ryssaelyse's reviews
71 reviews

Now THIS is a psychological thriller/mystery! The suspense in this was insane!! You literally have NO clue who you can trust. At times, you’ll even question the narrator! But the ending you’ll never see coming in a million years!! I don’t care how old this book is, I’ll always recommend it!

This was (pleasantly) nothing like I was expecting it to be! The mystery is why I chose to give it a shot, but the crimes are why I stayed! They just kept piling up and as soon as something made sense, something else CRAZY would happen! I freaking loved this book, I won’t lie! Also, the ending was WILD!!! However, so be aware that this book does not end on a cliffhanger, but there IS a sequel as well to it.

I promise anything Audrey Rush writes is GOLD! She’s got the hands of Midas I swear LOL. I was drawn in for the mystery and the spice, but I stayed for the PLOT!! I tend to be the kind of reader who tries to guess ‘who-done-it’, you know? Well, I actually guessed right for once!! The clues were always so tricky, I won’t lie. But the plot twists that came back, to back, to BACK, at the end was INSANE!! Like WHAT?!? I know this was a stand-alone, but I genuinely think Rush could make a second one (a novela maybe) possibly continuing the characters story and maybe even weaving in a few “loose ends”. I had so many questions answered but still have quite a few that weren’t but I think with this particular story, that it doesn’t necessarily hurt to not know lol. Definitely been recommending left and right too! If you’re debating this, don’t! Just go get it lol. DO PAY ATTENTION TO THE TRIGGER WARNINGS THOUGH!!!! They are VERY specific and not for newbies to dark romance. Read with care and be mindful of your own boundaries! It’s okay to DNF if you become too uncomfortable. Your mental health matters and I won’t lie, this may REALLY mess with you! You’ve been warned !

The literal ONLY con I had with this book was that it didn’t have a pronunciation guide for character names. There’s nothing like being 32 chapters in and still pausing to wonder if you’re saying their name correctly or not still. But other than that, this story was EPIC!! The magic system was unique and very engaging, the drama was intense, and the characters felt like family honestly (even the ones we don’t get along with all the time). The spice in this?

Where tf do I even start with this? The roller coaster of emotions I went through reading this was crazy! The amount of distrust I had in so many of the characters…I’m sure I owe some of them an apology honestly lol. There was so much mystery, so much suspense I didn’t know who to trust! At times, I didn’t even trust the main character/narrator like…”are you sure that’s what they’re talking about right now and they’re not planning to unalive you right now? Can we please be a little bit smarter and at least eavesdrop instead of giving benefits of the doubt? Like look where that’s gotten us”

I’ll be honest…nothing about this book is anything like what I normally read, so I did go in a bit biased and unsure. However, I can honestly say that it wasn’t too bad of a read actually. It was well-written, easy to follow grammar, and I honestly stay for the mystery aspect but the romance eventually grew on me lol. If your into mystery or suspense, it definitely delivers but be mindful that if you’re NOT into romance that there is a nice chunk dedicated to this aspect though as well.

I received an advance copy of this book and am leaving an honest review of my opinion.

So initially, what intrigued me most about starting this book, was the blurb because it made it sound like such a good mystery (and y’all know I love a story I have to piece together!).

Basically, the FMC (female main character) of the story, Lilliana, finds a dying man in the middle of the forest and brings him back to her father’s farm in hopes of nursing him back to health and saving him! Once said man regains his consciousness, it turns out that he can’t remember who he is, where he came from, or how he ended up being there! (Personally, at that point, if it were me, he would have had to GO! It’s the only way, you feel me?

Have you ever seen the movie, “Taken” before? Did you like it? What about ”The Da Vinci Code”? How’d you feel about that one? If you enjoyed both of these movies’ concepts, let’s take it a step further and imagine a project that brought both of them together.

Yeah, that’s this!



When the main character, Kat, loses her dad during a business trip to Romania, she blames herself. That is, until a package arrives from her dad with a list of clues hinting at one of his old school scavenger hunts. She heads straight to Romania to further investigate and ends up meeting this (SUPER FINE) badass who offers to assist her in her hunt; but as the two unravel each layer of the clues, a deadly secret is slowly revealed and Kat learns that not everyone can be trusted.



I will say, if you're not a fan of FMCs (female main characters) who may not exactly be the brightest in terms of seeing or catching red flags, this may be slightly off putting to you. While the character herself is quite intelligent, there were just times that I wanted to reach into the pages, shake her by her shoulders, and ask how she didn't pick up on certain aspects lol. But other than that, I found this story to be very engaging! From the scammers, dangerous neighborhoods, the sketchy investigators, the clubs, friends-turned-foe, foe-turned-friends, the fights, and the fact that this is supposedly to be followed up with a sequel definitely kept me turning the pages not caring that I had to clock in at work 4 hours after finishing it!