Reviewed by Anonymous
Rating: 2/5
i wanted to like this book. i wanted to love it! it has so many good parts to it, but in the end it hurt me how much it didn't deliver.
and, honestly, it was difficult articulating what the issue was. the story itself was great and fun, and there were good pivots that had me keeping up, but in the end, it was the dialogue that really limited this book for me.
writing is a funny thing. you can't just tell a character what they're going to say - you've got to let them loose and see what they do. this felt less like a novel and more like paper dolls having words shoved in their mouths. the characters rarely felt like they were actually talking to each other instead of being given stage directions, and that made the emotional beats feel much shallower than they should have.
it could have been breathtaking, but we got stuck in the shallow end of the pool. i do really REALLY like the story, though. so even though this is only two stars, I'll be checking out more of Cora Rose's works to see if this improves.