Reviews with the most likes.
~WRITING - PLOT - PACE~
This book was all kinds of fifty shades of awesome. It was like watching an episode of CRIMINAL MINDS in book form. And since I am currently binge watching all 13 seasons of that series every character in this book looked like their TV counterpart (lol). The writing was phenomenal. The pace was fairly good. I will say that this felt maybe a TAD too long. It took me just over four hours to finish. The story was told through dual POVs and we jump back and forth from past to present quite often. I'm not a huge fan of that type of storytelling, but it worked quite well in this instance. Although, I do think some past chapters could have been left out thus improving the pace a bit. But it was just a tiny niggle for me. The plot was super engaging and like I said above, reminded me A LOT of Criminal Minds. I wouldn't call it an overly dark book, but I read some pretty f-cked up books, so it will depend on your reading habits where this lands on the “dark” scale. There were also some good twists and turns. One I figured out quite early on, but the second surprised the hell out of me. So kudos to the author for that. Last, it was all wrapped up in an interesting ending. I have to marinade a bit on it because I am still unsure how I feel about it.
~MAIN CHARACTERS~
I am choosing to be a little vague in this part as I don't really want to inadvertently give anything away. I will say that both main characters were very well developed. They were complex. They were intriguing. They were f-cked up. The author did a very good job of exploring the whys and the hows with their histories. The heroine was strong and smart as well.
~SECONDARY CHARACTERS~
In addition to two amazingly written main characters, there was a great cast of secondary characters in this book. I loved Ella's two best friends. I loved all the members of the BAU. Even Sociopath makes a brief appearance. All of them added extra depth to the plot that made this one even better.
~HEAT LEVEL~
Mediumish. There were some suitably spicey sex scenes in this one. They were slightly tamer (kink wise) than I would have thought for the subject matter, but it worked. The frequency also felt organic to the story.
~ANGST LEVEL - SEXUAL HISTORIES~
Medium. Murder = angst. Lies = angst. Hurt = angst. Neither of the main characters was virgins. There was no OW drama. There was a bit of OM drama.
~IN THE END~
I enjoyed the hell out of this one. It was my first V.F. Mason book but definitely will not be my last. It pretty much ticked off every box for me. Fantastic writing. Great plot. Well developed and intriguing main characters. A great cast of secondary characters. Hot sex. Pain and torture. Secrets and lies. Love and hate. Twist and turns, and so much more. Therefore yours truly is going to give this one two HUGE thumbs up.
