2.75 ⭐️

I feel like this is the year for paranormal romances dealing with ghosts/grim reapers and I’m here for it… but I also feel like everyone was given a prompt and I’m curious how they’ll all match up to each other.

This one was just fine. I thought the writing was a little too simplistic and a little too over explained and it almost felt like it was YA in an adult coat 🤷‍♀️ the dialogue was so stuffy and stiff that it felt like reading two robots having a conversation. There wasn’t any life to it (excuse the pun).

The premise was something that had me intrigued about this one I really wanted to love it but I also felt like nothing happened. There’s so much back and forth and the core reason for these two to spend time together is just observation for his job.. it’s a little easy and way too simple for me to get behind. The stakes weren’t there .

The romance. This was very insta lust which isn’t my favourite but there are books that get it right so I know it can be done well! These two had barely any chemistry, the banter was non existent.

The sex. This is where I was really thrown off and this is also the issue I have with some romance books these days. The sex didn’t match with the writing or these characters at all. You cannot just throw in generic explicit sex scenes and call it a day and hope that’s enough to hold up your book. The first one just didn’t feel like I was reading the same book at all. The second was a little bit better but again they didn’t feel like the characters I was reading about.

Overall I didn’t really enjoy this. I thought the set up was good but I wanted higher stakes (he’s a reaper fgs) and I thought the writing could have been a little more polished and more… adult.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for sending me the arc. All opinions are my own.

3.5 ⭐️

This was extremely well written and the premise was something I hadn’t read before so obviously I jumped at the chance to request an arc. Everything seems a little too trope based these days so something original like this stood out at me.

The writing was great, I think it was extremely obvious that the author loves reading as well as film. I will say I wish we got less exposition for the film they were making. we get a lot of background info on the actors, interviews and lore about the franchise, and while I enjoyed it at the start, I just didn’t want to be taken out of the story in the later half.

The romance. I loved Delaney and Max’s dynamic I don’t think we really many characters like them getting stories so it was refreshing to read. I do wish we were shown more when it came to them getting to know each other at the start. I think it skipped ahead a little too quickly before setting a foundation for their relationship.

Ultimately I did feel like the end dragged on a little and if there was less page time spent on franchise scripts, interviews and Wikipedia pages then the romance would have been able to shine more.

thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for sending me the arc. All opinions are my own.