Wow!
What I would give to read this over again for the first time! The relationship between the two characters was amazing and really kept me in the feet the whole story. I also like how the main characters relationship with her religion was expressed through the story, I loved how this story shown addiction as something progressive, not linear and that everyone has different experiences. This was an amazing read and I can’t wait to buy on publishing day!

This is a "hit the spot" book for someone (like me) who loves romance you can sink your teeth into. Following Wyatt and Ely as they both grapple with gender, sexuality, their faith and family or origin, addiction, and their shared artistry that helps them wrestle with their questions, it was also just a FUN read. Deep and hard-won at times, but the romance is sparkling and belongs on the shelf next to any Emily Henry and her collection of "love, but make it real," novels.

I've been excited about this book since Victoria Lee first told me about it at a book event. I got to see a sneak preview of the cover and my g-d I have been waiting on pins and needles for this book to get added to Netgalley and Edelweiss. Even with the publication delays I already know this will be a book that will live in my thoughts for a very very long time!
(disclaimer, I have not actually read the book yet but I will come back to edit this review once I have. I have been a fan of Victoria Lee and their books for many years and already know that this book is excellent)

"A Shot in the Dark" is my first exposure to Victoria Lee and all I can say is wow, does she have range, when I learned she writes contemporary romance with deeper themes as well as SFF. This incredible book is definitely one of my top favorites of the year. The prose is breathtakingly gorgeous, and I can tell this is one of those "books of the heart" that people are always talking about that has a very personal, authentic feel for the author's own life.

The book centers around a forbidden romance between a hotshot photography professor, a trans guy named Wyatt Cole, and a young photography student spending the summer at a renowned art school in New York City. The story is filled with all kinds of tension and Wyatt's ethical quandaries about boundaries after they spend a one night stand together on Ely Cohen's first night back in the city and then have to work together.

The tension is so dripping with angst that it almost got to be too much for my personal preference for angst, half the time I just wanted to slap them both and say kiss each other already. But if you like high angst this will be your cup of tea.

If it was just that, this would have been a shallow, tropey book like every other romance on the market, just make it queer, but this was so far from that.

Ely and Wyatt are both addicts in recovery, one of the authentic details that really shines through as if the author has sat in NA meetings herself, clutching paper cups of coffee. Her photography semester is also a homecoming for her; she was raised in an Orthodox Jewish sect and excommunicated after her drug problems caused her family too much pain. Back in town, she struggles to maintain her sobriety and get vulnerable with her art, and finds a kindred spirit in Wyatt, who has his own struggles with family and artistic identity.

I loved how the explorations of identity are subtle in this. Ely's pansexual but when she describes her sexuality to her new roommates, she doesn't want to put a label on it; instead she says simply that she's slept with both men and women, it's about the person, not the gender. Likewise, I felt the journey she went on to reconnect with her religious identity was not stereotypical; she goes from appreciating the way that rituals bind the life of a family and a community, to realizing that she never stopped believing and needs that anchor and structure in her life even if her family might not ever completely forgive her.

All in all, wow, this book is amazing. I feel privileged to have earned an early look.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I honestly cannot give enough praise to Victoria Lee and A Shot In The Dark. A complete masterpiece tackling difficult subjects such as religion and addiction with characters that have you rooting for them throughout.

An absolute five star read, I will be shouting praises for A Shot It The Dark to anyone who will listen.

Reading a novel by Victoria Lee is similar to reading something by Stephen King. She has talent, a way with words that feels addicting, and effortless. The way she writes stories and the characters that inhibit them stir an ocean full of emotions that are hard to decipher, especially after you finish. However, you have to worry about her endings.

Not with this one.

Though displeased with her other novels, I went into this with low expectations, and I will admit that it blew me away. An emotional romance featuring a trans lead? Hell yeah. I wasn't expecting everything else that came with it. From the discussions on abuse, to transphobia, and power imbalances on relationships ( 98% good, I think ), this novel was a sucker punch I wouldn't mind receiving occasionally for the rest of my life.

