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** spoiler alert ** Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the eARC!

I’ll start with the good. This book had a unique premise that you don’t normally see in YA. It’s the kind of book I gravitate towards: an original idea! We also had some really good writing - I think Cook’s writing itself is very impressive for a debut author.

The beginning of this book was also excellent! I loved that it dove right into the action and gave us two very powerful scenes right off the bat.

And please, if you liked this book, stop here. 🙏 I’m going to mention minor spoilers below.

Then�� it lost me a bit�� from maybe 25ish? To 50%�� I was a tiny bit bored. It was a lot of exposition and talking and honestly I felt like things were reiterated multiple times. I kept being like “I know this already. Why are we saying it again?��

There is a section from maybe 50-70% where it picked up again. We got to see more development and plot movement.

Then the ending sequences and twists started happening. And I’m sorry�� but I predicted EVERYTHING. From the first mini twist to the big reveal to the epilogue. It was SO predictable - I can point to plot moments where it felt like the author handed me her entire plot summary with one or two lines. I get this is YA but teens aren’t dumb��. Come on.

Okay��. Actually? Tasha is dumb. I’m sorry��. She didn’t make any smart choices and the fact that everything surprised her just made me roll my eyes. No inklings?? There was a time when the MMC specifically tells her XX was at a scene and she just went “nahhhh impossible�� - with no suspicion at all. Yet when she is told something about the MMC that is OBVIOUSLY not true, she’s like “omg how dare you.�� 😶🙄

Leo? Ugh. 😑 He’s just�� nothing? I hated that he didn’t feel real to me. One time, he’s flirting and getting with this other girl and next minute, he’s in love with the FMC? These two had such non-chemistry. Because what this book does is rely on their PAST relationship to make them perfect for one another, a past we never get to see. Their present interactions are barely tolerable? I’m so confused why I need to root for them?

Oh wait, it’s because Ravi is just a simp with no actual personality outside of loving Tasha. Ugh. 😑 So we can’t like him. The author gives us no choice to even possibly like him because he’s just a wealthy man with an attachment to her and a need to protect her. That’s it. That’s his personality.

I think that’s where this novel fell short for me: obvious foreshadowing and poor characterization. Tasha should have been a character I LOVED. I love bitchy protagonists - they’re my fav. But Tasha was not that? The beginning, yes. But throughout the book, we only had very small moments of her being like that while the rest of the time, she just didn’t use her brain.

And the ending��. Was the worst of it. No. Just NO. (Major spoiler below!) This is what moved me from 3 to 2 stars.)

After spouting that she didn’t want to be under her sister, she let herself get tied to a MAN in order to keep what? A mafia that doesn’t matter at all because everyone she loved in it is either DEAD or against her?????? What even is the POINT anymore????????? If she had gone with her sister, who btw was actually trying to make something but got twisted along the way - she could have convinced her sister to keep Leo alive and they could have potentially been a POWERHOUSE of female superiority. But instead she lets Ravj give her a ring??? Promises to marry him?? Again, so she can protect a mafia she doesn’t even KNOW???? Her dad is dead, Victor is dead. All she has is Matteo and tbh, just bring him to the dark side too? Hahaha. 😂 I just can’t believe that I trust HER SISTER more because she actually had a plan and a reason and SUPPORT. She was a female in power! With NO man above her. Tasha has nothing but a man giving her power. 🤷‍♀��

I do know this has a sequel but I can’t deal with this anymore. I’m super disappointed. 😢