Well… I seem to be in the minority here, but this one frustrated me quite a bit.

I think I’m going to have quite a few complaints/negatives so, first, the things I did like: I really like the characters Finn and Regan. I think that Regan is a refreshing character that actually feels like a teenager. Finn is intelligent and kind and since I listened to all three in the series on audiobook, the voice that narrator Lori Prince gives her is pretty much designed to make me biased and love her. She’s been my favorite through line for all three books. In some sense I also do like the slow burn development of Finn and Sloane’s relationship across the series. I also loved Lori Prince’s narration of the book. I think it improved the story, for me.

Now, onto my frustrations. I had been REALLY hoping with the shift to Sloane and Finn becoming PIs that that would mean a lot less pro cop stuff, but alas that was… not the case. I looked it up and apparently the author herself was a cop, or military or something along those lines and that… explains things. I personally don’t like how prevalent stories about cops are in lesfic, I don’t like stories that glorify policing. But I particularly don’t like stories that REALLY go all in on it, and there are a lot of things peppered throughout these books that REALLY rub me the wrong way. It’s the constant inner dialogue of Sloane and sometimes Eric that has them referring to themselves as “the good guys” or “a good cop” and the people they are investigating as “the bad guys” or “thugs, lowlifes, etc” that just absolutely pisses me off. Sloane referring to her gun as beautiful is GROSS. Sloane wanting to carry a gun around to protect everyone even though she’s not a cop any more sucks! The scene when they’re walking to Eric’s apartment very early in the morning, and they’re spooked, because of everything [redacted: spoilers] went down with Peter the night before, and Sloane nearly pulls her gun on a cat just further added to how much that isn’t going to help anything! Like, I know this is fiction, but stories matter. And the constant glorification of policing as a good thing is just not something I’m ever going to have a good time with or enjoy.

I DO like mysteries and find the puzzles of investigations interesting though, and I wish they had leaned into the PI angle a lot more and not just basically gone back to working at her old station and acting like not much changed.

Unfortunately, the relationship drama also really irritated me. I love me a slow burn, but I don’t want the conflict to feel contrived or unearned and (for me) this all did. I HATED the stuff with Kaden. I was on Kaden’s side this whole time! I was happy that Finn was defending her!! In WHAT WORLD is it okay to try to fire someone claiming they are unprofessional for kissing their ex (in an admittedly boneheaded miss placed move!) at a party nowhere near work grounds for firing them?? The person they kissed being your daughter only makes YOU the unprofessional one for going on the warpath. Regan being angry made sense, because she is a teenager dealing with a lot of change and trauma, Sloane’s jealously also made sense, because that’s never fun, but I was also constantly yelling at my audiobook “SHE HELPED YOU ADOPT YOUR DAUGHTER! CUT HER THE TINEST BIT OF SLACK!” The constant jumping to conclusions, not trusting Finn, being a hypocrite and doing what she accused Finn of in the first place… I dunno it further solidified that Sloane herself is not why I was drawn to this series much initially and if it continues and I keep on with it, I really hope she finally shows growth, there. It all just felt like drama for drama sake to add tension and I would have rather not, personally. I was also bummed that we never got any real on page resolution for the Regan and Finn conflict. After Regan finally seemed to forgive her, we never see them interact again and I was really looking forward to that relationship developing going into this book, so that was a bummer for me.

If there is another one, I’ll probably give it a shot, if only to see if they FINALLY move away from the cop stuff into more of the PI stuff and the relationship is hopefully finally solid, but we’ll see. ( )