The Hitman's Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love

This was definitely a fun read — some of the sillier moments had me legitimately snorting out loud on the train — and the characters shone with personality. Occasionally the more over the top sex humor from Leland was a bit much for me, particularly toward the latter half of the book, but enough of it smacked my funny bone that I couldn't be too bothered about it.

The reason for the middle of the road rating is mostly because of plot. The pacing was a bit funky, alternating between slow lag and sudden action without a lot of build up for either, so that made it kind of hard to stay invested for the full run of the book. Plus, a lot of the side characters felt a bit underdeveloped. Especially Jackson's mother, who was a terrible and homophobic person right up until she was... suddenly not? Because of one small and not all that great speech from her son's boyfriend? Didn't really buy that.

If you're looking for a fun romp with a lot of sex and dumb jokes, though, this is definitely the book for you.

I thought Finn from the VRC series was the funniest MC in the Alice Winters catalogue. I was so wrong.

This book had me laughing out loud for almost 11 hours. Seriously. Not chuckling. Bursting out loud. Though I get the feeling that Leland is the kind of MC that you'll either really REALLY love or find really REALLY annoying. No in between.

I love that we got to see SO much of them as a couple. I love that they were so open with each other (aside from the little white lie about that ONE murder, but what's a murder between soulmates?)

How often do we see one MC tell the other 'I want you, and I want you to want me too and I've never had anyone care about me like you do, and we're not in love yet because it's too soon for that but I WANT to work towards getting there with you'? It's so frigging cute!

And we got to see Leland being criminally unhinged and Jackson being so fond of it. He couldn't even hide it from his friends. My man was goneeeee. Couldn't stop smiling. Hard guy but you're giggling all the time and kicking your feet. LOVE IT!

Why one star off? This is a unique storyline, sure, but if you've read the VRC series, this is also just Finn and Marcus but in a different setting. It could be that I'm only getting that sense because I've read them so close together and both have the same narrator (Michael Ferraiuolo does an AMAZING job on both series btw) but I still think it's the same format. Wildly inappropriate sunshine x uptight but fondly tolerant grump.

That said, I'm ABSOLUTELY listening to all the other books in this series because I want to see Leland drive Jackson to the edge of madness, push him off, and THEN put out a hand to grab him just before he's swallowed up by the abyss.

Then do it again.

And again.