meaghancook's reviews
516 reviews

A solid attempt but missed the mark in so many ways. 

Not for me, I fear. Wake me up when something happens. 

For a book with high stakes on paper, I never actually felt like there were stakes here. The literal war felt like a second thought compared to the drawn out romantic conflict with an obvious conclusion.

Eh. This is fine, but only if you fully suspend your disbelief and just let yourself get taken for the ride. Mr. Smith could never have the kind of reach he has and our FMC just always has the right skills for every situation she finds herself in. 

Good luck on your future together where no one respects boundaries and yet you claim to be so well adjusted!! This felt like wish fulfillment for those of us who want our quirkiness to make us desirable rather than weird and think that every man who meets us must want to fall in love with us. You took the best part of the soulmate equation and let her fall flat. 

This wasn’t terrible until those last ten pages. The author really took three cheap shots for the “wow” factor. I can absolutely see why the booktok girlies ate this up but it is just so contrived, in my opinion.

Takes a minute, especially compared to book one, but these nerds are just as fun and lovable the second time around. 

This one just isn’t for me, I fear.

I wanted to like this so much but main character goes from straight laced boring perfect daughter to someone willing to upend her life for someone she just met. Just totally not believable and took me out of the whole thing.

Woof. I have some conflicting feelings about this one. 

Firstly, let me say that I find it incredibly unsettling that the author took real events, real people, real murders, and put a fictional spin on them. If it weren’t for the acknowledgement of a survivor of these horrific events in the acknowledgement section, I would find this completely abhorrent. As it stands, I find it distasteful and off putting, but I have to trust that due diligence was done in an attempt to publish this story responsibly and respectfully as possible. With the mix of fact and fiction, I did find it hard to keep myself immersed in the story. I think this would have been better served as complete fiction merely inspired by true events or total non-fiction written with the input and blessing of those most effected by The Defendant.  

All that being said, I loved the writing style enough that this pulled up to a 3.5 stars for me. Some of the lines will stay with me for some time. I hope to read more work by this author in the future that is more solidly in the realm of fact or fiction.