I was really excited around the hype of this book, but I feel like it was a bit miss-marketed to me. I had the understanding that the book was set almost entirely in the library and our core cast couldn't leave the table due to the investigation. The book was going to unfold as we learn about each of the cast's backstory and all their secrets. That happened in the first couple chapters, and from there was an entirely different story. Only two of our core cast really had any secrets, and there was a slightly bizarre subplot of letters reacting to the chapter you just read. I say bizarre because while it was interesting at about half way through you could ignore the letters entirely and it would not change the book at all. Especially because we don't know anything about the fictional author Hannah who is writing the manuscript you are reading. If anything I just found myself getting annoyed with Leo our letter writer because it was like being in class with someone who just keeps doubling down on their opinion and you feel like they had to have read an entirely different book than yourself to get those conclusions. Also was he anti or pro mask?? I'm so confused. Also book Leo at the end of the novel appearing at the hospital was that suppose to be as ominous as if felt? I was convinced it was him the whole time, but was he just following Freddie? What was with all the desserts he sent her? I kept expecting something to be poisoned. Did I miss something?

I don’t even know how to truly write a review for this book. It was written in such a unique way that I haven’t seen before. It’s basically a story about a story in a story… 🤔

We have Hannah, an author, who is writing a murder mystery novel, while also receiving letters from an individual named Leo that consists of feedback on her novel chapter by chapter. About halfway through we get an interesting plot twist.

I can honestly say I was confused throughout the majority of this book. I think I was maybe looking too far into finding a connection between the two stories, which I didn’t really ever find. By the ending I found that maybe this book would have been better if it just focused on the murder mystery story written by Hannah. The secret letters had build up but no proper execution or link. It really did just feel like reading two separate books in one.

As for the murder mystery, somewhat predictable and not dark enough for my liking. Unfortunately I just didn’t feel the thrill in this thriller.

Just feeling very ‘meh’ after reading this. Wasn’t a true fan.

Thank you Sourcebooks for an advanced e-book copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hits shelves June 7th, 2022

Some of this might be more rant than review and there’s a chance it’s a bit jumbled since I wrote as I went along. I would change it all but.... the book itself is a bit of a jumbled mess so no reason to bother...

First thoughts... the whole letters/notes from Leo at the end of every chapter is rather irritating. I feel like it would be way more interesting not to know that this is a story within a story or at the very least have these inputs come sparingly. It’s all so very distracting.

I wanted to read this because it seemed like it would be interesting 4 people meet at the library and are present when a scream is heard that later turns out to have been a murder. After a few chapters though the critique of every chapter is established making this somewhat of a story within a story. It becomes tedious very fast. In the beginning it seemed like it was going to be 4 strangers deciding it’s their business to solve the murder of a woman they don’t know that had nothing to do with them. Thankfully that was really what happened they only got involved when weird things started happening around them.


I’m willing to admit at some point the Leo letters become slightly less annoying and on occasion he does have good points. From the start though I had the feeling that something about it all seemed off.

The main story doesn’t really start to get interesting until about 25% in, up until that part I was considering giving up on the whole thing. Admittedly I did skip over a bunch of the letters because of their general tediousness. Though even when I read/listen to it every time it gets to those parts I cringe. Seems rather unnecessary to have this whole pandemic narrative added in. It’s not part of the actual story it’s only mentioned in the letters from Leo.


I have the ebook and audiobook versions of this book and I thought it would be something to listen to until I inevitably switched to reading because I combination read rather often. In this case though the narrator did a great job it was hard to get through this from the start with this whole set up. The only way to keep going with the story for me was to skip over the letters at the end of the chapters they are so tedious when I really wanted to like the book.


I’ve written this review while reading instead of after like I typically do. Mostly so I didn’t forget what I was complaining about. So I did manage to get to the end spent all of today on this book and though I thought I didn’t like it I actually did. Not the whole book within a book thing that was tedious till the end and highly unnecessary the book worked just fine as it was. Seems like just like Leo advised all the pandemic mentions were added in just to exist in the story. Reading a book literally being critiqued chapter by chapter as you read it is just not a good idea. Without that it was a good story. Did I guess who the killer was earlier on? Yes... do I think that Freddie’s Leo was likely as much a stalker as the Leo with his exhausting opinions? Yes... was everybody in this book way too trusting for no reason? Yes!!! Are people from Australia not as suspicious of people? Because I really don’t know... I wanted to shake Freddie constantly.

So this book was a lot a book about an author being critiqued on the book as it was going and the story in the book being about a writer who was writing her own story featuring her new friends she met in the library while possibly having been close to a murder. It’s all too much but I didn’t hate the actual story though it did just kind of come to an abrupt end.

The only question I have at the end of this is: Did Whit’s mother know who attacked her?

I absolutely loved this audiobook! It was thrilling, captivating, and kept me hooked from the very first chapter!

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

The audio was not good. I got confused and the accents didn't seem authentic.

I toggled back and forth between the audio and the print version. Here is my review from the print version:

"DNF at 35%. I grabbed this book when it was "read now" and I was really excited for it, but I was highly disappointed. It was stereotypical, unbelievable, unrelatable, confusing and somewhat boring. I, unlike many others, did not enjoy the story within a story. It was weird and didn't flow well. I didn't connect with any of the characters and there was no clear break in narration from Hannah to Hannah's manuscript. The email sections were weird and I felt like they were out of place. It just didn't flow well. I found it extremely far-fetched that the four people at the library would become such fast friends that they're sleeping over at each other's houses like kids? It just wasn't realistic. There were also a lot of stereotypes and I didn't like that.

All in all, I just wasn't a fan. I didn't even care enough to tough it out and find out who the "killer" was."

I will not be reviewing on Goodreads or any other platform as I didn't finish the book. There will be people who will enjoy this book, but I wasn't one of them.