I feel like a hypocrite even writing this review after the amount of times I've said I don't read romances, but I guess there's a first time for everything. This book was gifted to me by a friend who told me to just trust her, and I'm so glad I did!
“The truth was that I had been alone for a while. But it had always been the way I liked it, where I called all the shots and I was responsible only to myself. It never felt lonely. Now, suddenly it did."
Phoebe Walsh is working towards her PHD, but things get put on hold after the sudden death of her father. She reluctantly makes the trip back to Florida to help her brother, Conner, get their childhood home ready to go on the market, and is forced to confront her complicated relationship with her dad.
When their parents separated, Conner stayed with their father while Phoebe moved in with their mom, so this is the most time the siblings have spent together in years. Conner is naive, annoying, and honestly, kind of an idiot at times, but Phoebe starts to realize how much she enjoys having him around.
The siblings make slow process on cleaning and repairing the house, and in the evenings, Phoebe works on her dissertation. She has chosen to write about her biggest passion: true crime.
“True crime is especially interesting, because it tends to reflect and shape our cultural attitudes toward crime in general. You look at how the genre has morphed in the last sixty years, even, from the way Truman Capote made it more literary in In Cold Blood to the more sensationalistic, hard-boiled accounts written in the eighties and nineties, to how personal and nuanced Michelle McNamara gets in I'll Be Gone in the Dark. And then it's like, who's writing these books? What relationship do they have to the subject going in, or what relationship do they form as they go down this dark rabbit hole? How do they choose to present the information, and how does that affect the way a reader might feel about? Does that change how 'true' the books are, really?”
A lifelong obsession with true crime has made Phoebe paranoid, and after a late night encounter with the neighbor, Sam, she quickly begins to suspect that something isn't right. Connor tells her that she's being ridiculous, even bordering on stalking, but Phoebe is convinced. He comes and goes at odd hours of the day, she spots him carrying a large quantity of ice into his house, and one night, she swears she saw him emerge from his garage covered in dark red liquid.
Since Phoebe is staying at her late father's house, that means she's in much closer proximity to Sam than she would like to be. The two start to develop a friendship, and slowly, Phoebe realizes that her feelings for Sam may be a little more than that.
Maybe her true crime obsession has always been a defense mechanism, an excuse to shut herself out from the world and stay closed off from others.
Can she risk being vulnerable with someone for the first time ever?
“I feel like I grew up afraid of so many things. There's just so much uncertainty in life, especially when you're a kid... you don't know why your dad is upset, or why your mom puts up with it, or whether you'll ever have a true friend you could talk to. It sounds twisted, but by the time I was a teenager, there was something almost comforting about reading about serial killers. It was like, here, be afraid of this. Focus on this. There's uncertainty, and open question, but it'll all get wrapped up at the end. Justice will be served, the victims will be remembered, whatever.”
I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would, and one of the reasons was because of Phoebe. She was such a raw, real, and relatable main character, and I definitely felt a connection with her. The topic of her true crime dissertation was so fascinating to me, and honestly, I'd love to read an actual version of it, or a book that focuses more on that concept alone.
Conner was the perfect example of the annoying but lovable brother, without feeling stereotypical or cliche. His girlfriend Shani was so lovely and kind, and someone I would want to be friends with.
I know the character you're really wondering about is Sam—is he actually a serial killer?
Unfortunately, you're going to have to find that out for yourself.
“I can see why you'd doubt relationships, and family, and love. It sounds like a tense way to grow up, and I'm really sorry you had to go through it. But, Phoebe, your parents were just two people. Ted Bundy and whatever his girlfriend's name was were two people. Hell, Bonnie and Clyde stayed together until the bitter end, and even they were only two people. You can't extrapolate your worldview from such a small data set.”
Am I going to start reading more romances? Probably not.
Do I think this romance is worth the read? Absolutely!
I'd love to hear your thoughts, like if you've read it, if you're adding it to your TBR pile, or what I should review next.
Be sure to head over to my Discord so we can chat—I'd love to have you!
'•.¸♡ Happy reading! ♡¸.•'