Did this live up to the BookTok hype? Nope. Was it as dark as I believed it would be because of the hype? Not at all.

Review TLDR: the characters and plot are excellently written, but the too-close-to-home type of stalking made me too uncomfortable to love the story holistically.


Dark, yes for sure. And I was exceptionally uncomfortable with the very realistic and absolutely possible IRL type of stalking Josh was doing. This alone made the story hard to get through at times and made me feel ick about their relationship as a whole.

Otherwise, the character building, including the kinks, was excellent. Their relationships throughout - not just the main romance couple - were well designed and had the growth expected in a well written story. Side quests and characters were essential to the main characters' plot and relationship; bonus points to the author for making them work so well!