Wow wtf was this? It evoked such emotion and the rollercoaster ride was by far the most stomach dropping I’ve ever experienced. I loved every page. Coral was so so haunted and max so so ..well I won’t ruin it. One of the best suspenseful thrillers I’ve read in awhile., and I’ve read a lot. The ending was like a gut punch. I will keep thinking about this one..

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle - I wished for it and I received it. This was such a gripping, cringe-y story. For me, it was more of a slow burn than a fast-paced thriller. Audra is a young woman in her 20's - in a a prestigious art program with a well-known artist, Max Durant, as her professor. He earned fame for one painting early on and has had marginal success since. While the story of Audra and Max is being told, another story is told from the 80's about a communal living art camp. Everyone there goes by nicknames - Moss, Juniper, Coral, etc. Things become dark both in the present and the past and there is a connection. Max is manipulative. He's a handsome 40-something artist and he is able to put younger women in his sights and hold them in his sway. Max may thing he's doing that to Audra but she has plans of her own for him. This book really did build to an explosive conclusion. I would describe it as a psychological suspense story with lots of psychological abuse between the characters. When I got to the last few chapters, I couldn't put it down. Katie Lattari's writing was so descriptive and wonderful. I felt like I was there in every scene and dreaded being in a lot of them.

I was browsing NetGalley one day and this title caught my eye. I mean, how could I not click on a book entitled Dark Things I Adore? So I did, and it wasn't available for request, but I wished for it, and my wish actually got granted! For the very first time!

I've been reading a lot of thrillers recently, specifically female-driven ones, so I was excited about this. It was very well-written and twisty, and to top it all off, art was intrinsic to the plot! It's rare to read about art in fiction in an authentic, accessible way, but the author carried it off so well. The setting, an artists' retreat in New England, was fresh and unique. Some parts were genuinely chilling, which is so important in a thriller.

Once things started falling into place, I felt this story required just a little suspension of disbelief. But at that point I was eager to get to the conclusion, so I didn't even mind. I was pretty much hooked from start to finish, and I'll definitely be reading more of the author's work in the future.

4-4.5 stars.

Amazing thriller. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. The characters are believable and the plot ingenious.