Bring, Borrow, or Bypass? | ✨Bring✨ |

~ Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, & St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own. ~

This is my second Alex Finlay and the best thing I can say about it (genuinely!) is that if you find yourself in a book slump HE IS SUCH A GOOD WRITER TO GET YOU OUT OF IT!

Started and finished this book in one day - the way the premise was set up was so good and compulsively readable. It also gives you an insight into the characters but has a built in stopgap for the characterization and how much you'll ever get to know them, which allows for the author to "get away" with them not being fully fleshed out.

A couple twisty turns that I legit didn't see coming (TO BE FAIR I never see the twisty turns coming which is part of the reason that I'm so good at being a thriller reader, you're pretty much ALWAYS going to get me!).

Overall definitely recommend and after 2 winners from Alex Finlay I think it might be time to check out his backlist for the summer (the perfect time for thrillers if I say so myself, which I just did).

OVERALL RATING: ★★★★ / 4.5

Rating each element of the book out of 5★ Characters ★★★★ Atmosphere ★★★ Writing ★★★★ Plot ★★★★ Intrigue ★★★★★ Logic ★★★★ Enjoyment ★★★★★ Pacing ★★★★ Dialogue ★★★

★ did not like / ★★ it was okay / ★★★ liked it / ★★★★ really liked it / ★★★★★ loved it

(Check out The StoryGraph if you'd like to review any Content Warnings!)

Bring, Borrow, or Bypass? | ✨Bring✨ |

Calling all eldest daughters, this one's for you 😅

(It can appeal to other people, I'm sure, but as an overachieving student that tied my worth to my accomplishments for the first 30 years of my life - LOL who am I kidding I'm still working on NOT doing that even now - this book HIT me right in the solar plexus SO. MANY. TIMES.)

(pg 158) "You're not what your brain achieves in a day," he says quietly. "You're not what your brain achieves at all, actually." And that … that is exactly what she is so afraid of. What she has always been so afraid of Because if she's not that, what the hell is she? What's left of her, if not a long list of achievements and the next thing she wants to tick off her to-do list? (end)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS ^

(pg 63)It's another fine line she walks: wanting to stand out but wanting to blend in. Being okay with a touch of spotlight as long as it's one she's set up herself in a place she's familiar with, in a crowd that feels like home. (end)

GET OUT OF MY BRAIN ^

anywho I loved this book and may every Sage find her Margot and Emerson because having your girls to walk you off overthinking ledges is NOT to be taken for granted

only minor gripe - kind-of skirted over the practicalities and real world implications of having to do a transcontinental romance with two demanding careers - CAN IT BE DONE? OF COURSE. but like - is their home base skye? please tell me it's skye. IF YOU HAD THE CHOICE why wouldn't it be SKYE

OVERALL RATING: ★★★★★ / 4.75

Rating each element of the book out of 5★ Characters ★★★★★ Atmosphere ★★★★ Writing ★★★★ Plot ★★★★ Intrigue ★★★★ Logic ★★★ Enjoyment ★★★★★ Pacing ★★★★ Dialogue ★★★★★

★ did not like / ★★ it was okay / ★★★ liked it / ★★★★ really liked it / ★★★★★ loved it

(Check out The StoryGraph if you'd like to review any Content Warnings!)

Bring, Borrow, or Bypass? | ✨Borrow✨ |

I finished this book like four days ago and it already feels like someone put up something gauzy between my brain and everything that happened. Like, I remember it? But also I don't?

Example: I had this moment where I was reading where I was like "oh this is just like Criminal Minds meets …" and now I can't remember what it meets. (UPDATE: I went to one of my notes for the book and L.O.L. it's the Mary Kate and Ashley Olson Detective Agency 🤣)

Also, side note for anybody else that got this from Book of the Month - it's apparently the third in a (loosely connected, it seems?) series so there were a couple of things that I didn't quite catch the full meaning of in the relationship between Lily and Harry.

Bad guy very bad but gets his comeuppance in the end, good guys marginally good but get the bad guy so better than marginally as it turns out.

OVERALL RATING: ★★★★ / 3.88

Rating each element of the book out of 5★ Characters ★★★ Atmosphere ★★★ Writing ★★★★ Plot ★★★ Intrigue ★★★★ Logic ★★★ Enjoyment ★★★★ Pacing ★★★★ Dialogue ★★★

★ did not like / ★★ it was okay / ★★★ liked it / ★★★★ really liked it / ★★★★★ loved it

(Check out The StoryGraph if you'd like to review any Content Warnings!)