When No One is Watching

I was never a huge fan of Alyssa Cole's romance novels, but this book completely knocked me out. Scared the sh*t out of me, made me angry and uncomfortable, and kept me turning the pages as I read the whole thing in less than 24 hours. Like the movie Get Out that the book is being compared to, the gentrification horror story is so believable in our racist world that it doesn't feel exaggerated.

The ending is admittedly rushed and several questions are left unanswered, but the book left an impression that I won't soon forget. Dark, gritty, foreboding with just a touch of hope, this is about as far from a romance novel as you can imagine. I hope Cole has more to say in this vein, although I wish our world was different so she didn't have the need to say it.