2.5 star read unfortunately. This book had potential but too many factors brought it down.

Things I liked:
●The suspense of how it all went down
●Finding out the family secrets
● The mix of culture included in the story

Things I disliked:
● The main character and how unbearable she was. She talked a big game but when it was time to talk she fumbled every time. She had intense information the whole story that she never thought to mention until the very last 30 pages.
● This book was too long and really started to dragged. I felt like I was skimming through half the book and not missing anything. It could've been about 200 pgs shorter.
● The twist reveal was just not good. There wasnt even a "huge reveal" it was a bunch og tiny gotcha moments that shifted the blame to a different character. Without spoiling anything it was just misdirection by having characters avoid a super important conversation that needed to happen.
● I already don't care to read "rich/famous" people drama" but this book really drove home how much I didn't want to read that genre. It was hard to care about any of the characters problems or concerns when it was just rich people trying to save face. The characters all just came off really immature with a huge ego mask.
● The repetitiveness really started getting to me without how long this book was. Especially with the MC getting herself into situations and then saying "I was stupid to come here... I was dumb to think I could..." over and over.
●The author really thought they drove it home with that "double plot twist" combo but it really just didn't make sense and made the whole book seems like wasted time when this one character knew everything the whole time.

This book had potential but it just didn't work for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“it’s funny what you call home. some find it in a place, other in people. you can find it in a smell, in a smile, in a feeling. home is where the heart is, people say. so where’s your home if your heart has been broken into a million pieces, over and over again?”

This book was a really easy read and kept my attention throughout the entire story. the author was brilliant enough to sprinkle in some hints on who was behind all of the trouble surrounding the MC(s). I really liked how nobody truly changed and had a “happily ever after” ending, everyone was still looking out for themselves in the end and never really changed.

I liked reading about a thriller/mystery that was taking place in an entirely different country with entirely different cultural aspects than the US. It was interesting to read and learn about another culture along the way.

About midway through I had made a guess at who the villain was throughout the story and in the end, I was right on that assumption, BUT the author still ended up surprising me in the end with plot twists (and references to iron man

This was a 5-star read until the end. The end felt too rushed for my liking.

The first 2/3 was good- alternating between investigation interviews and the protagonist. Abrupt shift in narrator in the last third comes across like lazy writing.
Loved the setting, hearing about the dynamics of other cultures and family dynamics.