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Review

OMG, I am exhausted! I can’t believe all that I’ve been through while reading this book! TOO MANY FEELINGS!!!!! I was ecstatic, heartbroken, and scared out of my head, over and over, the whole time I was reading. Seriously, there wasn’t a ‘calm down’ section, it was full on from start to finish. And that ending!! OMG, what was that ending?!

But let’s backtrack a bit…

Again, the focus in this book is very much the relationship between Dex and Perry as they continue their flirty, banter-filled, dripping-with-chemistry ‘friendship’ *snort*. There’s a different dynamic in this one though, as Perry travels to Seattle for an assignment with Dex, and the Shownet Christmas party, and she stays with Dex and his up-until-now-MIA girlfriend, Jenn. Yep, right there in their apartment with them. Cosy! And not a little bit awkward.

The love triangle storyline is played out in nauseating detail, and this is where Dex’s behaviour drove me absolutely batshit crazy!

Spoiler

He’s clearly crazy about Perry, and he knows he’s dating an uber-bitch that he doesn’t even love (seriously, this chick is a piece of work!), but he does nothing about it! He’s stuck in a relationship that he’s too scared and/or lazy to change, so he just continues to flirt with Perry, with swoony moments like this…

“I want you to stay with me,” he said. “And that’s the problem. Every time you leave me, I need you a little bit more.”

… and then in the next minute he’s being all sweet with Jenn right in front of Perry. WTF????

But towards the end he opens up and admits his vulnerability, and my heart broke for him and all that he had been through, and what he does to try and cope with it all. It really says something about Halle’s writing, that I can watch a character behave like he does, yet I still love him madly! Throughout all the turmoil, he still manages to pull that little smirk that just kills me every time, and come out with something brilliantly sarcastic and I melt all over again. But it was his big epiphany that was the highlight for me and had me squeeing with excitement!

Spoiler

“You’ve always been there for me, Perry … Even from the very beginning, even if you never meant to be, even when you shouldn’t have been. You’re the light in all this madness. You’re my light. I should have been with you…” The thought hit him as his face crumpled in amazement. “Oh God, why am I not with you?”
“Because you’re an idiot,” I said.
And then I kissed him.

WOOHOO!! Oh yeah, Perry, you go girl!!! We finally get some relief from the UST that has been building for four books! It’s about damn time, and it was absolutley worth the wait!

But, as I have come to expect, these two certainly don’t make it easy on themselves! They both have some questionable behaviour throughout the story, both of them making me want to hurl my kindle across the room multiple times. And it all just snowballs into the most horrifically brutal ending. I screamed, I cried, and I swore… loudly!

The spook factor in this one is HUGE! Amidst all of the angst and drama, our ghost-hunting duo are investigating an old mental institution, and have some incredibly terrifying encounters; but at the same time, a secondary supernatural storyline is very cleverly woven into the story which also completely freaked me out! And it all leads to further revelations about Dex and Perry’s pasts, with some very interesting developments stemming from that.

There are some additional characters introduced – Jenn, who we all love to hate (and who will now always be associated by a particular label given to her, very appropriately, by Perry – hahaha, epic smackdown!), along with the rest of the Shownet team, including the brilliant Rebecca, who is Jenn’s partner from work, and who is shamelessly outspoken and wonderfully supportive of Perry,

“And you and Dex?”
“What about us?” …
“What’s the deal with you?”
“There is no deal. We’re just partners.”
“Are you sure? Because we all have bets on whether you guys are banging each other or not.”

This is another really intense read from Karina Halle, I couldn’t put this book down, reading it in one day and finishing it at 3am this morning. I feel like I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster (as you can probably tell by looking at my ranty updates!), but despite being driven insane, and wanting to smack pretty much all of the characters at some point, I loved every moment of it – the highs and the lows – and I can’t wait to see where things go from here!

Big thanks to my EIT posse for being right there with me for the entire book and putting up with my ranty outbursts. It’s so much easier going through this knowing that you guys have my back!!!