ARC review! I’m one of those readers *obsessed* with writing style. The way an author crafts sentences can truly make or break a book, period. Some authors overdo it, but I loved Katia Lief’s writing - it’s simple, straightforward, yet brilliant and eloquent. Plus, she’s witty and insightful in her portrayal of a woman’s struggle versus the male specifies. For example:

“When men did their thinking with their penises and women felt empowered by that, the women usually lost when things went off the rails. In the end, men still held most of the power. When they got sick of those women, they still tossed them out like garbage and society still snapped on the lid.”

“After all that, how much had society really changed? Had history just looped in on itself? Was it back to the inevitable ending for women: be quiet or be destroyed?” (Facts.)

Plot-wise though, I struggled. A lot. There were just so. many. plots and subplots that I got lost in; my focus was being pulled everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And let me get into that:

(i) We’re introduced to Joni, who might’ve killed her husband - main plot potential, right?! But it got overshadowed by other plot threads.

(ii) Then Marc shows up (the sleazy brother from the synopsis), hinting at family drama. One would think, “OOOH, it’s starting to get juicy here!” But it didn't quite deliver on its promise.

(iii) And then, we get Marc’s 2nd ex-wife who accuses him of fraud and murder [of his first ex-wife]. (GASP!) (THIS in particular - not only was it unresolved, but it felt [to me] disconnected from the main storyline and contributed almost nothing to it. (Although at this point, I didn’t even know what the main storyline was.)

(iii) And if that wasn’t enough, Marc then pulled a Houdini on Joni and kidnapped Stella, Joni’s beloved dog. (DOUBLE GASP!). It added to the chaos rather than contributing to a cohesive plot. I just… really didn’t get it.

(iv) Oh you thought that was it? No. Because here’s more. When Blair, Joni’s PA, supposedly became unreachable, I was FUMING because instead of pointlessly asking everyone where she was, couldn’t Joni or anyone for that matter just GO to Blair’s apartment to check?? It was these kinds of moments that left me frustrated and questioning the narrative's direction.

Thats not it, by the way. So when I tell you my attention was going everywhere and nowhere, I wasn’t joking.

On top of alllllllllllll that, what bothered me as well was the lack of reaction and urgency from the FMCs that didn’t quite match what was happening and it ended up falling incredibly flat. Everyone was just going through the motions, even when things were getting intense. As someone who loves thrillers, I was disappointed by the lack of it.

Furthermore, the loose ends REALLY bugged me. I mean, for example, what happened to Billy the doorman? And Blair!? Because her disappearance in particular was just left hanging. It was frustrating to be left with sooo many unanswered questions