Very confusing. The format would make for a interesting romantic movie, similar to "New Years Eve", but as a 1st person POV book it doesn't work.

I honestly wanted to stop reading half through the book, because it was so confusing, but I slowly forced myself to finish. though I did skip some pages. The writing itself wasn't bad, the format was just hard to follow. It would have been much easier if the author had picked one couple (Hadley and Jessie) to focus on and use the other characters as supporting.

2.5 stars

A snowstorm forces everyone to have a long weekend. Six friends find that the enclosing weather brings out the best, and the worst, in them as everything shifts between them.

Set up as three pairs, this is a series of intertwining characters that present three stages of a relationship; the start, the middle and the end. The snowstorm forces change and realisation amongst the group.

Jessie is the main connecting character. She is paired with Hadley, and neither of them can quite hold onto a relationship. Hadley has had a crush on Jessie since grade school, but their timing has always been off, until now.

Sam and Ella have been happily married, and are looking forward to celebrating their fifth anniversary over the long weekend. The happy façade might just be showing a few cracks by the end of their period of seclusion.

Brie and Ryan have been sharing Ryan’s home for a year, but Brie has had enough. It’s time to leave, but Ryan is struggling to let go.

There is a lot to like about the concepts played out in this book. However, the pair of Brie and Ryan was such a downer that it tended to suck the energy out of the sections with the other characters. Ryan seemed fairly bland and innocuous, but Brie had clearly checked out of the relationship a while ago, letting it all fester into unpleasantness. She came across and whiny, selfish, and generally uncommunicative. There was a lot of time spent with Brie, presumably to justify why she behaved so poorly towards her girlfriend, who didn’t seem to deserve the punishment meted out to her.

Sam and Ella were a lot of fun to start with, but then they seemed to disappear out of the book. I’m presuming the author didn’t feel they could add much, as a happily married couple, but then Spencer threw in some jealousy right near the end. Much more could have been done with this, and it would have been a good counterpoint to the depressive Brie.

The real anchor for the book was Jessie. Hadley had some charm, which was largely underutilised, but it was Jessie who stole the show. Spencer gave her by far the most time to develop some complexity, and Jessie was much more interesting than the others in the friendship group. It didn’t hurt that the story was more upbeat, being one of good friends finding the courage to change the form of their connection.

The structure of the book worked for the three pairs who made the group of six friends. However, I think the balance needed to shift, as I found myself skimming through the parts with Brie and Ryan, and wanting to hear more from Sam and Ella, particularly in the middle section of the book. The celebration at the end was a great way to bring all the characters together and to present any final dramas, but even this seemed to peter out.

I enjoyed the start of it, but then it became a bit of a drag, and it was hard to finish. If I hadn’t been reviewing it, I would have dumped it at the 60% mark.

Advanced reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

#Truth#Or#Dare #NetGalley

This was a interesting but somewhat confusing story. There were so many different point of views being told that I found myself re-reading quite a few pages to figure out what was going on. It was not a bad read, I guess the story just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books and #NetGalley for a eARC copy.

Truth or dare I have to say is interesting. It’s worth a read, which isn’t too bad but I found myself rushing it because I just wanted it done because I’ve never been more confused in my life. Some how everyone connects and it’s cool that there’s a connection and everyone has their own stories but I got lost and confused a lot. Didn’t understand who was who or why what was going on. It was an okay book. Took me like 2 hours to finish.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2281962439?type=review#rating_150815530