✨Im Literary Anxious✨

𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲🕒: 3 minutes

𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Giulia Lagomarsino✍🏻 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 286📖 𝗗𝗡𝗙 @: 138 👎🏻

Listen, I very rarely write DNF reviews.
From the deepest recesses of my soul, I genuinely believe not every book is for everyone. Just because I didn’t enjoy something doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of readers out there who will.

But I’m going to have to make an exception here because

I. HAVE. THOUGHTS.

Mainly — what the hell was this?

You need to understand, dear reader: it is very hard to put me off a book.

🚩Red flags? Red is my favorite color.
🩶MMCs who lean a little too far into morally gray territory? Who wears white anymore anyway?
⚠️Trigger warnings? Never heard of them.
😤Offensive topics? The only thing that offends me is people dog-earing their pages.

And yet somehow this book managed to make me question my life choices for the 100+ pages I powered through. Honestly, the most surprising part is that I lasted that long — a little over 50% of the book. That should tell you how much I wanted to give it a fair shot.

But when the MFC asks her brother how to make things right with the MMC and his advice is — completely seriously —

“Beg for his forgiveness and tell him all the ways you were wrong. Play up his ego; men love that shit… If that doesn’t work, use sex.”

That was it.

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵: 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟭𝟴𝟱.🪦

Now you might reasonably think, surely she doesn’t take that as legitimate advice, right?

You would think.

There is… a lot to unpack in the 185 pages I read.

Cara, our MFC, survived an extremely traumatic experience — as in kidnapped, kept in a basement, and tortured for ten days traumatic. Because of this, she’s spent the last six years living almost completely withdrawn from the world.

Then we have Sinner, the MMC. He works security and is very much the womanizing playboy type. Not the “reformed bad boy with a secretly soft heart” variety either. No — this man is just a full-blown jerk. Other than defending Cara when her brother is being a jerk, I struggled to find a single redeeming quality.

Take a moment to appreciate that. I have managed to find redeeming qualities in everything from fictional serial killers to stalkers… but this guy? Nothing.

And let’s not forget that the day he meets her — when she passes out from a panic attack in a restaurant — he still decides it’s a great idea to hit on her and try to sleep with her while fully aware she’s been through serious trauma.

A few standout moments from our MMC:

“𝙄𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙛 𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙨𝙤 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙥 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙖𝙧𝙚.”

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙙𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙙.”
“𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭… 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵.”

And then there’s this gem:

𝘏𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺.

Honestly, that last one might have annoyed me more than the rest.

But it’s not just Sinner.

Cara herself felt inconsistent as a character. I understood her trauma and hesitation, but her reactions often felt disproportionate or erratic. At one point she ends things with him because he confronts her brother for being a jerk. Was she justified in being upset he went behind her back? Sure. But the reaction felt wildly out of proportion to the situation.

And while we’re talking about poor decisions — during the time he’s away from her, our MMC sleeps with another woman.

Nope. Absolutely not. If Ross Geller couldn’t get away with it, this guy certainly isn’t.

You might think the issues stop with the main characters… but unfortunately, they do not.

Cara’s brother is supposedly protective, but he treats her like she’s incapable of functioning on her own. At one point he even announces — in front of several people, including the man she’s been seeing — that she had an episode where she wet herself.

A truly stellar brotherly moment.

Then we have the neighbors, who initially seemed like they might be the voice of reason. But when Cara finally takes steps toward healing and seeks psychiatric help and medication, they decide they’re uncomfortable having her around their children while she’s “on medication.”

With the least respect possible: absolutely not.

That moment alone nearly ended the book for me, and honestly I’m surprised I made it another fifty pages past it. The topic felt poorly handled and completely out of character for the people involved.

So yes, I think I’ve ranted enough.

This one simply wasn’t for me. And while I usually like to give authors another chance by trying another one of their books… I don’t think that will be the case here.

The only bright light in this tragic story?
This dumpster fire was a free read on KU. My eyes might have, but at least my wallet didn’t suffer.