xabbeylongx's reviews
168 reviews

Book Review: 

This book is an absolute firm favourite of mine. I grew up with Jacqueline Wilson books - luckily - and this has always been a favourite of mine. 

I love the simplicity of this book. Not necessarily the content - choosing between two parents is hardly simple - but the way it’s written. It’s an easy read. I always find Wilson’s books to be very comforting. I think the ending could have done with a few more loose ends being tied up, such as how does Floss’s mum like Sydney - do they stay out there? - and do they always stay with the fair? It is, however, a book for younger people, so I can’t be too harsh. A lovely read! 

Book Summary: 

We follow Floss on her birthday. She has two birthdays, one with her mum, stepdad Steve and stepbrother Tiger, and another with her dad. They’re divorced, and her mum has turned a little snobby since meeting Steve. Her dad owns a chip butty cafe, so the money he’s on isn’t very good. 

Steve gets a promotion, but it means they have to move to Sydney, and Floss doesn’t want to leave her dad behind; he has no one! So, despite having a massive dilemma, her mum and her new family go off to Sydney, whilst she stays with her dad. 

Her old best friend, Rhiannon, goes off with Margot and Judy. They’re all bullies, and say that she smells, because she now lives with her dad in the cafe. Susan, a new girl that Rhiannon always bullied since she joined, becomes best friends with Floss, and they really help each other. 

Her dad is losing customers. He isn’t earning any money, so eventually, the cafe needs to be shut down. Luckily, one of his regular customers has a chip van, and he’s moving away, so asks Floss’s dad to take care of the house. All the whilst, there is a fair, in which they meet Rose, her son Saul, and his girlfriend. Their families become intertwined, and Floss’s dd even starts dating Rose! They also adopt a stray cat called Lucky, as she arrives when they all needed her to. 

I honestly was a little bit wary of this book at the start, it took a while for me to really get into it, but once I got into it, I actually really enjoyed it. 

Most of the character’s I liked. Aiden and Oliver were really well fleshed out, I think, and I connected with Aiden because I felt like he was the underdog a bit. Max was really entitled, and I didn’t like the way he reacted to Aiden at all. I think Aiden was well within his rights to act the way he did, especially considering with what he put up with for ages before he finally stood up for himself. However, the idea of them being at each other’s throats because of growing pains really hit me deeply, although I don’t know why. Just the fact that they’re both growing up to be the people they want to be, and even though they may not want it, they can’t stop it. 

I must admit, I’ve never read a book that has gay sex scenes in before, and this is a really good first example of first time sex. It’s new and fresh, and exhilarating, and you can feel that from the characters. It felt really real and raw, which really makes a good sex scene. Personally, I really like intimacy in my sex scenes, and this certainly had so much of that; you can tell they really care for each other. I also love how they practice safe sex, and it doesn’t paint it in an embarrassing light, which is amazing. Although it isn’t perfect - as no ‘first time’ generally is - it’s perfect for them, and I love that. 

I just really like the emphasis on family, and found-family, and I love the love between all the characters. It’s really sweet, and it’s refreshing to have a romance book where there isn’t this massive betrayal (Max being betrayed by Aiden and Oliver getting together definitely does not count!). A lovely book, an easy read, and so cute! 

 

We follow two identical twins, Max (who, he likes to remind everyone, is five minutes older) and Aiden, and their childhood best friend, Oliver. When they were younger, they used to play weddings together, and Max and Oliver would get married, and they’d all pledge to be brothers. Oliver would spend most of his time at the twin’s house, due to the fact his parents couldn’t stand each other, and they always argued. Unfortunately, he ended up moving away. 

Ten years later, he is reunited with them. They find him at the shops, and invite him over to dinner. They quickly find it’s like no time has passed. But something has changed… Aiden has come out as gay, and so has Oliver. Secretly, they both had crushes on each other when they were younger, but they were too scared to do anything about it. 

