I'm very sorry that the first book in the series "Gallows Hill" by Katelyn Tyler – "Deceit", did not manage to impress me much.

I really liked the previous book that I had read by the author, although I also realize that it was far from well written. Here, however, everything that was wrong with the writing style and with the building of the characters from the other book, I had a feeling was even worse.

The first 3-4 chapters went very well and it looked like she had seriously upgraded her style, improved it and that this book would be very strong. After these first few chapters, however, we returned to the superficial writing style, which does not delve much into the characters, it just describes the setting in a somewhat boring way, and the story was moving for the plot not for the characters, which, if you know me, already know how big of a problem I have with that. From the very beginning, it is noticeable that the actions of the characters do not have much logic, their reactions in certain situations are not very realistic and this was my first red flag in the book.

Here we have the secret society trope, but when just before “Deceit” I’ve read another book with this trope, which was an absolute masterpiece, it is even more obvious how bad the performance in this book was. It is clear that the author wanted to do something interesting with this, to come up with something fascinating and intricate, but what I actually witnessed was chaotic and not thought through enough.

Things happen too hastily, which makes the story seem not good at all, and the reader does not have the time to take a breath and understand when it’s managed to get to one or another moment. And this affects Skyla's relationship with the men, of course, because no matter how much it can be seen that there is some chemistry between them, it is not enough that we can feel it on the scale in which the author tried to convey it. In general, the relations between them seemed to me not only hasty, but also forced and out of place. Only with one of the characters, her relationship was developing at a good pace and seemed logical. And I don't know if it's because of this or just because I was able to get to know him best of all others in this mess, but I liked him the most.

Unfortunately, I can't say that I connected with any of the characters, no one made me sympathize with them or really feel them, which led to me just not caring about them.

The erotic scenes had some hits, but in general I was not particularly impressed with them.

The big plot twist at the end was interesting, but I think I'm guessing where things are going, or at least I hope so.

And after all this, I will most likely amaze you by telling you that I would read the second book when it comes out, just out of pure curiosity what will happen, because I cannot say that the first one was completely uninteresting to me. It just wasn't what I expected and what I wanted it to be.
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Rating: 4/5⭐

✨~~~This book was provided to me by Katelyn Taylor for my honest opinion.~~~✨