But when I glance up, it’s not by the person I want it to be. Dale’s always busy doing something else. Really, I must have the most unromantic partner on the planet.
Or so I thought.
For Dale has prepared a Valentine’s Day surprise and I don’t need asking twice to follow the clues I’ve found. I find my way to the remote cottage he’s booked, gobsmacked as I respond to his written instruction to enter.
Romantic music fills the air, delicious aromas drift from the kitchen and rose petals have been scattered, leaving a trail which starts at the front door and takes me up to a candlelit bubble bath where a glass of champagne is waiting.
But as I peel off my clothes, a sense of unease creeps over me. I should have checked downstairs before I came up here. I don’t know if this surprise is really meant for me…
Choo! Choo! Here comes another trainwreck!
Absolutely none of the main characters in this story were likable, which made it incredibly difficult to care about anything that was happening. Dale is an adulterer who seemingly couldn’t keep it in his pants if his life depended on it, going so far as to tell his pregnant wife that her “neediness” was an “absolute turn off” and that he dreaded coming home to her. Rachel, meanwhile, is a conniving narcissist who appears to believe she’s entitled to whatever she wants, including other people’s husbands. And Martin? Spineless from beginning to end, and ultimately no better than Dale. Even Tamara, who should have been the emotional anchor of the story, was written in such a whiny, exhausting way that I struggled to feel sympathy for her, even during moments when I clearly should have.
The frustrating part is that Tamara knew exactly what kind of man her husband was. Yet instead of making decisions that reflected that awareness, she either ignored reality or lashed out in ways that didn’t make much sense. I lost count of how many times I found myself internally yelling at her to just grow up and move on instead of clinging to someone who had made it painfully obvious he didn’t want her.
Beyond the characters, the plot itself was riddled with inconsistencies that constantly pulled me out of the story. At one point, Tamara claims she didn’t tell her employees about being stalked until Valentine’s Day, yet later her own “stalker diary” mentions an employee rushing out to confront said stalker a full month earlier. In that same diary, she writes about noticing him following her home in the car behind her, but earlier in the book, when he tells her he had watched her singing in her car, she reacts with complete surprise because she supposedly had never seen him before. Moments like this made it feel as though the author had forgotten details they had already established, and my attention started drifting more and more as a result.
As for the twists at the end, they were meant to be shocking, but instead felt completely unbelievable, both in terms of the “justice” served and the final reveal itself. Yes, everything was neatly wrapped up for the reader, but it came at the cost of credibility. By the time I reached the final pages, I was less surprised and more frustrated.
In the end, this was a story filled with unlikeable characters, noticeable plot holes, and twists that didn’t quite land. I’m honestly not sure yet whether I’ll pick up another book by this author.
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