Hazel has landed her dream job, assisting a world renown author, but her high hopes for her new job vanish as soon as she arrives at the old southern mansion within a strange gated community. Hazel finds out she's only the assistant to the author's assistant, who happens to be devastatingly handsome. The atmosphere in the house is very old fashioned and adheres to outdated traditions. Creepy things start to happen and Hazel feels like she is constantly being watched. Will Hazel be able to do her job and overlook all the strange happenings, or will she be driven to flee?

#netgalley #ivysmoak #badthingsfeelbest

Well this was an odd read for me and has left me thinking...what the hell did I just read? It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. There were moments were Hazel and Kehlani would make me laugh, their friendship was really cute and supportive. From the beginning Hazel was a little naïve and a lot immature for her age. After arriving at the mansion, noticing stuff is weirdly off, you still decide to stay. Right then I knew she didn't have good sense. Actually the only one in the whole book who seemed to have some sense was Kehlani! Of course in my mind I had an idea of who Athena was especially since Hazel was never able to meet her from the start. Once everything came to light I was left rolling my eyes and laughing looking back on all that had happened. The extent that Atlas went through to carry out this was a lot creepy and deceptive, but hey at least he found his muse and got his mojo back. I don't see how Atlas was able to keep a straight face through the whole charade. This was different and not at all what I was expecting. In the end, it did have a good premise if not but a little over the top!

Arc provided by publisher via Netgalley.

My toxic trait is choosing to open the book with the farthest out publication date on my NG shelf when I knowingly have multiple books publishing in the next month and plenty with past pub dates. Oh well, this story kept me entertained for several hours and that's the point of reading, right?

Anticipated pub date: 8th of August

Let's start with what I loved: the creepy vibe of the old mansion (I have a problem with loving to read about creepy old houses... this is a romance for crying out loud and the first think I can think to "love" is completely unrelated to the romance? LOL problem!); Hazel and Kahlani's friendship was the best, homegirl could call her friend ANY time and she'd pick up, even when she was doing sketcky, questionable things, haha; the romance + mystery was good, I typically stick to one or the other so it was nice to have a combo in one book; there were some fun/ creepy/ thrilling moments when Hazel was snooping; it was a super quick read.

What I didn't so much love: I would say there are two big "twists" in this story and the first one I guessed at about 10% in.... humble brag? Idk, but I felt a particular scene made it glaringly obvious. The other "twist" goes in quotation marks because I wouldn't call it a twist per say. If you are a person that has been conscious on this planet in the last decade you could figure out the thing as ALL the clues are there. [[(Mini spoiler maybe): my actual thoughts went like "why is he watching her eat? What a creep. Is this some fucking ******* shit? What the fuck is happening?"]]
The ending fell a bit flat...although now that I'm thinking back maybe the mysteriousness of it actually works. What a contradiction, Dani 🙃
In the first half of this the MMC "lowered his brows" literally (figuratively) 5 MILLION TIMES. Like, could have have instead "furrowed his brows" or something a few times??? It got to the point I wanted to go back and keep a count just because it bothered me when it was on every other page.

Overall, this was okay.

I went into this one pretty blind which I would recommend. I don't want to give much away because this is a mystery/romance. This was a quick read and I would say entertaining The main characters were just ok to me and I will say some mysteries with the side characters never really did get resolved. 3 stars from me for this one didn't love the resolution thanks to NetGalley and Montlake for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

Hazel Fox takes a job as an assistant to a famous novelist hoping to get insight and inspiration for her own writing career. Instead, she arrives to the remote, oceanfront mansion to find she'll be working with the infuriating and of course, handsome, Mr. Remington, the author's personal assistant. He refuses to divulge anything personal about himself and is determined to keep Hazel at a distance, almost like he's trying to get her to quit. It's obvious he's harboring some dark, possibly dangerous secrets, and Hazel is determined to find out what he's hiding.

The story was an enjoyable, quick read, even if a couple of the plotlines were predictable. Without any spoilers, one of the plot lines was glaringly obvious so it was more of a waiting game as to when it would be revealed. I wish there had been a little more mystery about it but it was still enjoyable.

Hazel herself was a good spunky FMC, although she was a little immature in her reactions to some events. The tension between herself and Mr. Remington was a hot enough to keep you wanting more and excited to see their development.

The punctuation and grammar was ...not good. There were so many instances of starting a sentence with "and" and "but" when those words could've been used as intended and joined the previous sentence. It was a bit distracting and kept removing me from the story. There were also at least two instances where Hazel is texting but it took an additional read over because there was no punctuation between the text and her stream of consciousness.

I think this was a good quick read and with another pass through by an editor, I think would be really good. I loved the story and the intrigue so that keeps my review positive.

Thank you so much to Ivy and Montlake for the ARC.

This review will be short as I don't want to give anything away!

This books in incredible well written and has so many twist and turns, it's hard to keep up - but in a good way.

I haven't read Verity but it gives me those kind of vibes, from what I've heard about the book but again, I haven't read that book so I could be totally off stream here!

Definitely a must read if you're looking for something different than run of the mill romance!

Thank you to Ivy Smoak, Montlake, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy of this book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 "If she weren't so naive, she would have run... it would have been brave if she weren't so foolish". This book was so incredibly beautiful and one that I would definitely read again to pick up more clues on what was happening.

The book follows Hazel who is starting a job as an assistant to a famous author, Athena Quinn. The author lives on an island where Hazel is hoping to receive inspiration in order to write her book. However, when she arrives at the house, it turns out she is working as the assistant to the assistant, Mr Remington. The more time Hazel spends in the house the more she notices how peculiar and haunted the estate is. Secrets begin to become uncovered and Hazel wonders if she should have ever moved to the estate in the first place.

I really am determined not to spoil this book for anyone wishing to read, so this is going to be quite difficult to write. I'll start by saying how gorgeous the writing is, it is so incredibly descriptive and quite frightening in some parts. The characters were also all very charming; at some points I found Hazel to be quite childish in her reactions and her determination to meet Athena, despite being warned by all to do the opposite. Mr Remington was possibly my favourite character, charming and, seemingly, very bizarre.

The plot I found to be extremely enjoyable read and just when you thought you knew what was going on, it was all suddenly turn around. My only issue is, that I instantly guessed one of the plot twists, so in that respect was a waiting game for me. There were also several pretty obvious hints towards this twist to I just wish there was more of an illusion towards the unknown rather than the seemingly obvious. But I really didn't mind this at all due to the second major twist (which I shall not spoil on here). I will just say, I wish so much that it was stuck with. You'll understand what I mean once you read it. It honestly kept me reading all night as I absolutely adored this twist and I was determined to give it five stars right up until the ending! Despite this, I was so attached to this book as I really didn't know where it was going to go.

I really would recommend this book to everyone it is such a short and thrilling read with so many twists. Thank you netgalley for the arc!