1 star, if I could give it negative stars I would, absolutely hated this book, hated how it sexualized a minor, hated how the first paragraph immediately describes the main character's breasts, absolutely hated this book from the first paragraph. I gave it a chance and made it to the end of the first chapter but then I had to DNF it.

Unusual and interesting. Unsure how i really feel about this one... it definitely was not for me.. enjoyed the premise of this book and the plot, but the lack of descriptiveness and the uncomfortable romance took away from the experience of reading this book.... at times i felt really awkward reading this..

I was provided an earc in exchange of an honest review by netgalley and the publishers - thank you.

Okay, so here we are. I hated this so much. It has so much potential, and very quickly without needing to look it up I knew this was written by a man.

The main character’s breasts are described on page one. Actually, the first paragraph.

Next she openly calls herself sexy a lot which I’ve never met a woman who does. I’m all for self confidence but this isn’t it. Tessa is obnoxious, rude and too self assured. She’s apparently underage but talks and acts like a 28 year old.

Within one and a bit meetings of another female character ( an adult) she initiated sex with them. But don’t worry because the navy woman is straight - except for Tessa. And Tessa is so magnetic this woman all but declares her love for her after one sexual encounter.

Honestly it just gets worse from there. In my notes before I looked up the author I wrote ‘is this a straight man’s lesbian fantasy?’ The answer is clearly yes.

The rest of the story is slow and badly explained and honestly I’m just not here for underage sec with an adult and fetishisation of lesbians.

My problem with this is how sexualized a girl of 17 years old was, by a middle age man, and it happened a lot that I litteraly stopped reading this right away

Let me treat you to the part when the author, a middle-aged man, describes the shape, texture, colour, and size of an underaged girl's breasts in the very first paragraph:
"We were both naked, and my milky-white, slim body, with silky skin, was pressed against his back. making my breasts look really big. Problem was, my skin is golden-honey, not pale, and my bra size is 32A."
What the fuck is the point in describing the appearance of two pairs of breasts (one pair belonging to a child) within the first five seconds of the book, if at all? It contributes literally nothing to the story.
This hyper-sexualization of a minor continues throughout the entire book. Tessa has sex with multiple adults (statutory rape) throughout the book and it's all described as being "just fine" because she enjoys sex.
This book is rife with pedophilia, sexual assault, fetishization of lesbian relationships, and overall misogyny.
Here's a part where the author excuses sexual assault: (Context: Tessa's body is unconscious but she's possessing someone else and watching from their eyes.
"He was gentle, but I noted that he was enjoying manhandling me a bit too much, placing his hands where they were not really needed for the job, but I didn't hold that against him. Some men can't resist the temptation."
Plot? Characters? Writing style? Who gives a fuck. All I'm writing this review for is to warn you of the awful things in this book the author (and apparently the publishers) find acceptable to market to (mostly) underage girls.

The premise of this book is really interesting, about a telepathic main character (Tessa) who's able to take control of people. But, I dislike this book for the mc to be seen as a sexualised 17 yrs old girl.

this was a great start to a series, I enjoyed getting to know the characters and getting a piece of the way the world worked.

The concept of this book was intriguing and I enjoyed reading it. There were a few twists and turns I did not predict. The end was definitely a surprise. It was a quick read and enjoyable. I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley.

I thought this book would be good. The story seems interesting but I had lot of problems regarding the relationship of the character. And to be honest, I didn’t like the book, like I thought i would
Thank you to netgalley for providing the e-arc

An author should never sexualise a character who is a minor. Especially if the author is man sexualising a female character.
Implying that a 16 year old girl has sex with adults (one of them who is almost ten years older than her) is so disgusting and wrong on so many levels.

So, I had some issues.

Firstly is the squick factor of a middle-aged man writing a highly sexualized 17-year-old girl as protagonist and narrator.

Secondly, while the English is fluent, it is not quite completely idiomatic. It certainly doesn't read as the language of an American teenager; it's quite stiff at times.

And then there's Tessa herself: she's manipulative, by her own admission, and though she has some moral awareness and moral qualms, she doesn't seem to find it too difficult to overcome them. I didn't much enjoy following her as a protagonist.

Had the story been anything out of the ordinary - had the premise been a bit more convincing or less dependent on good fortune and the protagonist being Special, had the thriller elements been less matter-of-fact and more exciting, had the secondary characters had more depth to them - it might have made up for the other flaws. Sadly, this wasn't the case; it was all a bit average.