TL;DR: Oh my gosh this read like a boring checklist

The 22% that I did read felt like the author was just checking off a list of what she needed to include in an ode to Little Women set in Chicago:
- Four sisters and a man - check
- A neighborhood in Chicago - Pilsen, check
- A college in Chicago - Northwestern, check 
- Midwestern stereotypes - parent escapes to Florida, check; youngest becomes pregnant out of wedlock, check; alcoholic father, check; honeymoon to Lake Michigan, check

So many people told me this is a great book set in Chicago. Okay where is Chicago? You wouldn't know it was set in Chicago except for the mentions of Northwestern and Pilsen. This could've been set anywhere else in the country. No sense of place whatsoever. Chicago is so diverse is the author chooses to do nothing with it. 

Each character has the personality of cardboard. Is this how people see Midwesterners? Boring with no personality? Each character in Little Women had their own personality so I don't know what this cardboard stereotype was meant to be. 

I should've known this wasn't for me after giving Dear Edward two stars. 

How does “chai tea” make it several times in a book published in 2022?!

Chai means tea!! Who says tea tea?

If there’s one little tradition I have each December, it’s reading Colgan’s newest holiday release.

However, I’m choosing happiness and I refuse to spend the rest of 2023 trying to like all of these insufferable characters. 

The first 37% dragged so much that it took me straight into a reading slump

The beginning started off promising with the body was found, but then it dove straight into confusing subplots. 

I think this is a series you have to read in order, or you’ll be confused by all of the characters 

The characters had the personalities of cardboard and the book club that was promised barely appears. This is not a book about books 

There’s way too many side tangents going on here. So much going on but also didn’t seem like anything was happening?

I’m sorry but the fact that this author tried to do inner dialogue for both the killer and the victim is disgusting. Also don’t get my started on the random use of Kurt Vonnegut and his daughter??

Thanks to the publisher for this copy, but it is so dry and the characters seem to have little to no personality even though they are con artists. 

I'm really disappointed in this one as it was one of my most anticipated books of 2022 so of course I waited until November 2023 to pick it up just to be disappointed. 

Thirty-two pages in and so much happened, yet the scene wasn't set. Where are the details on why book eaters have two sets of teeth? Why mind eaters have long tongues? Why do these "families" not get along like they're crime organizations.