Now that they’re older and figuring out themselves more, Aiden and Oliver can’t stop the magnetic pull between them, drawing them closer. They end up having moments, and they can’t seem to stay away from each other. Max has always been the one in charge, but now, as he sees his twin brother and oldest friend, making plans and moments without him, he’s getting scared. He lashes out, and takes it out on Aiden, because they’re supposed to put each other first. Oliver, who often felt like he was the root of his parent’s problems, now thinks he’s the cause of the twin’s problems, and so plans to move away until they figure stuff out. Aiden is beside himself, not wanting to lose Oliver again, so Max and Aiden sort out their differences. They set boundaries, and both make changes, and Aiden and Olive start dating, and it ends at their wedding, after they’ve got married! 

So, this book I started a couple of years ago, and I just couldn’t get into it. I think I got to chapter three, and I put it down because I thought this book was not for me. Oh how wrong I was. 

For starters, I actually now adore the layout of this book. The words that have a line through it, indicating her real thoughts VS the ones she allows herself to think/say is gorgeous. When I first read it, I wasn’t a fan of the repetition and the lack of structure the sentences in this book has, being a Creative Writing student, but I see now that it actually adds to the story. It makes it faster and more urgent when she’s panicking, or when she’s excited and has a lot of thoughts in her mind… I think it’s absolutely perfect! 

I like the fact there’s only one point of view in this story, and I actually really like Juliett. She’s flawed, but she also knows it, and she’s humble. She sticks to her morals, even when people try to derail them. You can tell that she’s a character that truly cares about others, even if they don’t about her. And Adam is just the same, I really like his character. Warner is just grim, but that makes it so much better, because I truly hate his character. 

With the world-building, I think it’s done really well. The pacing is good, and we’re not force fed information at the start of the novel, we are gradually fed it throughout, which is actually quite difficult to do and not often done very well, so Mafi did a great job with that. The plot itself was a little bit too-perfect for me: Warner allowed Adam to be so close because he knew her from school, and then he got rid of the cameras in her room, and they could just escape without getting into trouble, you get my point. Plus, although the action built up in the end, if we think about what happens in the book, they’re just escaping from one place to the next, unable to really stay anywhere. It works for the first book, but if they spend the rest of the series just flitting from one place to another, then it might get a bit tedious after a while. 

And why did it take so long for Warner to start experimenting her with other people? There’s something that’s not quite clicking in regards to that. However, that’s my only nitpick of this novel. Other than that, it’s safe to say I’m really excited to read the next instalment in the series. 

 

We follow Juliett as she’s being kept prisoner in a cell. She hasn’t spoken to anyone in almost a year. They barely feed her more than one meal a day, and she has always been by herself. That is, until, she is given a cellmate. 

Adam, his name is. He doesn’t know why she is in there, or why he is there, but he tries to befriend her. She likes him, but can’t get too close to him (physically as well as emotionally) because she has a special power: nobody can touch her. If they do, they’ll be in extreme pain whilst she feeds off it (not voluntarily, of course) and if they touch her too long, they die. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and has been bullied and ignored her whole life. The only person who ever stood up for her (because not even her own parents did) was Adam. 

Yes, it is indeed the same Adam that is in her cell. She remembers him, but he doesn’t act like he remembers her. 

She wakes up one day, after a nightmare, and her and Adam are being held by guards. When she wakes up, as she must have fallen unconscious, she finds that Adam double-crossed her. He is working with Warner, the man in charge, who is a little obsessed with her. He’s only 19, but he plans to use her as a weapon. 

The Reestablishment - the people in charge - are planning to eradicate every part of culture in the world, religion, languages, historics, and have everything the way they want it. Warner is helping that, getting rid of people who are less valuable, like the old, and the sick. He wants to use Juliett to do it. She resists, but he’s very powerful. 

She finds out that Adam is actually double-crossing Warner, and he’s been in love with Juliett this whole time. He is the only one that can touch her, and he’s always admired her from afar for her kindness. When Warner is trying to touch her, Adam jumps in and threatens Warner, who gets surprisingly scared. They manage to escape, but Warner just about touches Juliett without getting hurt himself. She tries to ignore it, but now there’s two people that can touch her without getting hurt. 

