Overall Take:
This is a great gothic paranormal read; I recommend picking up a copy to keep.
Star Rating:
5 stars (rounded 4.5)
Genre:
Gothic, Paranormal
Synopsis:
It’s July 1995 and April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon but end up lost and finding a hitchhiker along a deserted road. They stop to help her, but she needs a hospital where she ends up dying.
They find themselves in the crosshairs of the police. Unexplained murders have been happening on that stretch of road for years, and the cops finally have witnesses, or suspects.
As they start to dig into the town’s history and the stretch of road to clear their names, they begin to think something supernatural is at work. Something that could tear the town apart and take April and Eddie with it.
Thoughts:
What an ultimate creepy book! I have loved Simone St. James more recent works, and this one did not let me down! It was so good, and I loved it so much. I was a little leery when this one started out because it was seemingly normal with nothing paranormal going on, and then the paranormal hit and wow it was fantastic.
I loved how this book transported me back to the 90’s and all their glory. They were a fun time, and this book had plenty of nostalgia for me. This book explored themes of PTSD and racism and the author did an excellent job with them, while keeping the issues era specific. I think this was important because we have come pretty far with these issues, and while it was hard to read about how they were treated seemingly not that long ago, it was good.
I enjoyed the characters of this book. April and Eddie were nuanced and a lot of fun. I love how they both had secrets and how they were revealed over the course of the book. April’s secrets were pretty shocking! Didn’t see them coming. Eddie’s secrets were a little less shocking, but still interesting and fit his character pretty well. Together April and Eddie worked well, they were both secretive, but they loved each other despite being a whirlwind romance.
While this one did fall a little flat for me with the big reveal, it was still a wonderful read, and I would highly recommend it. The overall vibes were very gothic, and I loved that. But with that in mind, this is a slower paced read. I think that this would make a fantastic audio book.
Thanks for my copy to:
Thank you to the publisher Berkley Publishing, @berkleypub, and Netgalley @netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date:
March 5, 2024
Page Length:
352 pages
Publisher
Berkley Books
Link to buy
Affiliate link
