e-ARC, 327 pagesRelease Date: April 24, 2018Published by: Feiwel & Friends
Read from: April 22-29, 2018Stand-aloneSource: Netgalley (I received a copy of this book from the Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)For fans of: LBGTQ+, Contemporary, Romance, Thrillers, Mysteries, Suspense, Realistic Fiction, YA
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.
*MY THOUGHTS*
After reading the synopsis of this, I had to get my hands on it. Imagine my surprise when I saw that I was approved for it! I hopped on the chance to read it and was immediately taken back to what I loved about Roehrig's writing. I can easily say I loved this as much as I loved his debut Last Seen Leaving!
Rufus is having a rough night. His ex-boyfriend shows up and wants to "talk," at the same time he gets a really weird phone call from his half sister saying she needs him. They go to her and find her over her boyfriend's body with a huge knife in hand. Rufus wants nothing more than to leaveher there, but then she offers him something he can't refuse. So he agrees to help her hopefully prove her innocence."Migrating from the New York club scene,"white rabbit," is a designer drug known to cause euphoria, heightended sensory perception, and hallucinations. THe pills have also been linked to notoriously, to acts of extremem violence."pg. 31
"It's a little hard to feel sorry for a guy who accidentally got cut while living by the sword."pg. 167
The main thing I loved about this book was the timeline. I LOVED that it was told overnight, and even moreso that it was told in the span of a couple hours. It was so interesting to see how things unfolded and how so much happened in one night. It would seem that everything would be rushed and that it would be SUPER hard to get to 300+ pages of a story that only went over about 12 hours. But it wasn't like that at all. The story flowed just as well as a story that was told over days or months.
"...this is the universe kicking me in the nuts."pg. 183
I also really liked the mystery in this one. The synopsis made me go O_O and as I read, it just got better and better. Roehrig knows how to keep you guessing until the very end. I tried so hard to come up with the person who did it, but with everyone keeping information and no one being truthfully honest, it was hard to keep everything straight. I ended up coming to the conclusion at the same time the characters did.
"Knives are quieter."pg. 217
The only thing I didn't care for were the characters. Well, I liked them, but for the most part, all of them were still assholes lol Truth is, they were all likeable, just some were bullies, some were mean, and some were just batshit cray.
"Got your heart rate upthough," [...] "Running from [...] totally counteracts mozzarealla stick calories." "Yeah, and getting hit by one makes them irrelvant. But as fad diets go, don't expect Oprah's endorsement."pg. 212
I also lost myself in this story just as I lost myself in Roehrig's last story. The further I read, the more invested in the book. I couldn't put it down. The last 100 pages I realized had bitten all my nails down. I went through all these different emotions as well; second-hand embarrassment, second-hand terror, second-hand feels, just everything. All signs to me that I'm reading a great book.
"You'll have to let me know what kind of stuff Lucy would do, by the way, because I've got some things in mind that might surprise her...."pg. 256
I can't lie, I fell hard for this book and I can't wait to see what Roehrig writes next. His thrillers are the perfect balance of creepy and mysterious woven together to make a great story. I will be reading whatever he puts out!
Overall, I give this
