A single mother, Ella is raising her twin children while also struggling to keep her bed and breakfast afloat. While she has some help, she’s always had to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders ever since losing her parents at a young age. If that wasn’t enough, her brother Ryan is killed during a dangerous mission while serving overseas. And if THAT wasn’t enough, her brother’s best friend, a man with whom she had been corresponding through letters and with whom she had a genuine connection, appears to have died alongside Ryan in that same mission.

And if THAT wasn’t enough, her daughter has been diagnosed with a form of cancer with a low survivability rate.

When it rains, it pours. Right?

The amount of tragedy heaped upon Ella by Rebecca Yarros is so insane that it borders on parody. It’s almost as though she had a directive from the publisher to write the saddest possible story and played a game of “and then this happened..” with a nihilist. Mind you, this is coming from a guy whose idea of a good time is listening to a playlist with tracks from Noah Kahan, Phoebe Bridgers, Counting Crows, and Elliotte Smith.

I struggled getting through this. Much of the dialogue was painful and cringeworthy. So much could have been solved if any of these characters were just honest with each other. I didn’t buy Beckett’s flimsy excuse for hiding his identity from Ella, a decision that became more ludicrous as the novel went on.

Don’t even get me started on the ending. The ending is so emotionally manipulative and incredibly unnecessary, not to mention completely impossible. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who wants to read this book, but I can’t imagine anything in this review has made you curious to check it out.

This book made me mad.