To use the words of Hector (character in the book), “It gets better.”

Because really, after the first 50 pages I was convinced that I would not even make the 100 pages and just rate the book with one star. How annoyed I was with Nina’s writing style. A lot of ’tell’ instead of ‘show’ and exaggerated explanations that I regularly busted myself with rolling my eyes and thinking: “Thanks, captain obvious.” Not much happened and I didn’t find the characters particularly interesting either. Just one excruciatingly long introduction … 😞

But I made it to 1/3 and then it got a bit better, so I kept reading anyway. My one star became two stars in my head, and by the time I was over 2/3 of the book, Nina still unexpectedly managed to touch me a bit with her story and the characters. 😮

Certainly not a great book, and I wouldn’t want to read it a second time. In fact, I wouldn’t call it a great debut. It seems like she only really learned to write halfway through, and that greatly detracts from the story. But … 🧐 Keeping in mind that this is her first book and I found the ending significantly better written and more interesting, I want to end my review with a (somewhat meager) three ‘book’ rating. 😊