WOW.... I was transported into the 80’s. I was immediately sucked into this story. The characters were amazing. The story line is something relevant today with drug use. Anyone that loves the NYC area will appreciate this book. There’s not 1 thing about this book I didn’t like other than it ended. Phoebe’s journey as a young woman and the choices she makes to get through her early is something a lot of people can relate to.

I loved everything about this book and I couldn't wait to read it but now I'm sad it's finished.
This was a book I was so looking forward to reading when I read the description and it actually lived up to all the hype.

1980s, New York...omg! I think I was in love with the atmosphere alone. I think the author did such a great job with the city scape and describing the city and time period, I felt transported back to a time that I've always wanted to live in NYC.

Phoebe is in her 20s living with her friend Carmen. Phoebe is trying to figure it all out, still getting over her fathers death. She borrows money from a guy she was dating and takes a job at a club reading futures to try to pay him back quickly.

For some reason Phoebe put Carmen on a pedestal and wanted nothing more than to be like her. However, Carmen was controlling and betrayed her, their friendship was more than complicated.
Soon, they have a fall out and Phoebe's life is going in a different direction and it's nothing what she thought it would be.

I don't want to say anymore because I want y'all to read this book. This book had everything- mystery, romance, drama and amazing characters! Plus that 1980s NYC scene!! Please put this on your TBR list for April 2021

Thanks to the publisher Atria Books and NetGalley for my advanced ebook copy.

I’m one the luckiest cows in the earth to have a chance to discover this precious gem! I sat for at least three hours to gather my thoughts how this book made me feel and I’m still worried I can miss some parts and my words cannot be powerful enough to reflect my thoughts properly...

Because so many thought balloons and caged feelings just released from my soul as soon as I saw the last page. It was truly smart, so entertaining, gripping, addicted with flawed, realistic, vivid characters, clever writing technique blended with dark comedy, near historical fiction, mystery, drama genres.

A blazing, blinking time travel to 80’s bohemian, artistic life, culture in New York with drug fueled VIP parties, fabulous downtown clubs loaded with celebrities including Andy Warhol, Christopher Walken, Debbie Harry.

Our narrator Phoebe in her early 20’s becomes roommate with her friend Carmen renting a drug dealer’s apartment with reasonable price ( poor girls cannot afford to rent a proper place when one of them is waitressing and the other one works as a fortune teller in a very high end downtown night club!) , dealing with quirky, noisy neighbors (drug addicts, mentally sick people or extra expressive artists!), trying to survive and adjust into city life by meeting new people from art industry, trying to find a place at the inner circle of celebrities!

Phoebe still tries to find who she is and what she wants to do with her life because two tragedies she recently endured changed her completely. She loves Carmen and she wants to be like her, creative, independent, effective. But her love she feels for her friend sometimes pushes her to live in her shadow. And of course after having an affair with Ivan who is twice of her age, being dumbed by him startles her. It’s time to payback! Now she aims to collect the money she borrowed from him and throwing it at his face.

Her job at the club is reading the future’s of mostly famous clients for cheap price as five dollars by using her cards with full of movie names. Three cards her clients choose will determine their future and answer their questions ( actually I want to do this thing for fun and I already started to collect movie names randomly so I’m thankful to the author gave me such a wonderful entertaining idea for our dinner parties with friends!)

Phoebe and Carmen’s friendship is so complicated. Sometimes I felt so sorry for Phoebe because I feel like she underestimating herself by thinking extra highly of Carmen even though she did several things to betray her trust. And Carmen just a little controlling by choosing people who she can take care ( like boyfriend) or people who devotedly adore her like Phoebe.

Well, of course Phoebe is not perfect. She makes a mistake but she still doesn’t realize the consequences because well... Carmen’s reactions are not so predictable but the worst thing happens and their friendship affects very badly. They have a big fallout!

And Phoebe realizes her life’s direction suddenly changes: she feels like she’s driving a car without brakes and she doesn’t know when the car will stop where it is headed where it will crush into and explode!

The explosive, action packed, surprising conclusion of the story entertained me sooooooo muccchhhhh!

Flawed, quirky, unreliable heroine who sees ghosts, showing weird reactions to the death of her father, taking notes from baseball games for her death father, reading movie cards to tell the future for living, snorting coke till her nose bleeds like Mia Wallace on Pulp Fiction, sending cards to her mother to make sure she’s alright when she is not!

And the book is such an objection reflection of 80’s bohemian life style, artists, music, movies, politics and culture!

No more words! I did everything not to finish this earlier and I also barely held myself not to skip my work and lock myself some silent place to finish my reading. This was my most compelling dilemma about this book!

Maybe it’s early to say but I’m still saying this is going to be at my best top ten books of 2021 list! I LOVED IT SO MUCH and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

So many thanks to dear Isabel De Silva, Atria Books/ Simon &Schuster and NetGalley for sharing this amazing reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.