I have a lot of conflicted feelings at this moment.

For about 70ish% of the book, things were going great. I was intrigued by the characters. I loved the plot. I loved the romance. I loved all of it. But then something shifted, and I legitimately couldn’t tell you what or where, and suddenly the pacing turned to sprinting like some sort roadrunner in hell. I couldn’t grasp how fast time was passing. The MC would talk about how she had been running every morning and how her stamina had increased so much, but then I’d realize two paragraphs later that the main character had maybe gone running two times. A thing would happen, then the MC would go on to narrate about how it had felt like ages since that thing occurred, and wow has she grown, and then over and over I kept learning, “lol, that happened to hours ago.” WHAT IS GOING ON. WHO IS TROLLING ME.

I made the mistake of reading the acknowledgments. Not because the acknowledgments were bad or anything, but it mentioned one of the author’s previous series (The Queen’s Resistance) and that’s when I realized that I’ve, in fact, read this author before and, also in fact, had the same exact problem with her pacing in that one too. My goldfish memory really is the villain of my own hero’s journey.

Anyway. I’m once again in the minority, so I’m probably way off base. Everyone loves this book. Goodreads. Booktok. The really lovely cashier woman at the bookstore I bought it from. And I can see why, up to a certain point. I would just really appreciate keeping the Roadrunner on Looney Tunes and far away from any sort of writing styles. Because GIRL.