CW: child death/murder, violence, blood, bullying, toxic relationship, suicide mentioned, murder, alcohol use, drug use, some fatphobia, casual ableism, stalking

this was an absolutely wild ride of a book. it had a lot of cute moments of romance that i was totally rooting for the MCs to make it through and then the twists kept coming and i could not stop reading. usually i dont care for detective/cop POVs, but even those aspects here were delightful. it might be Howard's writing, or it could be because Irish law enforcement read differently than US law enforcement, but whatever. i liked it, i had the best time, i will absolutely be picking up more from this author!!