ellenareads's reviews
533 reviews

Sometimes this book felt a bit too real. It was so eerie and ominous. At first, I was a bit put off by the writing style but it grew on me the more I read it. It fits so perfectly with the tone of the story and its heavy focus on the community rather than singular characters. The ending was a bit too rushed for me. Also, I researched some horror tropes for Cassidy's Spooky Challenge in 2024 so I unfortunately knew the big reveal in the end. My advice to you, go in knowing as little as possible.

If you get infuriated reading from a character that is very naive and submissive, skip this one. There are some explicit stuff I'm not sure needed to go as extreme as they did, so check trigger warnings. 

I read this book in 1 day. It was very bingable and easy to read. It's a set-up book for the series. I knew going in that the romance will come later so I expected a slower start. I wish we had more information, but it's very intentionally written in a way that feeds you information slowly, over multiple books, so if you like your stories fast paced this won't be for you. 
The rating could be a bit inflated considering how low my expectations were going in, but I'm really happy I finally gave it a shot. I'll probably binge read the whole series in the coming months.

I was so into the first 50% of this book. I was vibing seeing Vi on her own, trying to wrestle her inner beliefs and actually developing as a character outside of her relationship with Xaden. 
And just as I thought this is it, they are getting to a point of understanding and peace, another secret got revealed and put them back to the start of the book and the whole will they won't they all over again. The whole reasoning behind why Xaden wasn't there for them to actually talk their shit out was so under-explained. And even then we was there and talking, every single conversation where they were getting somewhere and resolving their issues got interrupted every. single. fucking. time. I contemplated throwing my kindle across the room multiple times. 
This book definitely could have been shorter. The ending felt very rushed for how long it was set up. It ended too abruptly as well. 

I will pick up the next book, but if I feel underwhelmed by it again I'll probably DNF the series.

 I really liked the characters and the 'interlude' chapters really gave something unique to the story and kept me turning the pages. The main thing that didn't work for me was the ending. It felt a bit too unbelievable and shoehorned in only because the author had a specific scene in mind, but to me, it felt forced and 'what would look more cool' type of a moment.
I'll definitely check out more stuff from this author.

At one point I thought this was gonna be a 4 or 5 stars, but as time passes I don't like it more and more.
The present timeline wasn't as enjoyable for me as the past. The past timeline just had more intrigue, I needed to know what actually happened. I wish we had more scenes with the other 2 girls from the past so that the ending would have a bigger impact. There was minimal interaction with the FMC so it was hard to care for them. Also, there was some weird mental health rep that never really got fully explained or got deeper explored and I didn't like how it was used. While I can appreciate rep where it doesn't have to be all about it, but rather just a thing a character lives with, I feel like it was impacting the storyline enough to require more exploration than we got. 

This is my second 3 star book from Riley Sager, and both have been from his backlist which many people prefer over his newer works so I think he isn't an author for me.

My official rating is 3.5 rounded down to a 3 on GR. Something was missing from this sequel and I'm struggling to pinpoint what it is but I'll try my best.

The romantic subplot took over a bit too much for me personaly. The main strength of the first novel, for me, was the found family aspect of it, but in this one the romance overshadowed it. It felt over the top and reminiscent of a romantasy style. And to be clear, I don't have any problems with romanatsy(it's my 3rd most read genre) I'm just not sure this series set up those expectations which is why it felt so distracting. I understand the author wanted to convey pining but it felt more like lust tbh.

And since the main relationship was missing for me, I wanted the plot to be stronger than it was. The whole first 70% felt like setup and introducing a new character at 50% felt a bit odd.

I wanted Desh to have more scenes with Bex on page. While it was fun finding out stuff about him through his interaction with other characters, mainly with Lys, I really wish we'd seen more from him since he gave such a different layer to Bex's life and the weight it puts on people around her.

Also, there was an awful lot of monologing during fight sequences I could have done without. It felt like it cheapened some high-intensity moments trying to insert levity or cute scenes. I wish the plot slowed down a bit to give more room for those character moments to shine without disrupting the high-stakes situations the characters were in.

All that aside, I still care about these characters and I really like where they ended up. I'm excited to see what shenanigans they get up to in the next book.