Ely is a complicated character to love and hate, chances are you will do both by the end, but I swooned. This is more than a fraught relationship between a college/university professor and his student, who get caught up in drama after realizing they had a one night stand before... it's more.

Both Ely and Wyatt are several years sober, trotting the path between relapse and healing. Their relationship at its core tests the waters they've been able to tame, until this bubbling romance creates a perfect storm. From Ely's guilt over her past, and having been shunned by her Jewish family and traditions for her troubled history, as she says, when she ruined her family. She's a brat at the beginning when you barely know her, and it isn't until the novel peels back that skin that you get to know what she's truly made of. She's fierce, head-strong, and so confident in her sexuality. At times I wanted to hate her, for pushing herself onto Wyatt when he laid down a boundary between them due to the circumstance. When she continuously egged him on, sexually harassing him in a way that wouldn't be okay at all if their genders were swapped.

My only quip is that as well written as Ely was as one maid lead, I felt that there was a lot left to desire from Wyatt's behalf. As a trans man, god I was so happy to see a trans man lead in a romance. He was so incredible. And well, that opening chapter and the smut scene... I'm blushing.

It felt very convenient at times for him to go from, "I have these boundaries," to feeling immense guilt over rejecting her, and then immediately gravitating towards her again. Though we come to understand a part of that dynamic and why that comes about, and it does make sense and works out a kink later, I felt that Wyatt was left with filler chapters. Aside from the big scene after the climax where he goes back to his home town and sees his family, the blow up that happens after was very "story structure"-ish. It was such a predictable thing that it really put my off. But, well, the romance is SO good I couldn't help but gush anyway.

These characters felt raw. Everything about addiction, recovering, trauma, etc. It bares itself to the reader. I found myself highlighting so many beautiful quotes, and ones that left me in pieces. As someone struggling with an addiction, who went through a drug and substance abuse addiction in my teen years, having felt all my life that I ruined everything... this novel spoke to me, it felt like looking in the mirror.

This novel is a weighted blanket on a bad day. It's comfort at its best, with an addition of sexy times to boot. At the end all I could say was that I loved THEM and I loved this, and I'm so glad I was a part of this journey before it was thrown out into the world. It feels like a part of me, and I'm glad I get to hold it, for as long as it lasts.

I related especially because of my love for photography. I, too, was young when I was handed a camera. I took it everywhere, I shot everything, I took classes in high school, and I look forward to pursuing the art as soon as I can afford to. Everything about this story felt close.

Aside from Wyatt's character getting a shorter stick, and I wished he had more development and time, I definitively will say he's one of my new book boyfriends. This man is a gem, and I love him, and Ely is so lucky.

On another note, the side characters were incredible. And even though I know nothing about Judaism, Jewish culture and religion, or anything at all sadly, I learned so much. It was a breath of fresh air. I have so many thoughts, and I wish I could do this review more justice.

When it comes out, just read it. Do it.

Damn, this was REALLY GOOD! When I first read the description, I thought that it would be a lighter kind of queer romance between a trans guy and a cis female, but wow. No. Don't get me wrong, there was a delightful amount of HOT queer romance, but it was far from being light and floofy. A Shot In The Dark packs a powerful punch in a variety of ways.
The book follows ex-Orthodox Ely as she returns to NYC after having fled it shamefully years prior so that she can attend a prominent art summer program taught by one of her mysterious favorite photographers. But before the program starts, she joins her new roommates at a queer club where she meets a gorgeous trans man named Wyatt and spends the night with him. To her surprise the next day, she realizes he's the professor she came to NYC to learn from.

What follows is a story about addiction, recovery, religious struggles, family and forgiveness. The romance between the two main characters is hot, forbidden, and a push pull type of relationship between two people who have so much in common but in their own unique ways.

It was a beautiful well written story. It definitely had my emotions on a rollercoaster, but in a way where the heavy subject matter didn't make me feel like I needed to take a break.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this free e-ARC so that I may give my honest feedback and review.