Adam takes her to his house, and they meet his brother, James. They are only there for a night before Kenji, someone Adam used to know, runs in, and their place is given away, Warner has found them. Adam gets shot, but Juliett shoots Warner, and they manage to escape. 

Turns out, Kenji is double-crossing them as well. This was all planned, and he takes them to somewhere, which is actually considered a safe place. The medics tend to Adam, who turns out okay, James is well looked after, and they are safe from Warner, for the moment. There are also 56 other people like her, people with powers. 

I’ve been wanting to read this one for ages. If I’m honest, I’ve been putting it off, because half of the TikTok books that get recommended to me aren’t, in reality, that great. However, I finally found this book in a charity shop, and I must say, I’m so disappointed in myself for not getting round to it quicker. 

Everything about this book was so clever. Firstly, the idea of having someone call you when you’re going to die is so unique, because like, isn’t it a bit of a paradox? Like say you were going to die at work, but you find out you’re dying so you don’t go to work, so you don’t die... it’s hard to wrap my head around it, but it’s so good. This book really shows how, no matter what, life just keeps going, and the world keeps on spinning. 

The characters themselves are beautiful. Flawed, heavily realistic, and real sweethearts, I loved Mateo and Rufus. Really unique characters, and you get to bond with them so well over the course of the book. All the other characters are the same, really lovable, and very well written - and that’s such a good thing in novels. I also think they’re very comedic, the humour is definitely suited for my generation. 

I love how every chapter with a different character is interconnected. We hear about multiple stories, like Peck’s story, and his group, and Delilah and her ex’s story, etc etc. I love how every thing, every character, is there for a reason, like, I’m assuming, Trevor at the ending going to find Delilah, and Rufus meets his end… it’s all so good, so cleverly written, and it’s amazing. I’ve seen it’s a series, so I definitely cannot wait for the next book in the series! 

 

We follow Mateo and Rufus as they find out they only have less than 24 hours to live. In this reality, people who are dying get calls from Death-Cast, telling them that they only have a certain amount of time to live. They don’t say when, or how, they’re going to die, and just try to encourage people to live their lives to the fullest that day. 

Mateo is at home when he finds out. His dad is in hospital, in a coma, so it’s just him by himself. When he gets the alert, he decides to spend his last day living. Rufus, when he gets the call, is beating up his ex’s (Aimee’s) new boyfriend (Peck). He decides it isn’t worth it, and he leaves. 

Rufus calls all of his friends to their home and he plans a funeral for himself. Unfortunately, Peck calls the police on him, so his goodbyes are snatched and he is now on the run from the police. 

Mateo and Rufus meet on an app called Last Friend, which is designed to help Deckers - the name given to people who are dying and know it - find someone to spend their last day with. They are cautious at first, but then eventually meet up, and they spend the rest of their day doing stuff together. 

Mateo says goodbye to his dad and his best friend, Lidia, and her baby, Penny. When her boyfriend died a few months ago, she almost couldn’t go through with it, but Mateo was there for her. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to tell her, but she found out, and they managed to get a few last moments together. Rufus’s friends end up finding him, and they also get their goodbyes. Mateo and Rufus spend the day doing various activities, which Rufus takes lots of photos of, and they get to know one another. 

They quickly find out they have feelings for each other - Rufus knows a little while before Mateo. They bring each other out of their comfort zones, and although it isn’t fair that they don’t get enough time together, they make every moment last. When Peck and his crew travel to find Rufus and finish him off, Mateo punches him, and they are safe. For a bit, anyway. What matters is, if they were given the time, they would grow to love each other, to be in love with each other. 

They go to Mateo’s house and they seek solace in his bed. As long as they promise not to leave the bed, their ‘safe place’ they will be okay. When Rufus wakes up to the smell of smoke, and Mateo gone from the bed, he knows what has happened. He finds Mateo burned, and desperately wants the medics to save him, but he’s already dead. Rufus knows that Mateo was only trying to do something nice for the two of them, and that makes him even more angry. Rufus ends up being knocked over by a car, after visiting Mateo's dad in hospital, and that's how he meets his demise. 

