Synopsis:

You’ve opened up your house and your heart to a total stranger …What could possibly go wrong?

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.

Despite her uneasiness, the two bond and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things change for the worse. What began as a playful romance soon turns into a complicated web of lies. Grace grows wary of Calvin as his infatuation for her seems to have morphed to obsession. Calvin fears that Grace is hiding something from him—including her reason for staying at his ranch to begin with. Vacation flings typically end in heartbreak, but for Grace and Calvin, it’ll be far more destructive.

Genre: Suspenseful Mystery-Thriller

Tropes:

• Missing Person 
• Secrets
• Manipulation 
• Infatuation/Obsession

My Thoughts:

Second to last book of the A-Z Reading Challenge that I set out on at the start of 2024 and I can’t believe I am nearly finished! 

Jeneva Rose is a fairly new author who I’ve discovered recently. I first came across her work last year, when I read The Perfect Marriage (no review, but rated 4 ⭐️s). 

When it came to letter Y of the challenge, I initially had two options: this one and You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle. Ultimately, I went with this book because it was on the kindle 99p deal – choice made easy.

This book is one of those books where I didn’t necessarily hate it, but equally didn’t love it to the point of obsession. 

I found that this was a very easy read, one that I couldn’t put down because I was intrigued to know the ending. I always think it’s good to have books that you enjoyed but aren’t necessarily obsessed with. 

This book definitely had my heart racing during the tense height of the story and even had me rooting for our main character Grace to get herself out of that situation. 

I knew from the very start that Calvin wasn’t right in the head, but it quickly became clear how weird he was! He gave off very strange vibes from the start, which extended to his sudden obsession and infatuation with Grace – him claiming he was in love with his house guest after like 3 days! 

I wasn’t sure whether he was delusional or not, because at times he would refer to Grace eventually leaving which seemed normal, but then he’d eventually drop comments about her not leaving. So when it came to her eventually leaving when she had a feeling in her stomach, I knew Calvin had done something to her car to prevent her from leaving at all. 

In terms of Charlotte and her feelings towards Calvin, I expected more from her behaviour to be more erratic. 

I felt like Joe, Calvin’s brother was an unnecessary part of the story, more so him attacking Grace and his attempt to burn the house down. I understand that this was done deliberate to divert readers away from Calvin, so they’d believe Joe was the problem, but I still don’t understand the characters reason for it, like I know why the author did it, but why Joe? 

The twist was that I didn’t expect Grace, or should I say Avery, to be a psycho who takes regular “retreats” from her family, to go and murder people. I thought her reasoning for targeting Calvin was because she goes after deranged men, but it wasn’t mentioned that was why she targeted him – she actually didn’t know about his history of murdering his house guests when they tried to leave.

I can’t say I was surprised at the ending because I knew Calvin was up to no good, but I wasn’t expecting the Grace/Avery element. I felt like everything happened within the last 10% of the book, which made it feel very rushed.

I’m also struggling to believe how the police didn’t make the connection that all of Calvin’s house guests eventually disappeared because he murdered them! 

Overall, I enjoyed the book and it was nice to be motivated to read the book and not want to put it down. I think I’d be interested to read more of Jeneve Rose in the future. 

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Georgia 

🌷