I received an e-ARC of this book from Minatour Books and St. Martin's Griffin through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Trigger warnings: murder, violence, blackmail, theft, grief, lying, manipulation

I tried, I really did, I swear. This series just isn't for me. If you can see how long it took me to read this book, you'd know it's extremely rare of me to push through this long and manage to finish. Usually, I would've given up, but this was an eARC and I really wanted to give the series a good shot. On paper, this series is for me: queer, set in the 1920's and full of mystery, intrigue and tension. However, I need to be able to connect emotionally to characters to fully buy into a novel and I just cannot with Vivian. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about her that I just cannot buy into. She's kind of a prickly main character; pretty stubborn and thinks she's more prepared than she is to go into the situations she finds herself in. She also has a nasty habit of lying to the people she cares about the most which honestly grinds my gears to no one. I do like the side characters a lot; I think the dynamic between Vivian, Leo and Honor is really interesting and I like how it's been a slow burn between the love interests. We're still unconfirmed about what the endgame is and I think that's pretty fun for readers. I also liked how the relationships between characters developed in this book from the first. They were expanded, complicated and grew in all different ways. But I just cannot get past the narration. I don't end up hating the novel by any means, but it doesn't call for me to read it or to find out what the mystery is all about. I just slug through it and force myself to pick it up which isn't fun you know? I think this series would definitely be more suited for people who love plot driven narratives, so if that's you, maybe try it out!