The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

3.5 stars, rounded down. This book was so fun, perfect for fans of Knives Out and/or Glass Onion. But also, a good depiction of emotional abuse? It has a little substance to it, which I need in a romance. And I liked that it faded to black because I am a prude.

Also I learned that romance audiobooks are way better when there are male narrators in the mix, and more broadly, a larger and more varied cast than a single narrator. Sometimes someone trying to mimic a character of a different gender can take you out of the story a bit.

Ethan is a great love interest in that he simultaneously embodies and eschews traditional masculinity. His former profession explains a lot of physical capability, but even then he was trying to find wiggle room within his dad's harsh expectations to take bullets instead of firing them. And the industry in which he ultimately ends up has everything to do with his mother.



Also what is hotter than a man who reiterates 500 times a day how right you are and gives you all the credit? King of consent, takes women's headaches seriously, provides snacks, good with kids, listens and remembers details, knows to wear those certain kind of glasses and roll his sleeves up, disdain for other men, it's all coming up rosy.

Now, if he was not hot and the feelings were not reciprocated it would be a lot less charming but this is a fictional book and also men should love women more than women love men. Unsure what I mean by that but I'm sticking to it. It's like Hal and Lois from Malcolm in the Middle.

What prevented me from rating this higher are that it was probably 50 pages too long, due to two main factors: 1) repetitive phrasing and 2) epilogues.

1) Sometimes I think the repetition is more obvious when you're listening to the audiobook. Here are some things that were said a million times:
• Maggie is like “I'm spending Christmas with my nemesis. But somehow, in the back of my mind, it feels so right.”
• Maggie should be afraid but she isn't because she feels safe with Ethan.
• Ethan, in the middle of a crisis, is like “Wow actually nothing matters except Maggie” bro we know
• Ethan is not joking even though he's usually joking. This time he is not joking even a little bit.
• Ethan says, “Maggie,” and nothing else.
• Ethan says, “It's okay.”

2) WHY do romances do the weird epilogues?!?? Leave some ambiguity and let me fill in the gaps or be content with not following these characters through the rest of their lives. If you read this book (and I do recommend it), I would stop at Chapter 66. Maybe a chapter or two earlier, depending on how you like your endings. Don't bother with the Locked Room or Epilogue bits, they are boring and trite.

Anyway, as mentioned I would pick this up if you like Knives Out, Glass Onion, [b:My Roommate Is a Vampire|60041932|My Roommate Is a Vampire (My Vampires, #1)|Jenna Levine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1665612756l/60041932.SY75.jpg|94663345], [b:You Deserve Each Other|50027029|You Deserve Each Other|Sarah Hogle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578144336l/50027029.SX50.jpg|68651245], or [b:The Flatshare|41393171|The Flatshare|Beth O'Leary|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1627750351l/41393171.SY75.jpg|58189559].