Definitely check the content warnings. This is a dark college romance with rival colleges and rival secret societies connected to the mafia. I don’t know why I have no problem reading about vampires, fae, or werewolves, but for some reason the British university primarily populated by the children of American mafiosos just seemed too absurd for me? I got past it but it took some work.

When I finished the book I realized that Amazon has it labeled as a grumpy-sunshine which seems really far off the mark. Glyndon is not a sunshine character and Killian is psychotic, barely repressing serial unaliver urges. I did like the way the author wrote about his experience of emotions. In the middle of the book I also enjoyed the tension and banter between the two MCs but other parts of it were rough for me. 

The plot of the book is set against the mystery of someone tormenting Glyndon about her friend who died by suicide a few months prior. The mystery has a pretty inconsistent place in the plot and only seems to surface when it is needed to move things in a certain direction. And it takes a turn that just seems too predictable.

There were other things about this book that negatively impacted my read. It is mostly dual POV from Glyndon and Killian but then there would be random chapters from their parents’ POV. It was a bit jarring. It turns out the author has written books about the parents so perhaps these are fun Easter eggs for those who have read her entire catalog. But as a new reader I found it distracting. 

I also found that the author did a lot of telling instead of showing in the transformation of the MCs relationship dynamics. It felt rushed and again, jarring.

I don’t even know how to talk about the spice given all the other issues I had with the book. There is out and out SA at the beginning, by the MMC. Definitely some dark dynamics and you should heed the content warnings. I found some later parts enjoyable but others fell flat. 

Secondary characters are interesting and have dimension-  I suspect subsequent books are about them. I don’t recall much in the way of diverse representation- one tertiary character is bi. 

I feel bad because I know this author and series are beloved among many dark romance readers. I like an occasional dark romance but this one had too many things that kept pulling me out of the narrative. I don’t typically dismiss an author after one book. If I get bored I might read more of the series to see if they improve but given that this is far from the author’s first book, I’m not too optimistic in that regard.