I freaking loved this one SO much, it had me charmed right from the start and my giddy excitement never stopped. The thing that made it such a standout for me was the incredible wit and humor, I just really enjoyed the authors style and I seriously laughed so much. The romance was sort of a side plot here but it doesn’t matter because where this one shines is through Max and his personal journey with his career, friendships and yes his love life but it’s not entirely the focus. It’s also a super slow burn but it was truly worth the wait for me because Max and Chasten were so cute and I just loved them together. It’s mostly set in NYC and the author also really brought things to life for me, there is a small section set in Fire Island and again, he definitely did a great job with that setting too. This was a total delight and impressed me as a debut, I can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

This author has a knack for writing characters that are not only interesting and wildly entertaining, they’re also unhinged. For me, that’s a good thing and Frankie was a trip. She was frustrating at times, she really made terrible decisions and blew up her life like every chance she could lol but there was something about her that was oddly endearing for me too. The plot was pretty unique though not realistic, but it was fun and I wasn’t sure how things would come together in the end. As much as there seems to be like a lot going on it also felt like a slow burn with things getting pacier in the end. Things were left wide open, so much so that I wonder if there will be a sequel? But overall this was fun ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Suspending some disbelief is something I’m used to doing when I read a thriller but I don’t tend to have to do this as much in a romance but it is absolutely necessary here. From the beginning when Teagan gets attacked by a bear things verge on outlandish and only proceeds from there. Everything about this one just felt off for me, I never bought into Teagan and Darcy’s relationship which makes things difficult when it’s a romance, I want to be invested and it just never happened for me. There is a lot of mental health rep here and while lots of it is portrayed well there were some big yikes moments for me too. I can’t even really explain it, I was just uncomfortable. Unfortunately this was just a miss for me. 

I was really curious about the setup here and I’m a sucker for a cold case mystery but ultimately I was underwhelmed. For a fairly short book it took me longer than I expected to get through, I think the entire thing was missing a sense of urgency to propel things forward. The writing was good, the plot was decent but the ending was resolved enough for me to be satisfied. Meh