favourite by this author

I expected more horror, less thriller. Enjoyed the overall story and found it engaging for a first novel. Would read more by this author.

Using flashbacks only works for certain stories. This story clearly needed to be told in parts. We needed a part 1 at camp to understand the incident and get to know the girls before the trauma sets in, part 2 focusing on teenage years,  and a part 3 centred on adulthood as different POVs, and then maybe an epilogue to bring them back together or connect the stories in some way.

Instead, we have barely enough time with the girls at camp before we’re launched into their teenage/adult years and hearing their traumas. There was also nothing connecting the characters outside of the flashbacks, so it felt like it was lacking important narrative and character story. Overall, the book was incredibly disjointed, lacked character development, and had horrible pacing. Didn’t care for the characters or the plot. 

Not my fave of her books. Prefer the war time stories. Found the setting of this one dull and didn’t really connect with the characters

Another Julia Kelly book that I enjoyed. She writes very emotional stories and you genuinely care about the characters… most of them anyway. The grandmother and Mrs. Thompson needed a good slap

Started off with an interesting plot. Fell apart toward the end. Didn’t find the characters loveable and the plot wraps up rather quickly with little to no pay off

Atmospheric. Haunting. Too bad the setting and the writing style didn’t live up to the premise. The intended message of coming into your own by overcoming tragedy/trauma and defying society’s expectations was lovely, but it was poorly executed. The ending was anticlimactic and the twist predictable.

I appreciated learning more about Sommerset as a character and his past before Roarke. Hate Nora’s dialogue writing, it’s so disjointed and clipped.