You Shouldn't Have Come Here

It's giving (bad) fanfiction. That twist is utterly embarrassing, badly integrated, and desperate.

Dnf. I read the first 9 chapters (20%) then the last 3.

The first nine or days 1 and 2 felt so awkward. Occasionally the awkward feels uneasy, but it also feels like slice of life. While sometimes the regular life but slightly off appeals to me and makes me feel that thriller vibe, I wasn't picking that up here— just... awkward.
The last three chapters were great. Now, usually when I DNF a book I don't read the last chapters. I don't care enough, but some of the reviews had me interested enough and seeing how things played out and seeing the chapter names also made me want to see what was up. I really liked it. I liked having the wrapup for some reason even though I didn't know all the characters that she talked about. It's weird how that writing felt solid to me.

So saying that it is possible that there would've been an uptick in the thriller vibes past day two potentially, the writing would have felt more my style, so I'm not gonna tell people not to read this one. What I think is that this book style just wasn't for me.

DNF. Yep, I Shouldn't Have Gone There. The book's description says that it's a thriller in which the two main characters quickly fall for each other but then some weird stuff is going on or whatever and they started to have reason to suspect each other and maybe the guy becomes too obsessed with the girl. 

I understand that when people fall in love in a book, it has to be illustrated. But I've read plenty of books where people fall in love and this felt different, like I was reading a romance novel. And no shade to the romance genre, but I picked up a thriller. I decided to read a couple reviews to see if this over-the-top romancey bit ever slowed down and many reviews said it felt like a romance novel for 75-90% of the book. I don't like strictly romance so I noped out of there!

This was so bad please don't waste your time

This book was like if Colleen Hoover and Riley Sager got together to write Barbarian fanfic.

the dialogue is so cringe and unrealistic. the plot is stupid. the characters are ridiculous and the ending is predictable.

Wow!
I grabbed this on an “available now” option from the Libby app. Not one I would have chosen had I read the back. But... It was a good book. The change in narrator sometimes bothered me. But overall I liked the book. Good, but not great.
I never saw the ending coming.

Let's start at the end...
Overall, this book kept me engaged until the end. It was a red herring galore, a thriller bingo, and kind of twisted but also entertaining as hell. The main two characters were confusing but intriguing. There were tons of decoys, and the end was unexpectedly good and action-packed. Though some characters felt unfinished, leaving some loose ends, I still recommend it. Mystery books can be so predictable and boring nowadays that this was refreshing and fun.

Now, let's dive into the details... (Some spoilers ahead)
Many give this book low reviews because it was cringey and not much happened. But I actually enjoyed it so much, with the “who's the actual bad person” question constantly in mind.

I'm not going to lie. This had many clichés, like the girl entering the basement right when the guy comes home, the jealous ex-lover, the isolated house, and the broken car situation. It was thriller bingo.

But even then, I found it humorous and entertaining. It is not a comedy, but catching all these clichés and red herrings trying to throw the reader off was fun and, I guess, effective. I wasn't 100% sure my guess of the ending was correct.

Yes, the FMC has her damsel in distress moments. Still, the writer throws you a curveball by making her sound momentarily super cunning, leaving you confused, thinking, “Wait, is she planning something here?.”

Then the MMC is all broody and hot. I found his character a lot more intriguing and more challenging to figure out. I liked the whole love-bombing situation because most thriller villains tend to be cold-hearted, calculating psychopaths. But in this book, the guy sometimes genuinely feels attachment and infatuation. I found myself smiling at the end of every chapter from his POV because he would sound genuinely small-town, puppy-love naive. Then, in the very last sentence of the chapter, he would say something sinister. The change was so abrupt that it was actually funny. After a few of his chapters, this writing pattern was pretty obvious, like screaming at me, “Look at this guy, HE IS THE BAD GUY.” But my internal questioner was like, “Nah, you really want me to think this. This is obvious: he's not the actual bad guy.” But he would really do weird shit! LOL, this book legitimately made me laugh a lot in the best way.

