Very cute, loveable characters. Storyline/depth is mid but the sense of humor and comedic timing are impeccable.

This one was slower paced and I desperately missed Gideon’s voice for most of it. But I still loved being in this world and watching the mystery slowly unravel. I love that Muir trusts her readers enough to make sense of her world. She doesn’t spoon feed us and rewards patience. I was surprised and impressed by how central grief, mental health, and childhood trauma were in this story. Muir dealt with this all so deftly, which made even more sense after reading her acknowledgments. 

I am beyond obsessed with this series and am excited to start the third but also not ready to come to the end of the published books. 😭

I listened to this on audio and it was a delightful roller coaster of an experience. I will forever hear the word “redacted” in Chelsea Devantez’s voice. Even as someone familiar with her podcast I was blown away by what a joy she was to listen to. She manages to be both self-deprecating and powerful, vulnerable and unapologetic, and you can’t help but root for her. The only chapter that lagged for me was the wedding chapter. It just lacked the bite of the others. 

This started out so strong and I thought I was going to love it but instead of getting better as we got deeper into the world it kind of flattened and became more predictable/juvenile. Don’t think I will be returning for the rest of the series. Lots of potential though, so it could be a second book is better situation. 

I think my expectations were too high on this. The points are good, but the delivery felt outdated somehow and I can’t decide whether that is the author’s point of view, the time period most of the stories are from, or the fact that the writing style is very Anne Lamott and I was reading a lot of Anne Lamott about 10 years ago. She did have a lot of poignant, thoughtful things to say about grief though, and I think if I had recently lost someone close to me I might have felt differently about this book.