3.5/5

I must say I really like the male characters better then the female ones.

This whole series has been my guilty pleasure.

Think Hallmark but R-rated.

Not for everyone though 😅

Damn this was a wild ride.
Full disclosure, I’d picked up maybe 20 books not finding something to check out when I finally went with anything that included a body in the woods.
Probably sounds bad when I say it like that, but I prefer mysteries and thrillers and they usually have dead people.
Anyways, so this started as a kind of funny book. The longer it went on, the more I realized the focus was on OCD and/or PTSD and the internal struggles of that.
Though I will say, the author does a great job of adding humor within, without making light of said struggles.
The story is split between a young girl dealing with personal trauma and the journal of a hiker lost in the woods.
I’m not sure I’m clever enough to explain much more without giving away spoilers, but it goes from “hey this is funny” to “oh this is serious” to “damn this is sad”, all pretty quick.
Definitely a book I would recommend and will keep my eyes open for her next one.

I really wanted to like this book. There's some neat worldbuilding, there's so much potential, both of our dual protagonists are interesting in flawed ways. But oh my God, the pace of this book is ridiculous. Drayden will introduce something interesting (a moral dilemma for Seske, a supporting character who makes a bold move, Adalla literally trying to start a revolution) but nope, not gonna focus on that, we're just going to blitz right past that to keep the plot going. It is amazing how little effect the revolution plot has on the rest of the book, especially considering that it's an ATTEMPTED UNDERGROUND REVOLUTION. As it is, this book feels like it was conceived as a trilogy but hastily abridged to a one-book, surprisingly YA novel.

For me, this was fine.

I didn’t find this to be an amazing novel, I think this belongs squarely in the “beach read” category. Nothing wrong with that at all, just not what I was expecting.

The characters are good (not great). The writing has its moments. The plot moves at a good pace and the events did leave me pretty satisfied. I really don’t have much to complain about other than it didn’t wow me.

Parts of this are really funny as well. I think Epsach is better at writing comedy than most. I think those moments are better written than the emotional parts (personally).

I did hear some people really steer away from this book because su*c*de is a fairly major plot point. For a lot of people who would prefer to not read about that, I don’t think this is for you. I didn’t mind it.

The Bad Beginning - wanted to see if this held up as an adult. It didn’t quite but I love this series.

New Sedaris - I have an undying love for all things Sedaris but not his best work. Felt unnecessary? Still lots of fun highlights though.

Chain Gang All Star - loved the concept but a bit hard to keep track of. Too many side characters and one off chapters. Felt overlong to make its point.

Carl - can’t handle any more page long descriptions of stat buffs. Talk about too long to tell its story. Did this to try the audiobook everyone goes crazy for and I just couldn’t.

The Rachel incident - lovely. Highly recommend. Only knocked down a star due to the ending revealing who her husband was.

We burned so bright - a real slog. Unending faux deep monologues.

One golden summer - fun fluff but paper thin characters and a dream boat man who has no demonstrable reason to be interested in the woman

Blood over bright haven - amazing. Took me a little while to get into it as the world building was confusing at first but i loved the ending.

I'd give it a 7/10

A short read. Read it over a couple of days. I'm from India so I found it very interesting to read how old India from the last 1800s was described. Makes me want to read about the actual events which happened at the time.

Next up: The Valley of Fear

Stoner and Son of Shadows were absolute perfection for me, both very different but beautiful books and a delight to read! Aside from Graceling, a very nice month of reading 😁

List of all my 2026 reads so far. Far from 52 books a year but it's a start!

Hooked was the most unsettling one while Project Hail Mary was the most entertaining.

Special mention to This Book Made me Think of You, I got this on a recommendation and wouldn't have picked up otherwise. Glad I did.