3 Stars
Cliffhanger warning with no end in sight smh. This book was released in 2014 and even 6 years later there's no sign of book two and that's just not OK with the ending we get. Sure I only picked it up now to go through old ARCs but I did not expect such a horrible open ending. When the book starts there's all these secrets and insinuations on things that happened but there is zero detail. The heroine ran away from home and her first love but we never really know why until the very end. This did not make me like the heroine any more than I already did. There's also this implied connection between the MC's that the author tries to portray in flashbacks here and there but I never really cared about them either way. It did not help that we had no reasons for why she ran or what they'd both been up to in the meantime. The secrets were stupid, annoying and the book is every bit stereotypical New Adult of the mid 2010's. Of course when things finally started coming out and the MCs finally acted their age and had a <b>conversation</b> but then it just ends and there's so much left unknown. I'm really just mad to not have a clue how all the pieces tie together. There's her mother who disappeared when she was a child and the lies her father told her about all of that. Then there's the affair her mom had with the heroes dad for years after she ran? Then there's the heroines crazy and aloof dad and his issues, why was he the way he was and why in the end did he call her all scared and actually acting like he gave a shit? How about the heroes parents and their hatred of the heroine and why heroes mom would tries to tarnish the heroines reputation so badly and even get a local boy obsessed to the point of hurting/stalking her? Not to mention the annoying-ness of them letting their lives be so manipulated by the heroes parents that I really want some redemption. For such a short book, so much is dumped on us in the end and I especially want to watch the heroes mother fall and fall hard. At this point I'd be happy watching her world implode. But guess that won't be happening and I'll just have to let it all go smh. Given there is so much unknown and there is no conclusion I can't recommend the book because what's the point?