I found this book to be very boring. Not only is there just not much plot and too many years covered, but the prologue of setting up the story to be Maren ready to finally tell Skye something, this was forgettable and did a poor job of creating any tension. We know early on that Annie is dead and that she was an alcoholic and that Charlie is also dead, it's just the circumstances surrounding some of these facts that's unknown. After Skye hears about how Charlie died and how young Annie reacted, she says something like 'my mom never really talked about him and treated it as no big deal, so I didn't think it was'. So we the reader also thought it was no big deal and therefore there was no tension here. It wasn't exactly a juicy secret! We see how Skye had a childhood marked with her feeling the need to lie, to adapt to constant change, to be the one who was the responsible party-- there was obvious trauma that Skye went through and throughout it all still loved her mom and had good times too. But the adversity and trauma is still there, so I was pretty fucking annoyed at Maren telling Skye at the end 'you said your life was chaos, but your mom was a good person and your life wasn't all bad' and then Skye was basically like 'yeah I guess I should be grateful and positive about my childhood!' BULL I felt that there was no real tension or connection or charge between Skye and her love interest (I think his name was Ben? Everyone had generic-ass boring names.) I also really didn't see much between Maren and Oliver once they were established, and I agree with his comment that she never really needed him. The whole problem with Haven Point is how both Maren and Skye feel that they don't fit in there, and both can acknowledge that there are underlying elements that aren't great: the wealth, the snobbery and exclusion, the homogeneity Etc. Maren gets to see the good bits of this community after Charlie's death as the people rally around the family, plus she had Georgie and Maude around. Skye doesn't really see much of the community, other than maybe seeing how people come together somewhat after the huge storm? This was not really on page. But ultimately the family that all of the Haven Point people are against, the Donnelly family-- the dad Finn tries to seduce Maren, and then the son Patrick is anti-war and hurt Annie, and the grandson B/Ryan is a drug dealer!! So what exactly is the message here?? Not exactly acceptance! BULL A couple small miscellaneous items: is Haven point only a summer location? It seemed like Pauline and then the older Maren lived there full time, but younger Maren was only there in the summer? The timing was weird. Skye only went there in the summers? Annie only ever fell off the wagon during the summer? Maren's eldest child Billy was barely in the book, and many of the secondary characters were complete cardboard cutouts. There were a lot of characters throughout the book, but this did not give it a charming small town feeling. Harriet being nasty to Maren was pointless and weirdly quickly resolved. Skye's father was brought up multiple times but then never became an issue even though the implication was there? Some reviewers say that this was nicely written but overall boring, or fell a bit flat. I agree with other reviews that indicate that most secondary characters lacked depth and that there was not an emotional connection with this story, and I felt detached throughout. One reviewer points out how many times women and girls are pitted against each other for no good reason. While I hadn't noticed that myself, I definitely see that now! After reading a number of five star reviews, I feel that most of them have no real substance and are simply summaries, so that's a little weird.

The blurb definitely puts a lot of focus on Yorke's trauma response to thinking that he killed Carl, but I don't remember that being such a big focus in the book? It makes sense for our main characters to team up with people to survive, but I will say how quickly they begin to trust this new team felt unrealistically too quick. And while this brought interesting texture to the overall book, it does feel a little bit like the end of an era? I like seeing how Frankie begins to open up and feel her feelings for Yorke. The ending/ last couple chapters felt rushed. Overall I think I should have binged this entire series. The writing was basically at the same level and quality as previous books, but it is hard to keep track of which book has which events, and my stopping for over 2 months now will make it hard to jump back in. Many reviewers like the writing style and the high emotions throughout, and I agree I felt like it is very easy to be with the characters and in their heads. I do see how Frankie and Yorke need and fit well with each other in a really beautiful way. One reviewer points out how the "bad guys" at the White House is a somewhat weak and flimsy plot line, and having so much of Carl as a character off page lessened his overall impact on the story, including the final actions at the end of this book.

I just really did not enjoy this book. The setup was fun, the setting was fun, but the vibes were off and West was NOT it for me! The blurb does say that money may be getting in the way of things in the relationship, and yes 100%!! The way that money and business and all of the family bullshit took up all of the page time made this book boring for me and took away from the romance, which felt really flimsy to me. We hardly see any time of our characters together and bonding, this definitely needed more emotional development. The plot was confusing: not just a convoluted premise, but also a secretive loophole in the will, and the 'Mysterious Past' that West was keeping hidden-- but then just got thrown in at the end? for what purpose? I did say in my vlog that I found Anna both annoying and relatable, and sometimes funny, but overall I felt like she was kind of a weird character, and felt too quirky. But West was really the big dud for me. I felt that he had no confidence or faith in Anna, which was annoying to read, and I never found him to be swoony. He and his family are so messed up, his dad is an absolute jerk, but I found West attempts to be vulnerable to Anna just came across as lackluster and not enough. Overall the romance was the problem in this book, I just never found it believable and did not root for these characters to be together. Some reviews complain that there were too many 'rich people problems', and that the ending or resolution was tied up too quickly and too neatly. One review points out that Anna has 'pick me' energy, which I strongly agree with. Another points out some plotholes: why did this super rich family never background check Anna or look into her or insist that she attend any family functions in the last four and a half years? Why is this family treated like celebrities when they own a grocery store chain? Anna is the one preaching that money isn't everything but she also ends up with money...