Spoilers Ahead: 

This book was a rollercoaster through and through. I wasn’t fond of the author’s book that I first read, but I had already bought this one, so as the first one was quite an easy read, I tried my luck with this one. 

We follow Bella, a DJ, at one of her sets when she spots Ava, an older woman, and decides to ‘put the spotlight on her’, which is a thing that she always does, shining the light at one of the prettiest women in the room. They end up having sex, and then they part. 

The next morning, Bella’s best friend, Sophia, invites her to breakfast with her mum - surprise surprise, it’s Ava! They try to act like nothing is going on between them, but they can’t stay away from each other, they end up hooking up and falling in love, you know the drill. Ava’s ex-husband also turns up, a drunk and with a gun, and he shoots Bella, but she’s fine. Sophia finds out, but isn’t too mad as she saved her mum’s life, and Sophia also gets with their mutual best friend and roommate, Kaylee. Bella and Ava do end up getting married. 

There were a lot of things that I didn’t like about this book, unfortunately. One of my biggest pet peeves was the editing of this book. Same as the previous book, I could tell that the editing of this book was not done properly at all. Spelling mistakes, issues with the people talking (it was mixed up in some points, and this made it very confusing, with the wrong people saying the wrong thing), and punctuation mistakes - pretty obvious ones as well. And the worst one… ‘sexist’ instead of ‘sexiest’… which definitely ruins the mood when you’re trying to write sexier scenes. It almost feels like this book was written, and then just published without a second thought. 

It felt very much the same as one of the books I’ve read recently, ‘Mistakes were Made’ by Meryl Wilsner. The plot was almost identical, even going as far to be very loosely based around space, just like Wilsner’s was. Obviously, when the content is pretty much ‘copied’, it left no surprises, and it became very predictable, and it was lucky it was a quick read, because otherwise I would have had no motivation to finish it. At least Sophia was a much more enjoyable character to read about than Parker, in Wilsner’s. 

Around three quarters of the way through, I had become sick of the sexual content. It was almost every chapter, and it was getting boring. It brought a Wattpad, unrealistic vibe to the story, and I love developing character’s relationships, and this had none. It was just purely sex, then bam! I’m in love with her?? The pacing was so fast, the timing just too unrealistic for me. 

Minor point, but I thought the characterisation was a bit off. Bella seems like this unnaturally fearless girl, so why is she so scared about her best friend finding out? The vibe I got is that she’s not scared of anything, but that was sort of a contradiction. I liked the characters, but I think they tried too hard to be funny, and the conversations sometimes weren’t natural. Overall, I’d just say this book, and this author, just aren’t for me, unfortunately. 

Spoilers Ahead: 

This book was recommended to me by a friend. They said it was heartbreaking, and it was the best thing they’d ever read. I’ve had this book for about a year now, but with all of my university reading, I kept putting off, but last month, I finally got round to reading it. 

We follow Cleo and Frank as they meet, Cleo from England and Frank from America. She’s visiting America, but wants to stay, and her and Frank have this really quick marriage, made up mostly of physical attraction, and that means she has the Visa to stay in America. 

They don’t have a conventional marriage, and, suffice it to say, it doesn’t end well, or last very long. Cleo is trying to be an artist, but her mother committed suicide, and she herself is on antidepressants, and being with Frank makes that worse for her. She struggles to find the motivation to make art every day, so sits at home and doesn’t really do much, which means she doesn’t get to become an artist whilst with him. Frank has an alcoholic as a mother, and he often drinks his life away. He was also falling for one of his work colleagues, Eleanor, and Cleo read the emails. She wanted a change, wanted him to change, and asked Frank to stop drinking, but he didn’t, and she self-harmed. He found her, bleeding out, and she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. They realised soon after that they wouldn’t work, and they separated. It wasn’t until Frank got back in touch with Eleanor, and they started dating - he was no longer a drunk, and was in an AA group - that he realised he was happy. Eleanor made him go and check that she was okay, and they knew they were going to have to start the process of a divorce. 

