Member Review

Whoa, this book! Buckle up and hang on because it's a wild ride. At the beginning of the story, Rose is a young journalist stuck doing grunt work until she starts researching Poppy. Poppy is a clever scam artist who eventually gets taken down for embezzlement after being investigated by the FBI (but before Rose can finish her full story). Rose is forced to quickly publish as a result, before she's finished her expose. The unfortunate effect of publishing the abridged story is that it grants Poppy viral celebrity status, which is far from what Rose intended. After Poppy is sent to prison, Rose's quest for the truth about Poppy turns into a spiraling obsession that blows up both her personal and professional lives, when Rose can't let go of her certainty that Poppy is guilty of much more than what she was convicted of. Rose is an absolute mess, a self-sabotaging trainwreck of a young woman. I mean, there's reasons why she's a mess but her base personality is a lot to handle. And once Poppy is released early from prison Rose becomes increasingly unhinged in her quest for proof that Poppy is guilty of more serious crimes. Rose then teams up with Simon, the charming rogue FBI field agent, to fully uncover Poppy's mis-deeds. So the story started out a bit slow-ish but quickly ramped up into an entertaining caper. And once I embraced how over-the-top it all was, my enjoyment of the story went up exponentially. I would definitely agree with the description that this is "campy and satirical," although there's also a lot of biting commentary about our celebrity culture. I had some initial trouble warming up to Rose, her voice is a bit young and immature for me, but that's a personal preference and I did get on board with the story. Simon and Rose are pretty well matched, both of them obsessive in their own ways. The enemies-to-lovers, open-door romance is mostly a secondary plot to the mystery of Poppy, albeit a pretty significant one. There are lots of layers in this story, you'll enjoy uncovering all of them. Rose made me uncomfortable at times with her brash personality and (justified) obsession with Poppy and bringing her to justice. But I also felt for her and wanted to see her succeed, and it was the author's skillful writing that got me to engage despite my discomfort. And that ending is still with me days after finishing the book, holy cow. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars, this is a new-to-me author that I will be seeking out again! Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book, this is my objective review. Publishes 9-17-24.