thank you to the author for access to this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

in any kind of monster romance, i really look forward to getting invested in the characters, cheering for the relationship, and basking in the romance of it all. unfortunately, i wasn’t able to finish this and chose to dnf at 57%.

i don’t expect first person perspective to be entirely smooth at all times, because that’s just not how an internal dialogue works, but the dialogue throughout this book was especially unpolished. there are incomplete clauses littered throughout the text, making for a very weird reading experience.

this has also been a very “tell” heavy book. we don’t get to see the actual conversations borealis and summer have, rather we get told what the characters learn about each other after the fact. this greatly contributes to my next point.

in terms of the romance, it feels as though there’s no actual chemistry between the main characters, but they’re still acting out what one might consider a typical romance story line. the “tension” in the story feels forced and fabricated. there’s nothing natural about the interactions between them aside from “oh she’s hot” or “oh he’s hot.” it’s a little too insta-love for my tastes. this isn’t a very long book, so i was expecting a little bit of that, but not to this extent.

ultimately what made me choose to dnf was that i couldn’t bring myself to care or feel invested in the characters despite being more than half way through the book.

i think readers might enjoy this more if they’re interested in a low stakes romance, or if you enjoy hallmark holiday movies.

Makes clay sound appetising

this book restored me to my factory settings (obsession with vampires and women)