Eleanor’s dad died, and she had to sit Shiva. He had been suffering for ages, with a neurodegenerative disease. Her brother manages to find the time to come and see him whilst he’s dying, and they find out his girlfriend, Min, is actually pregnant. All the whilst, she knows she wants Frank, so finally gets him to come over. 

By this time, Cleo and Frank’s friendship groups merge. Anders is a classic fuckboy, who Cleo actually slept with after Frank was too busy drinking to see her. She fell for him, but he left before she could get closure, and she holds it against him. As it is he has a son which isn’t biologically is, but emotionally is, called Jonah. He gets on well with Jonah’s mum, after dating her for 6 years, but when he moves away, Jonah no longer comes to visit him. He spends his days with other women, and he has a puppy whom he doesn’t really know how to care for. 

Zoe, Frank’s half sister, doesn’t like Cleo at first, but she finds her and Audrey, Cleo’s friend, are better friends to her than anyone else has been, so she grows on her. Zoe doesn’t have a lot of money, and Frank doesn’t give her any more after a while, so she has to earn money herself. She ends up finding the pleasure that is masturbation, and becomes a sugar baby, where she gets paid to keep someone company: enter Jiro. 

Santiago is trying to lose weight, having always been the ‘fat friend’ in his group. The leader, Dominique, he ends up asking out. He falls in love with her, and they get married. 

Quentin, well, the less said about him, the better. He becomes a raging drug addict. His boyfriend at the time, Johnny, is mean to him, so they break up. Quentin likes to dress up in women’s clothes, which Johnny doesn’t like. He goes to a group orgy and he meets Alex, who gets him more into drugs than he already is. Cleo and Quentin used to be friends, but he got angry and distant when Cleo married Frank, and was a really awful, passive aggressive friend to her. Eventually, he is spending all his time with Alex and he invites Cleo over. He says he has run out of money, and needs some of hers, and attacks her. Fortunately, she manages to escape, and she tries to get him help, but he has no one, and she doesn’t know where he is anymore, as they’ve lost contact. 

This took me ages to finish. I don’t know what it was, I just could not get into it. For me, there wasn’t a clear storyline or plot. I went into it thinking it was a relationship, and then I found out it wasn’t really a conventional relationship at all. Which I actually quite like, because there are a lot of books which are very corny, cliched, and this definitely wasn’t, and I really liked that aspect. I liked all the ‘taboo’ subjects which aren’t too often talked about, like the addiction, alcoholism, weight loss, mental health, etc etc. I like the fact that each character is facing their own battle, because I think that’s really realistic, and it shows that you never know what someone is going through really. Despite this, I think the thing for me was that I just didn’t understand it. To me, it felt like it wasn’t really going anywhere, there was a lot of stuff happening all at once, and it was very confusing. I didn’t bond well with the characters, although I think their humour was the best part about the novel, and I think that there were so many different POVs, and, in my opinion, they could have all be different books. This book, for me, wasn’t really about Cleo and Frank, even though they’re the ones that brought everyone together. There were a lot of other people I found - dare I say it - much more interesting, that I think would benefit from telling their own story. I would have happily read a whole story about Zoe and Jiro, or even just Eleanor (Eleanor was my favourite character, if you want to know). Also, the ending was a little bit anticlimactic, and it feels like there should have been a more distinct ending. If they had had separate books, I could have found out what happened to them all after the divorce, what Anders and Santiago was up to - and I was intrigued about his weight loss journey - and, most importantly how Zoe was getting on. I even felt like I didn’t really know what happened to Quentin after, which I suppose isn’t the worst thing, but we move. If the endings were done to symbolise Cleo and Frank separating and moving on, then that’s a great ending, but I need to see a continuance novel to give it a higher rating. I’m a little disappointed, I can’t lie, but I’m glad I got it finished. 

