Published by: Feiwel & Friends on April 24th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Synopsis: Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to "talk." Things couldn’t get much worse, right?
But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.
April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying.
Review:
I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I was expecting to really enjoy it, just like I did Roehrig's debut. I was expecting a crazy-pants storyline that offered lots of "what the hell" moments. So, in those respects, I got exactly what I was expecting. I really enjoyed this book and it had an insanely crazy storyline. I didn't remember at what point, but I remember saying (and tweeting) that "I wanted to live inside Roehrig's head because it had to be wild in there for him to come up with this level of mind-fuckery"
Because there was a whole lot of insanity in this book. From April, Rufus's half sister to Hayden, Rufus's half brother, to Rufus's ex, Sebastian and all the other players in between them. Fox, Peyton, Race, Arlo, Lars, Lia, Isabel & Peter. This book had it all. Romance, mystery, complicated families, the whole shebang. Finally someone else had pretty close to my level of complicated family. Complex families are my jam and Rufus, his mom, April & Hayden and their parents finally gave me a family that resembles my own.
I don't know of a lot of people who would willingly drive all over the place at night for their ex, including myself. So either Sebastian has no backbone or I'm a jerk. I'm leaning towards the latter now that I think about it. Sebastian clearly wanted to make things right between Rufus and himself and I admired him for that. Especially when we got some backstory to their relationship. I did enjoy their romance, but the romance in Roehrig's debut, Last Seen Leaving, was my favorite of the two.
I was curious about why Rufus was so willing to clear April's name too. It just didn't make sense to me. They didn't really know each other all that well and April has a full brother that she could go to for help. Never mind that Hayden is a psychopath...actually, that's probably why April went to Rufus instead. That and she had something Rufus desperately needed. That same something ended up being tripled once a certain other person became involved.
I don't think I've ever read a book that took place in one night. Or maybe I have and I just cannot remember? I love unique storytelling and the whole "everything happened in one night" is one of those underused ways of storytelling. There needs to be more of these.
Final thoughts: This book was equally as good as Roehrig's debut, despite me not liking the romance quite as much. If you like dark contemporaries, then you need to pick this one up.
I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I was expecting to really enjoy it, just like I did Roehrig's debut. I was expecting a crazy-pants storyline that offered lots of "what the hell" moments. So, in those respects, I got exactly what I was expecting. I really enjoyed this book and it had an insanely crazy storyline. I didn't remember at what point, but I remember saying (and tweeting) that "I wanted to live inside Roehrig's head because it had to be wild in there for him to come up with this level of mind-fuckery"
Because there was a whole lot of insanity in this book. From April, Rufus's half sister to Hayden, Rufus's half brother, to Rufus's ex, Sebastian and all the other players in between them. Fox, Peyton, Race, Arlo, Lars, Lia, Isabel & Peter. This book had it all. Romance, mystery, complicated families, the whole shebang. Finally someone else had pretty close to my level of complicated family. Complex families are my jam and Rufus, his mom, April & Hayden and their parents finally gave me a family that resembles my own.
I don't know of a lot of people who would willingly drive all over the place at night for their ex, including myself. So either Sebastian has no backbone or I'm a jerk. I'm leaning towards the latter now that I think about it. Sebastian clearly wanted to make things right between Rufus and himself and I admired him for that. Especially when we got some backstory to their relationship. I did enjoy their romance, but the romance in Roehrig's debut, Last Seen Leaving, was my favorite of the two.
I was curious about why Rufus was so willing to clear April's name too. It just didn't make sense to me. They didn't really know each other all that well and April has a full brother that she could go to for help. Never mind that Hayden is a psychopath...actually, that's probably why April went to Rufus instead. That and she had something Rufus desperately needed. That same something ended up being tripled once a certain other person became involved.
I don't think I've ever read a book that took place in one night. Or maybe I have and I just cannot remember? I love unique storytelling and the whole "everything happened in one night" is one of those underused ways of storytelling. There needs to be more of these.
Final thoughts: This book was equally as good as Roehrig's debut, despite me not liking the romance quite as much. If you like dark contemporaries, then you need to pick this one up.
I loved Last Seen Leaving and while I really enjoyed this one - I didn't enjoy it as much. All the driving around and questioning - and re-questioning wore me down after a while but I still enjoy his writing a lot.
ReplyDeleteKaren @ For What It's Worth