Member Review

Dahlia had a very difficult childhood. She's used to scrapping herself off the floor and starting life over again. So when her boyfriend leaves with the rent money, and she gets evicted, it's just another day and a sad return to her friend's bar to borrow a room in the apartment above it. The hits keep coming when the mom she hasn't seen in 20 years shows up, only to disappear the next morning, and is soon followed by a dead body in the alleyway. Dahlia will have to rethink everything she knows about her past, her dreams, and the few people she'd allowed to get close.

It's a very downer book at the beginning. Even before the body is found, you meet Dahlia at a very low moment in her life, then immediately learn that she's had it worse. Reading this at a time when depressing stories don't seem like a good idea, I almost left it, but I'm glad I kept reading because it's a really good story. Dahlia has to face a lot of things she would rather not, but circumstances are forcing her to leave her protective cocoon and make hard decisions. She has a lot more support than she thought she had; it just takes some very hard moments to figure it out. It's a testament to Rader-Day's writing that everything hits so close and you instantly connect to Dahlia.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the great read!