Spoilers Ahead: 
I had really low expectations of this book, but I was actually quite pleasantly surprised.
We follow Paula as she follows her team, consisting of Mac (the leader), Helen (the sceptic) and Kyle (the believer). As a university student, she is shocked when Mac invites her to join the team, to investigate a house that is supposedly haunted. His ex-partner, Josephine, went there to investigate, writing everything down in her diary, but when she returned, both of her assistants were dead, and she did not speak a word after that. She ended up in a psychiatric ward, and Mac wants to know what happened to her.
We have a flashback, in which we travel back in time to the beginning of Blackwych Grange. Elizabeth is living with her uncle and cousin, Matthew. She has been suffering with night terrors for years, and also gets whipped by her uncle for being disobedient. Daniel, a boy from the village, wants her to run away, but she won’t leave Matthew. He promises to return for her, but when he does, alas, it is too late! She is dead. Daniel goes looking for her, thinking that she can’t be dead. There is a massive scandal, but nobody says anything, only that she went mad.
He hears noises from under the ground, where Elizabeth’s grave is, and he digs it up. There she is, physically, but not mentally. The bones of her unborn child she pushes into her belly, and she is perceived as very unhinged. ]It comes out that her uncle tried to kill her. Every night for years, she’s get those night terrors from being sedated from her uncle, where he allows people in the village to use her as a punishment/reward for them/trade. When Elizabeth got pregnant from the priest, she was so scared, but she had to watch her son be fed to the wolves - obviously traumatising! So she went crazy, was eventually killed, and then lived in the house to haunt all of the Marringham descendants, so she can cause them as much pain as they did to her.
Kyle quits halfway along the trip, although he tries to convince Paula to leave too - she didn’t want to be seen as a coward, though. She stays, Helen ends up having a ‘heart attack’, and then dies, so it’s just her and Mac. So far, their visits have tried to replicate Josephine’s schedule to the letter, so they can try and figure out what is happening. Mac is happy to give Paula up to the ‘ghost’, as paranormal things start to happen. They eventually see the Black Eyed Lady who haunted Blackwych Grange, and she makes them act crazy.
Luckily, Paula is saved from the house, and a few weeks after she leaves, she goes to visit Josephine. Of course, she starts acting weird, and then we find out Elizabeth’s soul has actually been in her body this whole time, because she couldn’t leave Blackwych Grange without attaching herself to someone, and then she jumps into Paula’s body, to try and kill off the rest of the Marringham family.
So, to start with, the beginning was, for want of a better word, awful. There were a lot of mistakes which should not be present in a published, fully edited book, and the pacing was off, and it felt like everything that was happening was just one event after the other, no time to chill, no time to develop the relationships with the characters, etc etc. I won’t lie, I almost DNFed it, because I just couldn’t get into it. It got really exciting when the story shifted to Elizabeth’s POV, and then even the editing got a little better after that - but it still wasn’t perfect, unfortunately. The pacing got a lot better too, weirdly enough.
I thought the layout itself was absolutely perfect with the book. With the story starting with Paula, then switching to the different POVs, back to Paula, I thought that was done perfectly, and I can’t fault that. Honestly, I can’t lie I didn’t feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters, but to me, that makes it all the more mazing, because the plot kept me gripped! I really liked the ending, the ambiguity of it, although I would absolutely love it if another one was released, maybe still in the POV of Paula whilst she is possessed - I think that would be really cool. I loved the backstory, I thought it was so clever and well-thought out, and there were a lot of common horror tropes, but it also wasn’t too cliche, which I really like, as it’s hard to find a horror book that doesn’t overuse these tropes, in my opinion. I think it’s quite a tame horror novel, but I would definitely recommend it!

Spoilers Ahead: 

This book is a massive slow-burner, but I’m really into it? It started off really slow, and I almost thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it, but I’m so glad I managed to continue on with it. 

We follow Alex and Molly as they meet. Molly has been pining after this girl, Cora, since she first met her. Molly has crippling anxiety, and, therefore, Cora doesn’t know she exists. As they move into the same college, and Alex rocks up at one of the parties, only to find out that Cora is actually very attracted to her, Molly isn’t a massive fan of Alex, especially when she embarrasses her in front of everyone. 

