This review is for the audiobook edition, (which GR hasn’t added yet).

I’m giving this 4 stars – 3 stars for liking it, 1 more star for the quality of the writing that I have to acknowledge goes beyond my own personal liking.

This book is in alternating first person present tense, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m not remotely particular about tenses – some of my favorite books are present, some past, some first person, some third, some alternating, some not. It’s all about the characters and how they’re written. And these characters were written well. Sometimes characters are too similar in their inner monologues – and a LOT of this book is inner monologue – but these two had very different personalities, very different concerns, but enough in common to make their being a couple make perfect sense. I liked each character too, though I didn’t always agree with their decisions, even if I understood where they were coming from, based on their own backgrounds. The things they did and said weren’t always smart or right, but true to the people that they were and who they were working to be. In addition, if the author ever considered to make a series, there are side characters with real potential, who I also felt invested in, even if they were admittedly only peripherally involved. I think I would read that series too, if it were ever something that came about.

The story was a bit slow for me for just under the first 50% of the book – there was a LOT of inner monologuing, but it definitely provided a lot of character development, even if the story itself took place over a pretty short period of time. But at around that 50% mark, the story’s pace increased, became more tense, more suspenseful, and I binged whenever I could from that point onward. I think if the pace had been a bit faster, or if the story had taken place over a longer period of time for that amount of relationship and personality growth, I would give this a solid 4 stars for entertainment value alone, my own enjoyment of the story, beyond appreciating the quality of the writing.

This narrator was a new one for me – and he used a lot of sound effects, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I understood where he was coming from. It didn’t feel necessary to me, per se, but I would listen to another book narrated by him.