I'm not 100% sure how to feel about this book. On one hand I did enjoy Jessica and Vini getting to know each other, but on the other hand I just personally didn't feel like real chemistry was there. I personally feel like a relationship built on solely sexual attraction and pursuing sexual desires with each other isn't totally 100% love, more so lust. Like they're obviously attracted to each other but I felt like their relationship wasn't really convincing to me tbh. Like I get trying to step out of behaving commitment issues, but Jessica literally just got out of a bad situation-ship while dating two people....at the same time......like I agree with Ava on that part but also.... dear god I really cannot stand Ava as a character. She was ehh in her book but she's so annoying in this book omg like girl I get it but RELAX YOU CONTROL FREAK. I also feel like maybe it's Karmen's writing style, but I feel like certain details and explanations of the setting and certain scenes just weren't very necessary/added anything that would make the book more enjoyable or interesting, it just felt repetitive. I also felt like outside of sex, they needed to spend more quality time and energy into building a healthy relationship, and wished that the situation with her mom went a little better instead of it kind of just not really being addressed and her parents just being cool with Vini after everything that happened. I didn't like the narrator for this book either, so I just read the book and PDF together instead of the audiobook and book in tandem. Hoping the third book is better, because this series has me really questioning if any of these characters actually know about true love and being in a real relationship fr lol.

Thank you to NetGalley, Union Square & Co. - A subsidiary of Sterling Publishing, and Union Square & Co. for the eARC. Always greatly appreciated!

DNF @ 46%

Slowly coming to the realization I'm not incredibly interested in this story and I've been skimming for the past two chapters and I'm not really feeling the book. Maybe I'll pick it up at a later time, but good god if you're not in the mood for a slow burn with a lot of slow world building do NOT pick up this book.

Grace and Ava's story was pretty good. As frustrating as Ava was throughout the book (like girl I get but damn LET THAT SHIT GO SHE APOLOGIZED SO MANY TIMES AND YOU'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT THE PAST), the pacing was a little ehhh (like why were they only starting to get on good terms date at 70% like whewwwwww this was a slow burn friends-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers), and I really didn't like the narrator for the audiobook (like her deep voice for Robert, Thomas, Brad, and Grace actually viscerally made my ears hurt), this was a decent fluffy romance that had a little spice and wasn't too descriptive in the two chapters it was present in. It also was a little uninteresting and a little slow at certain points, and I feel like the setting and atmosphere Delt a little overly detailed and descriptive. Like certain details or something happening were kind of unnecessary or didn't add anything to the story, setting, or development, just a tinsy bit of filler. I do like that Ava's sister Vini is going to be in the next book. It's giving Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters series all over again ahhhh!

3.75 ⭐️

Is our house haunted, or are we haunted by the horrors within ourselves?

I really wanted to rate this higher but I feel like the pacing and the character development taking up a majority of the book may make this book harder to get through than others. I also went in expecting it to be purely supernatural with a mix of horror elements, but I was a little disappointed in the buildup. I wish there was more bread-crumbing to the end result, but it felt like the details were mentioned once and then weren't mentioned until the very end. I feel like this was a good character development heavy book though, seeing how each other the characters navigate what happened with their parents, how the house changed them, and everything that happened to Ezri. The characters are perfectly flawed and some are more likable than others, but if you're willing to read a slowwwwww burn psychological mystery, this is for you.