I loved the end. It was a little predictable in pattern but not in execution. I had a feeling about who the real villain was, but how it played out was so over the top that I was shocked and chuckling at the same time.

One thing that left me thinking was the whole “scratching an itch.” At the end, when the character says it while hugging the kid, I'm like, “Wait, does this person want to kill a random person again... or do they want to kill the family?”

3.5 stars.

I had a good time with this one. It was a fast read. The conclusion felt out of left field but still enjoyable for me.

Immmm not sure how I feel about this book!!!! It definitely got and kept my attention and I wanted to keep reading but I don't know I think it fell a little short for me? Entertaining and lots of twists and turns for sure!

BONK

The twist wasn't twisting and I saw Colleen Hoover's name twice, once on the cover of the book where she praised Jeneva Rose and called her the Queen of twists (I beg to differ) and again in the book itself where the big country hunk who's is not just a dumb country pumpkin but also crys when reading bad romance novels.

The reason I say the twist is bad is that every woman I have ever heard of or know takes certain safety measures to protect herself but this smart city dwiller was obviously there for another reason and the heavy handed suggestion that the dude was lying is an obvious bambozal.

I really don't like it when it's obvious that the writer is omitting information or have their characters act odd because it drops the facade of the whole thriller bit.

Good witting, though.

Well this was a waste of time. I knew it before I'd even reached the halfway point but for some reason I persevered.

The suspense was nonexistent, the mfc was beyond stupid to the point where it wasn't even believable anymore (“why hasn't my Airbnb host told me how his parents died,  he's totally keeping secrets!!”, “omg he lied about liking Brussel sprouts!!!”) and the advertised twist was not a twist for anyone who's ever read a thriller before. It was until about the 80% mark before anything suspenseful even happened, despite how often the mfc thought to herself how off everything felt. Please, for the love of god, SHOW don't tell!

Add to this a poorly placed smut scene (why. who wants that in a thriller), mmc whose only purpose seems to be to repeat how much he desires the mfc and some unnecessary and very gory dream scenes and you've got yourself a one-star-shouldn't-have-bothered-with-why-was-this-even-published novel!

More like a 3.5. The story was predictable, but fun. Made for an easy and enjoyable read.

I will say this book had me coming back for more and I read through it pretty fast. But it was just so predictable and kinda cringey at times. Definitely not my favorite thriller

Engaging and fun! Very twisty! I will definitely read more books by this author.

I didn't mind this book, however, there were no real twist for me. I had all the pieces put together fairly early.

That said, it was still an enjoyable read with a more original than some.

Maybe I'm just a misandrist but I hate reading from the POV of a creepy man. The twist ending was good, but there were a lot of things left unexplained. A decent read nonetheless, just not my preference

A little uncomfortable weird love story/sexual tension plot that made the male lead very obviously a creepy bad guy. Too much character build up for not important characters. The ending twist was pretty good though

Honestly the ending (which was pretty good) didn't make up for the fact that the writing (and rest of the book) sucked

3.5 ⭐

This was super cringe but in a fun way!

“You shouldn't have come here” 
“I shouldn't have read this” 

This book read extremely quickly and I was able to fly through it but it was not good. 
This shouldn't be marketed as a thriller. It's a dark “romance” at best. But not a good romance either, a cringey, insta-lovey, romance that I felt zero chemistry and zero excitement from. 

Not to mention the first like 90% of this book has nothing that makes it feel remotely like a thriller. Even with little seeds of mystery thrown about. Still boring. 
And the plot twist didn't feel like a plot twist it just felt straight up unrealistic.  

The majority of the time I was just bored hoping something was going to happen. But when something finally did it was quite frankly a disappointment. 

Another great read of Jeneva Rose!! I thought the book was going to end a certain way but I was way wrong

The feel of this book kept just enough creep to get me to the end, but I still wasn't attached enough to anyone to get invested. The ending almost saved the book for me, though.

It was a fast paced and great read until the last 5%. Honestly the ending felt like a rushed cop out. Even though the twist had more depth than I was expecting, it brought down the whole story. 3.5/5 stars