Phoebe is prepping her dad’s house for sale due to his recent passing while also reconnecting with her energetic little brother, finishing her dissertation about the True Crime genre, & automatically assuming her neighbor(s) is a serial killer…while also being distractingly attracted to one of them. She’s deep in the world of true crime so it makes sense, but the woman is paranoid for sure. Her childhood trauma combined with her love of the macabre makes this a classic, no big surprises romcom with the twist that instead of being quirky, our protagonist is more prickly. 

The trauma parts of this book hit home with me in a personal, relatable way, which did add a bit of weight to the story as a whole. It’s well written & fast paced & and surprisingly quick read considering how many serial killers are mentioned. 

I did expect (hope) it might lean a bit more into the “I think this guy is sus” aspect or at least hold on to it a bit longer before devolving into a predictable romance with predictable ‘problems’ that only exist because she is not emotionally mature & to add the ‘will they, won’t they’ element. I think taking it a bit darker or leaning more into Phoebe’s trauma & how it has shaped her life & dealing with it as she returns home would have been more compelling than the neatly wrapped up love story, but hey I’m also a sucker for cheesy romance so it was still enjoyable.