This was a frustrating read. From the beginning I wasn't enjoying it.

The lack of quotations marks were just irritating. Is it that hard to put them in? It just made it confusing at times to figure out if they are speaking or thinking.
Can authors just use quotation marks in future?

I knew going into this not to expect much of a plot. That this was just a slice of life.
I did think I would fly through this but I struggled. I just couldn't find a reason to care.
The characters themselves were irritating. They never seemed to communicate with each other when it mattered.
Connell cared way too much about other peoples opinions.

"In Dublin they can walk down long stately streets together for the first time, confident that nobody they pass knows or cares who they are".
Someone tell me why it mattered so much to him that they weren't seen together in any sort of romantic way by people they know? Don't ever date someone who is like this.

I'm glad this is over. I honestly don't understand the hype.

I really struggled with this. Felt forced to read. I honestly don't even want to continue series for the last two books.

I loved The Other Woman by Sandie although I’m yet to pick up The First Mistake I was still excited to pick this up.
I’ll admit this did take a few chapters to get me. But my overall reading mood hasn’t been the best recently so that probably played a part in this feeling.
After taking a few days off reading I decided to pick this back up. For the most part I still struggled to be gripped. Which makes me wonder if it was the book or my reading mood. I just found myself waiting for something to happen to really grip me. Which would happen in the last 30% of the book.
I found myself trying to figure out the truth. It felt like every time I thought I knew the theory would be proven wrong the next chapter. So I was always guessing.
I didn’t like the ending. Just because it left some questions and things unresolved. Sometimes that works for me but this was a case where I needed some more closure.
Overall I felt like maybe this book had too many things happening. Sure majority linked with the main story. But when I was struggling to be gripped it didn’t help.
Also I hate Simon. Man is trash.

I went into this slightly worried. Just because I thought it would have too many POVs for me to keep track. Thankfully this only had two. Although I did keep notes of characters. When and how they died. Just so I didn’t get confused.
This did start a little slow. Which made sense as we had plenty of characters to learn a little about. So it didn’t bother me too much.
When the first person went missing at around 30% the story started to pick up. I had questions and needed them answered. I didn’t want to put the book down.
I tried to make some theories but I felt like all the hints and clues given were to throw me off. I didn’t trust anyone or anything.
I did figure out the killer just before the reveal. I don’t know why I just got the feeling it must be them. They were too quite. Looking back there was something off about the character. There but not there when things happened.
When it comes to the reveal I’m not sure how I feel. I can see why Ruth Ware decided to go with that. But I also feel like it was too soon and abrupt. Like we found out too easily what was happening. I just found myself waiting for the big twist. Because surely with the amount of time left there would be a final twist right? Wrong. We got a motive sure but twist not really.
The build up was great kept me intrigued the whole time. But the ending felt a little weak and disappointing.
Overall I did enjoy it and would recommend.

*I received a copy from Net Galley for an honest review*

DNF 40%

Claire Douglas is one of my favourite authors. I’ve given all of her books 5 stars. So this was an automatic read for me. I was interested if my rating would be different as I now use CAWPILE.
Something felt missing at the beginning. But looking back I feel like because I went into this completely blind it was just me trying to know what the mystery was supposed to be.
Part one of this was very much building the atmosphere and suspicions around one character. But I felt like it couldn’t be that easy. Claire Douglas books are never that easy.
Part two however is where things changed. It starts months after the end of part one. With a new POV of a character we have never met before. Which intrigued me. I had questions left from part one.
At first I wished we didn’t get the main answer regarding Una straight away. We knew what happened but not who did it. But after finishing the book it made perfect sense to go the way Claire did.
Claire Douglas has a way of making everyone look suspicious. This is no exception. Even a random boyfriend of a side character with no obvious connections to majority of the characters. Which when trying to think of some theories can be a bit frustrating. In a good way. You have no idea where it could possibly go.
Right up until the end I was changing my mind of who was the killer and why they did it. Especially as the victims only had one thing in common. Where they began working.
The twists kept me on the edge of my seat. Wondering where it could go. Throughout the book I don’t think I guessed a single twist.
I will say the final twist/reveal in the epilogue wasn’t really necessary. It made sense to explain Jacob behaviour but I feel like it was just to add some final drama.

DNF 23%