Read Competed 1/23/25 | 3.25 stars | Book #6 of 2025 

This was just okay! I've read better from Leah Konen... but I've also read worse. This was a pretty standard thriller that was a little mix of slasher movie vibes blended with a little psychological head games. I wasn't super into this book at any point and it felt pretty surface level. Sadly, it felt like such average writing that I'm surprised seeing this from her being her 4th or 5th adult thriller. I wish her writing would keep growing, at least it didn't feel like it was for me, and even just the way things played out felt a little mediocre. 

We got hit with a lot of female psych thriller tropes: alcoholic, failed attempts at having a child, betraying a best friend. It was a little tiresome, but still made for a decent thriller. I guess that's why it's done so often! There were quite a few things that I think the author could have used in the plot a little bit more to make the story more exciting and twisty OR to further character development but they fell flat: the property war, the failed rounds of IVF, any development of friendship between any of the main female characters. 

This felt pretty blah for me. I did like the snowy, winter setting as I usually like in books, and actually reading it in the winter makes it a fun setting. We could have creeped up the motel a bit more, made the neighbors a little creepier rather than just having an inappropriate rich guy who likes S&M and throwing in a sexual relationship with a minor for literally no reason that did not further the story. 

This fell fairly flat, and yet it was still readable. I don't think any of this will be memorable to me and I'm pretty disappointed about that, but it could be a fine read for someone else.