Alex, however, has her own problems; her mum is a drunk, spending all of her - and Alex’s - money on alcohol, and her ‘girlfriend’ - I use the term loosely - thinks that she can’t take relationships seriously. She’s about to go on tour, and she makes a deal that if Alex can stay faithful and not flirt, then their love can be rekindled. 

Alex and Molly re thrown together when Alex finds out about Molly’s secret crush. She agrees to help her ‘get’ Cora, and by doing so, she is also showing her ‘girlfriend’ that she can be a good person. 

Alex compiles a plan, and ends up being a mentor for Molly on dates. However, as they start spending time with each other, they realise that maybe this isn’t what they want. Molly realises that she stopped liking Cora like that, and Alex realised that she deserves better than her controlling girlfriend, and they end up getting together. 

The romance between Molly and Alex is so sweet. In the beginning, I wasn’t rooting for them, and even though I knew they would end up getting together, I thought they were way too different. Even now, it sort of feels quite unrealistic that they ended up together, purely just because of how much their personalities clash, but I respect it. 

The characters themselves were okay, although I think it would have helped if I had liked them a bit more. Molly actually infuriated me. She made most of her obstacles for herself, the only one who was actually putting them up. I sympathise, I have been known to be anxious for a while - most of my life, actually - but come on. There’s being anxious, and then having no common sense and blaming anxiety. They were very quick to throw down diagnosis after diagnosis here. However, I do like the similarities, as well as the differences, between the two women, especially with the problems they face with their mothers: the internal racism and the alcoholism. I thought it was very cool! A very pleasant read. 

Spoilers Ahead: 

I’ve been really getting into Coben’s books, and I saw that this had been developed into a TV show and the cover, therefore, was absolutely gorgeous, so I was a little bit disappointed with this book, I can’t lie. 

We follow Maya as she is burying her husband, Joe. She was there when it happened, as he was shot by two thugs. However, she sees him on a nanny cam, and she wonders what the hell happened for him to be seen like that. 

She’s looking into his murder, trying to find a connection. She thinks his family is involved. They are rich and snooty, and all of them knew things about the murders that shouldn’t have been known. For example, one of Joe’s brothers apparently ‘committed suicide’, but Maya starts to believe that someone was actually behind it, and she starts to suspect that Joe might have been behind it. Both Joe’s and his brother’s bodies are never shown, and she suspects them to be missing. She keeps on digging and digging, until she finds that all of Joe’s family are responsible for covering up skeletons, but the one who was behind his murder was actually her! 

First of all, it took me ages to get into. I don’t know why, just starting it off was very slow. I find that, with Coben’s books, at least, the beginning is always quite slow, but then it pulls you in deep, and that’s why I stuck it out, but I didn’t get that pull with this book, unfortunately. When Joe showed up on the nanny cam, I was so shook, and I thought that that would make such a good book. I think I then had quite high standards, and that was my downfall. I was expecting more to be happening with the nanny cam, because that was such a good opening, but it wasn’t really talked about much after that. Even the blurb talks about the nanny cam, because it’s one of the most interesting parts! 

I think, personally, the whole plot felt a little forced, like all of the pieces are from the same jigsaw, but it’s not being put back in the correct way. I can’t describe it, but the story just didn’t click for me. Normally when I read books, there is a clicking moment where I finally understand what’s going on in the story and why everything’s been done the way it has - normally it has to be spelt out VERY clearly otherwise I will miss it or misinterpret it - but I never got that with this book, which is a shame. The ending was a little bit of a let-down for me too, unfortunately; I just felt… unsatisfied. 

I thought all of the characters themselves were miserable, also, and unlikeable too. I didn’t bond with Maya at all… I had no emotions towards her whatsoever, which is a shame. I felt she was trying too hard to be one of those women, I don’t want to use the word, but pick-me-ish? The type to try too hard, that sort of thing, which I find a really unlikeable and distasteful trope, to be honest. I’m not going to go into another rant, but why on earth was Maya looking into his murder that deeply, if she already knew it was her? I know she apparently didn’t know, but how could you not know that you killed someone?? And where did the bodies go, if no one saw them, or did I get the wrong end of the stick with that? It doesn’t make any sense!! I feel so frustrated with how the book, and how it ended!! 