I want to first acknowledge how well written this entire book is. The length is perfect (though I wouldn't complain if there was more) and I felt like the dialog was realistic and witty. There was romance and slow burn (and SPICE) friendships being built and evolving into found family, and all of the speed bumps along the way.

These characters have my entire heart and soul. Ely is literally my spirit animal - we have so much in common and her internal monolog feels like home. Wyatt is gentle and kind and just so adorable I cannot get enough of him. They both make mistakes that are so unmistakably human.

Throughout this novel I truly feel like part of the friend group, we've all laughed and cried together. I would think things then see it on the page seconds later.

I have never felt so attached to a book and I'm going to make it everyone else's problem.

4.25

Setting: New York
Rep: bisexual Jewish FMC; trans MMC

I loved this book, it was very well written and fleshed out and the people felt very real to me. It was so close to being a five star read! The ending felt a bit too abrupt to me and like some quite big things didn't necessarily get dealt with (that may have been intentional though, given the subject matter). This is a heavy read, so make sure to read the warnings - drug use and abuse; addiction; homophobia, transphobia, etc. It didn't feel like a romance to me. More like a kind of coming of age, kind of litfic - the romance was more on the backburber, which I liked.

ARC provided by NetGalley.
This was truly a joy to read. Following the relationship between Ely, a recovering addict returning to New York after being shunned by her Jewish Orthodox community years prior, and Wyatt, a renowned photographer who is also a trans man, and Ely’s professor at art school. In addition to the romance aspect, this book excels at exploring the intersection of addiction, art, religion, sexuality within identity while feeling so fresh and unpretentious, something that many contemporary literary fiction books struggle to. Lee‘s characters all feel so vivid and distinct, even her secondary characters. I truly felt that in different moments in the story I had been dropped into Ely or Wyatt’s bodies and was feeling and thinking and seeing through them. Everything Lee comes out with has been a winner for me and A Shot in the Dark is no exception.

A Shot in the Dark is one of the best books I have ever read, and I am honored to have had the chance at an ARC. Lee's writing style is my favorite - fresh and accessible - and her characters were true multi faceted people, just like the rest of us. I truly enjoyed getting to know Ely and Wyatt; I was rooting for them both independently and together from the first page.

I appreciate that Lee did not use Ely's Chassidism and Wyatt's gender identity as teaching moments. They were certainly major parts of the story and very key elements were explained, but readers are not coddled with definitions; we need to research on our own if we need to know
more. I like this and hope more authors take note.

I did not like the jumps back in time to 10, 9, and 8 years ago; I think those memories could have been written into "present day" without making the flashbacks their own sections.

Imagine having the range to write dystopian, dark academia, AND adult contemporary romance, all queer in different ways, and all so incredibly well written. Victoria Lee doesn't have to imagine, that's for sure, because after reading all of these books, I'm convinced they can pull off any genre.

I'm so thankful for the chance to read this early, because this was truly one of my most anticipated releases of the year. And it's an immediate new favourite for me, because this was such a fantastic read.

In the first few chapters, this book already had me grinning like a fool. We start off by following Ely when she arrives in New York for summer school, meets her new roommates, and comes to a queer club with them. There she meets this charming stranger, and has a one night stand with him. Only to find out the next day that he's her professor. From then on the book is dual POV, which I adore in romance, and I thought the set up of it was done so well too.

The book is on the more emotional side of romance, as both characters are in recovery from addiction, and both of them have been kicked out by their families. I loved how they found support in each other without making each other into their sole support system - they also build other meaningful relationships on the way.

It's also a book that talks heavily about Ely's Jewishness, as she's grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family and is grappling with what religion means to her and her place among Jewish people after having been kicked out by her family. I thought this was such an interesting perspective, and Ely finding new community and working through this through her art project was so good to see.

All in all, this is a book that packs a lot into it, but I never felt like it was too much, or too heavy. It mainly just felt really human, seeing two characters with trauma and raw edges find love.