I think I keep trying to be a TJR girlie and I’m just not. This book was sweet, but it took until ~44% for Jesse to even come back when that’s literally a central point of the blurb. 

I read this book in 2 hours because I just couldn’t put it down. Then I instantly recommended it to my husband (who doesn’t read much) and he stayed up until 2 am just to finish it because he couldn’t put it down. This book is gripping and thrilling and all the good things you want from a scary read. I’m forever paying close attention to my phone signal and the headlights in the rear view mirror now. 😂

SO. DANG. SWEET.

Jessa Hastings is great at writing stories that absolutely knock the wind out of you. My heart has not recovered from Magnolia Parks, and now I have all of Daisy Haites to get over, too. I have never loved and been frustrated by characters as much or as equally as these books. From the very first line of this book, I knew Daisy was my new favorite. In all the ways that Magnolia is unrelatable and sometimes annoying (but you can’t help but love her), Daisy is funny and (a bit more) down to earth. 

All of these characters have my heart, even if I know they’re going to continue absolutely crushing it with every chapter. 

I have literal chills. This book was SO good! Highly, highly, highly recommend picking this one up instead of watching another season of anything the Bachelor franchise puts out. Pinky promise this will scratch your reality tv itch and feel so much less… bleh than the show does. There are not enough good words for this book!

WOW! This book was absolutely captivating. Like, one of those types of books that once you hit a certain point nothing else can get done until you've finished the book. It was wonderfully twisty and always kept me on my toes. As someone who reads a lot of mysteries and thrillers, this isn't an easy feat!

I did predict who the killer was pretty early on, but there were so many twists and turns that I second-guessed myself the whole way through. It all still ended up making perfect sense, though, which can't always be said about books with this many red herrings thrown in. This was such an engaging read, but the full five stars comes from continually making me think again about who I suspected because everything made perfect sense for each person to be involved in what happened. Plus, I was genuinely surprised at with Aaron/Tyler's involvement and the way all of that worked out.

Honestly, this book was just so slow. Things didn’t start picking up until about 60% in, and then everything was solved by the 80% point. The only reason I finished this is because it was for a book club. I love cozy mysteries, but I sadly just couldn’t get into this one. The premise is so cute, though, and I know others will love it!

Honestly, I really hoped for a ACOTAR/ACOMAF switch up in these books where suddenly the Erlenking was the love interest instead of Gild. He was kind and sweet, but I was hoping for a little extra razzle-dazzle. This book did include a bit more of the folklore/mythology aspect, which I really enjoyed.