The premise of this book was very interesting to me. I was expecting a great crime thriller with a captivating plot and well-developed characters. What I got instead was overly descriptive writing, irrelevant characters, and an ending that I didn’t enjoy. The book was ok up until about the 60% mar. Then things took a turn for the worse. This wasn’t the book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Little A for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is about Nina, a private detective in the Hamptons, who is hired to find Claire Ross, author of The Starlit Ballet, a romance novel with a cult following. Nina is hired by Claire’s mom Miranda, desperate to find her daughter, and is faced with questions from Kira, Claire’s sister, and Roger, Claire’s fiancé who she was set to marry the day she disappeared. Nina is known for her “unconventional” ways of finding people, which becomes clear through her exhaustive interviews with everyone Claire had ever known, even back to high school. After awhile, Nina has a hunch that perhaps the world in The Starlit Ballet is not far from the one Claire lived in, and maybe that in itself is the clue to finding her.

This book started quick, with the mystery beginning in the first few pages. The case lacks much excitement, with the majority of Nina’s investigation taking place through interviews and observations in Claire’s family home, rather than thrilling scenes or discoveries. The character development also feels a bit off — we don’t really get to know anyone but Claire, and there are a few twists near the end that don’t feel consistent with the characters we’ve gotten to know. However despite this, the book keeps you hooked, and while it doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat, the writing alone is captivating and makes you want to turn the page. Add in some romance, some stalking, a few creepy moments, and some blood, and the book keeps you guessing until the end.

This was a page-turner for me. It was gripping throughout, with an interesting premise and many twists and turns.
It's a fast-paced psychological thriller about the disappearance of a celebrity author. It's told in first person by the private investigator hired to find her, and we get to see the narrator's thought process and hear about her background and how it relates to her job and view on life.
It became quite dark at certain points and was a bit more adult than I like in some spots, but they were a small piece of the whole.
I was getting ready to dislike the ending, but in another twist, things became a bit lighter, and the ending was actually quite satisfying.

Ok. all that said, I have to take off some points. Some of the prose is heavily overdone to the point that I didn't think it made sense. There was a sentence about something being shiny like the inside of a seashell. Huh? Also, everyone was wearing khakis. Why? And it was described several times as elegant. Um, no. Nineties oxford shirt with v-neck sweater, khakis, and braided belt is not elegant. I think it was meant to be like a coast grandma kind of thing, because this all takes place in the Hamptons. But it felt out of place.

It seemed a little too easy how the hunches the PI had turned out to be correct. I would have liked to see her work a little harder. Finally, the narrator constantly talks about how she doesn't fit into the wealthy set in the Hamptons It's central to the storyline, but we don't need to be reminded of it every other page.

This is 3.5 stars for me, but I'm going to round it up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I couldn’t connect with the story or the characters. I felt like the writing was too overdone and I had a hard time reading it.

This one was a DNF for me. I hope others love this one but it wasn’t for me.

Miranda, the mother of bestselling author Claire, is desperate to find her daughter who vanishes on her wedding day. She recruits Nina, a private investigator, to help with the search. Nina turns to Claire's novels, hoping to find clues. This novel started off with potential, however, as the story progresses it takes a series of unexpected and bizarre turns. Finishing the book was a struggle for me.