Call me a sucker for a STEM romance 🤷🏼‍♀️

Devoured this in a few hours. 

My one hang up but I won’t dock multiple stars: the reader does not need to be whacked over the head each chapter with the knowledge Levi is so big and Bee is so tiny

Sadly I DNFd this one 14% in. 

I need more action, more seclusion, and less insecure people who complained a lot. 

I had been so excited for this one because I loved locked room mysteries, but I think after trying this one I realized that I like locked room mysteries that quickly get everyone to the location. That didn’t happen here. I needed less family drama and insecurities and more settling into the setting. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eGalley 

Sadly, this is my least favorite installment of the Finlay Donovan series.  While it was equally as binge worthy as the  first too, it left a lot to be desired. 

I was hoping for a departure from Vero’s money issues and Steven being a sad simp. Sadly not. We got more of both plus even more characters to keep track of. 

I still recommend it, but if you were hoping for new plots - they remain with the same villains. 

Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for an early galley!

I honestly think this had the potential to be five stars if the first half hadn’t been so slow. The setting was atmospheric, I felt immersed in the Savannah & South Carolina coastal settings. 

I thought I had the ending figured out, but man I was wrong. 

I also enjoyed the mix of red herrings on both timelines. 

I definitely enjoyed this more than A Flicker in the Dark, so if that didn’t work for you, try this one out!

Legend has it the reader is still waiting for something to happen. 



Dear BOTM, please tell us how this was considered 'Thrills & Chills'.

The dark academia atmosphere was there, but the plot did not compliment it or exist much at all.

Thank you Random House Press and NetGalley for an ARC. 

YA is not a genre I pick up a lot. In fact, this is just the second YA I've finished in 2022. This is also my first Karen M. McManus. 

Overall, I had a fun time. Lots of red herrings and some nosey high schoolers similar to Good Girl, Bad Blood, however I wish this had more of Brynn doing actual journalism or podcasting. 

One thing that made me uncomfortable was the very liberal use of high schoolers drinking a lot. I'm not naive, I used to be in high school. I'm aware there was alcohol around, but for one to go binge drinking for a week? Maybe shouldn't be in a YA book. 

Had a good time, but as it happens with YA, it was all tied up at the end. So if you like that, try this one out! I'll consider picking up more work from McManus and can see why this ended up in the Goodreads Choice awards, but didn't win.

Only DNFing as my library hold ran out and with the holiday and other holds on it I am not sure I’ll be able to finish by the end of the year 

As I love to start out the year with a clean slate, I’ll be setting this one aside.

I was really enjoying this one, but my one issue with it is just the size alone. Does a mystery thriller need to be that long?

Honestly may knock down to two stars once I think over it more. 

I think this could have easily been knocked down two 200-250 pages. Of course O’Farrell is a beautiful writer, but this seemed too descriptive with not enough plot.  Additionally, a lot of page space was spent describing things that didn’t need to be described. Does the reader really need to know about the husband’s chest hair pattern? Doubtful. 

I di like that O’Farrell chose to stray away and leave it opened ended with a bit of hope. That may be the redeeming quality here. 

Also of note, an author does not need to spend so much page space describing a rape of a 15 year old girl even if girls marrying that young was the common thing at the time. 

Huge trigger warning for rape.