By the end of the first page, I was in love with Emily Austin’s writing. I’m never completely sure what people mean when they describe prose with fancy words like lyrical, poetic, etc., but as far as I’m concerned, Austin’s prose is something special. I don’t know how to choose the right fancy word, so I will call it *chef’s kiss* prose.

I enjoyed the plot but Gilda is really the shining star here. In many ways, she is me in my 20s. Some parts of her are still me in my 30s, but if I had read this book when I was 20 - 24, I would have been been stunned at how absolutely in my head this book was. Emily Austin describes the experience of panic attacks well, but it’s something I’ve seen and heard described many times. The thing that really impressed me was the way she captured the anxiety that comes with obsessing over irrational fears.

I’m gonna get personal here and share that I’ve dealt with a lot of irrational fear in my life. Sure, there’s plenty of actual danger out there I can freak myself out over if I think about it enough, but sometimes I spend too long obsessing over what I’ll do if a plane crashes into my house, I’m shot while walking by my front window at night, my house catches fire while I’m asleep, or I find a deranged man living in my basement. I’ve never seen that brand of anxiety represented in a book which made me feel like this one was written with me in mind. Finally, confirmation that I am special. 😌

I already have the rest of Austin’s books on my TBR but now that I’ve finished my first one, I’m in much more of a hurry to get to them. I’m excited to read more and see the other characters she’s come up with.