I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When Mikky Graves left his small, stifling hometown of Prophets Lake to live with his estranged mother, he thought nothing could ever make him return for good.

Until his sister Kyla’s best friend, Erin, is murdered.

Mikky never worried about leaving Kyla behind at their family-owned funeral home so long as she had Erin. But when Mikky heads home, determined to help Kyla grieve, the sister he encounters barely resembles the one he remembers. Mikky decides, then and there, to do the one thing that seems even more impossible than returning: stay.

As Kyla spirals further into her rage and secrets, Mikky realizes the only thing that can help his sister is finding the truth about who killed Erin. But the more he investigates, the further he’s pulled into other ugly mysteries of Prophets Lake and the beauty brand that is its lifeblood. The town’s rot runs deep, and everyone has something to hide. Perhaps no one more than Kyla herself.

Short and Sweet Review

Mikky Graves left his hometown of Prophets Lake to live with his mother and he didn’t plan on coming back. When his sister Kyla’s, best friend Erin is murdered he comes back for the funeral but seeing the state that Kyla is in he know’s he can’t leave and decides to extend his stay. Mikky realizes that Kyla isn’t herself and blames it on the grieving process but Kyla begins to spiral in rage and Mikky knows the only way to help her is to figure out who killed Erin.

I hated this book and it’s really not often when I give books one star but this one deserved it. Mikky and Kyla are our main characters and we get a dual POV and I couldn’t stand either one of them. Kyla is a bully and her friend Erin used to be the queen bee but after her death Kyla takes the reins. My biggest problem with this is Mikky sees that his sister is terrorizing the other kids but he brushes it off because she’s grieving but other characters even tell him that she’s been like this for while and he just acts oblivious which is crazy because she doesn’t treat Mikky well either. So here I am reading a book where I can’t stand either character but I’m pushing through because who knows maybe it’ll get better. Kyla has her own secrets and she was with Erin the night she died so she’s hiding a lot we just don’t know what. We really don’t get into the mystery until we’re 70% through the book. At this point the pacing is horrible and yet I’m still reading, why? Because I like to punish myself. Anyway we get some crock about how a makeup company is a big deal in town and it’s honestly really ridiculous. The reveal was so ridiculous it’s more of a big question mark. Things would have made more sense if our characters were doing more sleuthing instead of fighting and being immature, every few pages someone was mad at someone else. Also towards the end I think they tried to make Kyla seem more likable but at this point I already spent a majority of the book loathing you, there’s no redemption to be found.

Overall, I could not stand the characters, and if you truly like mysteries maybe skip this book. I would say there’s more of a focus on being in denial and hiding secrets. I personally wouldn’t recommend this book, but mysteries are also my favorite genre so I’m very picky about if they’re good or not and this does not meet the mark.