Spoilers Ahead: 

This book was honestly not what I expected at all. 

We follow Cassie as she’s at a bar, getting drunk because it’s ‘Family Weekend’ and her family doesn’t come to visit, so she’s out of town - out of sight, out of mind. She spots an older woman in the bar called Erin, and she’s insanely attracted to her. She buys her a drink, they get to talking, and it ends up being a good time in the back of a car, if you know what I mean. She finds out that Erin is actually visiting her child for the weekend, so they agree to never see each other again. 

The next morning, one of her best friends, Parker, asks her to go to breakfast with her and her mum, because ages ago her mum got divorced and she’s always been a ‘Daddy’s Girl’ and she sort of blames her mum for the divorce and it’s a bit weird, so Cassie agrees to go to help keep things from being awkward. 

And you’ll never guess who turns up to breakfast that very morning? 

Lo and behold, it’s Erin! 

Cassie is in her element, but Erin is terrified; she can’t let anyone know that she slept with someone a lot younger than her, especially if that person happens to be her daughter’s best friend! She vows that there cannot be anything more to happen to them. 

But every time they get together, they end up doing stuff together. They physically cannot keep their hands off of each other. At Parker’s acapella concert, when Cassie goes to live with them over the holidays, they keep saying their cannot be more to their relationship, but they keep on going back to each other. 

Cassie gets into her dream college, and has to navigate through these emotions by herself, as Parker refuses to talk to her and Acacia, their mutual best friend, is being weird with her. She finds friendship in Erin, and they FaceTime and make dinner together, and Cassie starts to see her as someone she wants to talk to all the time. Still, they believe there is just a physical attraction. 

When they are walked in on, Erin’s sexist ex-husband Adam, and Parker follows along also, Erin and Cassie are shocked. Cassie gives them some space, and Erin finds out that Parker has known all along. She was angry at first, then saw how happy they made each other. Cassie, however, only just recognises that she has feelings for Erin. Eventually they make up, and it ends with them getting married! 

Honestly, this story is incessantly long for the actual content. It could have been cut down a lot, lot more, and it would still be a good story, maybe even better. It felt like the ending happened an hour before the story actually ended, so it felt like it was dragging a lot. I’m also not a massive fan of relationships which are grown solely from sex, which I think this relationship was, but that’s just a personal preference. 

Erin is my biggest enemy. I whole-heartedly believe that she is one of the biggest assholes that I’ve ever read about. How is Cassie supposed to keep up?? You want her to not kiss you, but then you tell her to kiss you, and then you’re so fucking mean to her? Some of the stuff she said was disgusting. Especially considering she’s a lot older, so she should know better. A lot, lot better. Cassie was so much more mature in this whole situation, and that’s saying something. 

And don’t even get me started on Parker! I think she’s so childish, the way she reacted to their relationship was awful. I get it completely, you’ve found out your best friend and your mum are together, it’s a very weird situation indeed, but how could you do that? Going completely silent on Cassie, and her mum, also? Her mum, who she has blamed for the divorce since it happened, and who always does everything for her? Instead of being nasty, Parker should have said that she’s taking some time for herself, communicated that she needed space, instead of just ghosting and making her feel so alone. I think I’m a bit biased though, as I’ve had this happened to me, and it makes everything so confusing. I really like the opening though. When Cassie is describing how her and Parker met, dating the same guy. It made Parker out to be the villain before she actually became the villain. In the end, though. I totally despise Erin and Parker, and Adam to be fair, just that entire family. 

I did like how many characters in this novel was queer, and I like the open and honest - disregarding Cassie - communication about sexuality between Parker and Erin. The grouping up of the queer kids, the slow development of their relationship (not sexually, but emotionally) and the sexy scenes were all done really well, I think. It was a good book, but there were a lot of things that could be improved, in my opinion.