Honestly skimmed half this book for too much smut and random things I didn't care about, but it was entertaining if you want a smutty quick romance novel with ice skating I guess!

It was interesting in terms of plot with the competitive aspects of both Anastasia and Nathan's sports and how much they worked towards winning. I read this after some really heavy books and it was a mildly entertaining palate cleanser.

This book takes us into the mind of our nameless narrator and gives us a window into how she gets extremely involved in the details of the world around her, and helping people that are in need. Through the book, we come to understand some of the traumas that her and her family have been through, and how they all separately handle it in their everyday lives-- for the narrator this is detachment from her own life and trying to help out others, and this shines in the narration style that address something serious and something small with the same level of scrutiny.

I loved reading this and getting the window into the narrator's life and experience and felt like I was rooting for her, yelling at her, and empathizing with her all on the same page. The complexity of the relationships were conveyed in a unique way--although not all of the characters felt fully developed besides the narrator (talking about Billy here), the relationships to the narrator herself made for a beautiful read.

This was an engaging read and the author did a great job of making the plot feel realistic, the whole premise seems just a step away from where the US is at as a country right now. I really appreciated the descriptions of the retention facility and the reality of treatment there in parallel to the current justice system, where people in for-profit jails are just there for legal slavery and it's awful. It gives good insight to how many people don't "deserve" to be there but still are at the mercy of the system, and the type of treatment they receive. It's interesting to see all of this from the perspectives of people who actually didn't do anything, as it's just a small stretch from where we are as a country right now. The other thing I loved was how realistic and relatable the protagonist's spot is, from feeling stressed out post baby and translating these crazy dreams into wanted to harm someone in her life--it could literally be anybody in the same position. The book does a beautiful job outlining complex relationships and complicity in the system and obedience of it, but by the end does not develop some of the plot points brought up. For this reason it felt like it ended too soon without enough material development in the plot.