3.5 rounded up. Sweet and hallmark-movie-ish. Liked the community and family of the marines and their spouses. Was a little annoyed at how naive Tess was at times.

Enjoyed this story about heartfelt selflessness, sacrificing for someone else even to your own detriment, and unraveling who both Chase and “Sketch” were in this story. It was well written and had many good points to think about. I love the theme that’s often in his books, about how we long to know “whose we are”. This one has made me think a lot.

While the story itself was interesting, the relationship between Gwen and Patrick was a little annoying - just constantly them deciding they were on and then off, on and off again, etc. And the whole thing with the mistress and cheating husband and Gwen giving them everything they wanted regardless of the mistress’ attitude towards her made me not care for Gwen a lot, sort of lended her to be naive and have little backbone or self respect.

I liked the story line revolving around Czechoslovakia and the gypsies but the writing was not great, clunky and disjointed, with the dialogue being completely unnatural. Jana came across as obnoxious and childish and the relationship between Jana and Otto was also super weird and forced.

While there was constant changing of character focus and perspectives without any clear break that at times made it feel all over the place, I liked the overlap of events and circumstances. It was really clever how pieces in one perspective would bleed into another. I have not heard much on the invasion and occupation into Czechoslovakia, so I enjoyed learning about it.

The ending, however, was bizarre and an awful way to wrap up the book. It felt like the last few chapters just got lopped off. I might have given it 2.5-3 stars if not for that.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

Funny in many parts, like Sophie Kinsella is always good at doing, but there seemed like there was an excessive number of F words in this one. Some amount of swearing in books doesn’t bother me, but this felt like every expression of frustration and panic was explained with an F bomb instead of any other word and it was rather unnecessary.

Well written and interesting. A lot of the of the plot was fairly predictable but not all, so it was a good mix for a mystery/psychological thriller that overall had you guessing how it was going to all pan out.

Both friends, Cassie and Billie, are obsessive and addicted in their own way - Cassie to fame and fortune, and Billie to Cassie herself. While a lot of each character and the situations they find themselves in are super cringey and uncomfortable to read at times, you could see it playing out realistically in the current influencer-culture or in the reasons for codependent relationships.

Overall, a good read with a good storyline and characters to fill it out.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

The history and detail of the divers during the 1930s for the building of the Golden Gate Bridge was very interesting. I would have liked more information and maybe a more rounded out story of this aspect if I’m honest. There was so much more that could be built on it and flesh out the story.

The romance between Kayla and Steven was sweet, although seemed rushed in the timeline, to become that deeply infatuated/in love in a matter of a few weeks. I struggled a bit on how Luke and George and Charlie just went along with the threats against them from one man. It just seemed a little lopsided and not believable.

All in all the story concept was good, but far more simple than I cared for.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.