Thank you to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for the eARC! So apparently this is part of a series?! It’s one of those detective type novels where the characters are the same but each “case” is different so you can technically read them as standalones. I didn’t know that until another reviewer mentioned it 🙈 It’s not made very clear on Netgalley’s page or here.

Feels very all over the place with details, with some info dumping of character background at the beginning, jumping in and out of the main plot. I kept getting confused, and getting pulled out of the story.

I don’t like the present timeline. I find most of the characters flat and cheesy, the kids were especially annoying. I’m just not a fan of any of the characters, I don’t feel any connections to them. But this could be because I haven’t read the rest of the series. I started skimming the present day chapters because the pacing was all over the place there, with too many overly descriptive sections that I was getting bored often.

There are also so many grammar/continuity mistakes!! At one point a major player, Philip became Peter. And the way information is given is in a roundabout confusing way instead of being straightforward. Too often I ended up rereading paragraphs because I didn’t understand the clues/new info they were discussing.

The dialogue and Stella’s inner thoughts feel cheesy/unnatural at times, especially surrounding her reading an (outdated and absurd) parenting book.

I correctly guessed most of the twists early on but I was slightly surprised by one of the other twists. So the ending felt anti climatic being proven right for the majority of the mystery. Maybe cozy mysteries aren’t my thing. I need tension and suspense, hanging on the edge of my seat with fast pacing! I don’t like the meandering, minute descriptions mixed with a mystery. 

Overall it was an interesting enough book that I finished it but I really only finished because I wanted to find out what happened and if I was right 😂 The first half was much better than the second half, as the second half we slowly stay more in the present and don’t look back as much at the 1940s timeline, which I think was the best timeline.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries or detective series, I’d still recommend this book (and maybe the whole series to get more character background/development)!