Rebecca
This was an Amazon First Reads pick for January 2026 (publication stated for February 1st 2026) Thank you to the Publisher and Author for this ARC.
This is the first novel I have read by this author and I will read another. For this one, the characters were ok. There was a lot of repetition with how the main protagonist was so meek and intimidated by this big bad main antagonist. Then the reason for it all turned out to be something so mundane and a little ridiculous that it does sort of sound like it would cause bullying but could have easily been remedied by another action. I will post the spoiler of what Fern did to piss off Haven and why it seems a little eh with a warning below so if you don’t want to read it don’t scroll lower. I’ll also spoil what happens to Dani and Haven.
The writing: I liked the flow of the writing, the pacing of it was nice. The dialogue was a little off at times, but it wasn’t enough to detour me from finishing the book. I did find the ending to be disappointing. The buildup to what happened to Dani and…that? Then what goes on with Haven…it’s just…*sigh* It started out pretty good, but it was all very lackluster in the end. A few clunky areas but like I mentioned at the start I will be reading another of this authors books.
*Spoiler*
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Fern gave Haven a laxative cookie in middle school and Haven took that and made Fern’s life a living hellhole for the rest of middle school and high school. Fern only gave Haven a cookie…now if Fern had given a few people cookies (not laxative ones but cookies in general) and didn’t just single Haven out with the cookie there’s no way that Haven could have known for sure that it was the cookie that made her sick.(Which she did because...jealousy...Dani could only be HER best friend!! And she thought that Fern was being Crazy at that point.)
Dani confronts her ‘friends’ asking them to stop, Haven is a bitch and goes “Don’t you remember what she did? She’s suck a freak, she—” and at “freak” Fern pushes Haven to her backside because she had enough a tussle ensues and Dani trying to break them up ends up falling off a cliff. Like…really? ALL that buildup over this mystery and we get a “no you!” “No you!” and an “oh shit...” as they stare down the cliff then decide to pretend it didn’t happen after Haven basically threatens Fern to blame it all on her…really?
Haven commits suicide when Fern does an op-ed and the internet cancels her. Which I can see how much pressure that can do for a person, especially when their career is an influencer. But given how Haven had been portrayed throughout the book…that seemed way out of character. Maybe some sort of comeback or retaliatory thing but to just end it?
This was an Amazon First Reads pick for January 2026 (publication stated for February 1st 2026) Thank you to the Publisher and Author for this ARC.
This is the first novel I have read by this author and I will read another. For this one, the characters were ok. There was a lot of repetition with how the main protagonist was so meek and intimidated by this big bad main antagonist. Then the reason for it all turned out to be something so mundane and a little ridiculous that it does sort of sound like it would cause bullying but could have easily been remedied by another action. I will post the spoiler of what Fern did to piss off Haven and why it seems a little eh with a warning below so if you don’t want to read it don’t scroll lower. I’ll also spoil what happens to Dani and Haven.
The writing: I liked the flow of the writing, the pacing of it was nice. The dialogue was a little off at times, but it wasn’t enough to detour me from finishing the book. I did find the ending to be disappointing. The buildup to what happened to Dani and…that? Then what goes on with Haven…it’s just…*sigh* It started out pretty good, but it was all very lackluster in the end. A few clunky areas but like I mentioned at the start I will be reading another of this authors books.
*Spoiler*
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-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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Fern gave Haven a laxative cookie in middle school and Haven took that and made Fern’s life a living hellhole for the rest of middle school and high school. Fern only gave Haven a cookie…now if Fern had given a few people cookies (not laxative ones but cookies in general) and didn’t just single Haven out with the cookie there’s no way that Haven could have known for sure that it was the cookie that made her sick.(Which she did because...jealousy...Dani could only be HER best friend!! And she thought that Fern was being Crazy at that point.)
Dani confronts her ‘friends’ asking them to stop, Haven is a bitch and goes “Don’t you remember what she did? She’s suck a freak, she—” and at “freak” Fern pushes Haven to her backside because she had enough a tussle ensues and Dani trying to break them up ends up falling off a cliff. Like…really? ALL that buildup over this mystery and we get a “no you!” “No you!” and an “oh shit...” as they stare down the cliff then decide to pretend it didn’t happen after Haven basically threatens Fern to blame it all on her…really?
Haven commits suicide when Fern does an op-ed and the internet cancels her. Which I can see how much pressure that can do for a person, especially when their career is an influencer. But given how Haven had been portrayed throughout the book…that seemed way out of character. Maybe some sort of comeback or retaliatory thing but to just end it?