I cannot get into this book. The description makes it sound like it's going to be captivating and exciting. It is not either. I am almost halfway through and it is just redundant and boring. I am not going to finish.

The dirty little (and big) secrets of the cannabis industry!

Andrew Eastman's boyhood friend hits him up to come help him save his floundering cannabis infused gummy business based in the SoCal high desert town of Adelanto. Unwittingly, he begins asking more and more questions and sticks his nose where it doesn't belong which only serves to cause him more trouble and make him a target.

With what felt like a tour of areas I've visited the author does a great job to illustrate what life is like in this area - Southern California isn't all movie stars and palm trees. What I'm not familiar with (and honestly never considered) is the darker side of cannabis and the way the legal and illegal sides meet and clash, and the potential for illegal aspects in the legalized sector.

While this is fiction, I can completely see a lot of this happening. Paola did a great job describing characters and building visuals for the reader. I was a bit lost with some of the Spanish dialog, but not a deal breaker. I had the gist of what was being said and there wasn't a lot of it. I was left wondering what was happening next throughout the book, never suspecting what was indeed next.

Thanks to NetGalley, SparkPress and Franceso Paola for the eARC.

Pub Date Feb 11 2025 #LeftonRancho #NetGalley

Unfortunately, I don’t think this story was for me. I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants to read on the topic of immigration. I will say that I might have misinterpreted the overview, but it did feel like it was more of a footnote than an overarching topic. The writing itself was good. The book was a quick and easy read.
However, please stop introducing female characters as “This is Ashlee, she has boobs”. Really gave me the ick.

This one was just too masculine for my tastes. This is not an insult, some readers will love it, it just made me realize that this is just not the kind of mystery that draws me in. But if you like something more noir-ish, but also with a lot of business-talk and men who drive sports cars and play golf, this might be more up your alley. I think there are a lot of readers this book will appeal to, so I would recommend giving it a try if the synopsis sounds interesting.

The book starts somewhat like a Bosch episode. I loved reading the first chapter. It was a reflection of the book's title and cover. Sadly the rest of the book did not give (at least me) those initial vibes.

The author draws some nice and unique parallels throughout the book, which I slowly began to enjoy and look forward to.

To my delight, I discovered that many locations mentioned in the book actually exist! Pictures from places like Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch provided some much-needed 'assisted imagination' to add to the story visuals in my head.

I give the author due credit for providing a window into the world of the cannabis commercial application industry, food and drug administration policies, and bringing a twist of cross-border migration issues, etc. However, oftentimes, the author digressed into explaining a technical concept and process that some readers would find boring or uninspiring. Terminologies and legalese were often strewn about with the expectation that the average reader of the genre would know & appreciate, but often it would not, leading from boredom to misery and pain.

In addition, the frequent conversations between characters in Spanish fall on deaf ears to a non-Spanish speaker. At best, I know a handful of words, but largely, I was lost in translation. If the author wants to localize the fare and lend the story an air of authenticity, it will appeal to/limit only readers from that part of the reading community who are conversant with Spanish.

This medical thriller is a book of many genres, which is a double-edged sword. Readers today discover & pick up titles based on their favorite genre/s, and when too much of masala is added to enhance the dish, it sometimes loses its authenticity in the mind of the reader. I look back at Arthur Hailey, Robin Cook, & Michael Crichton and respect them for sticking to the genre they promised, helping readers like yours truly to stay as far away from their books as possible!

As a parallel, I would like to provide an example of a perfect mix of genres in one single book, and that book is Playing for Pizza by the legendary John Grisham. It talked about a former national football hero coming to terms with bad form, good Italian wine, pizza, and Italy in general not necessarily in that order. I absolutely loved the book because I am a former athlete, and could relate to the protagonist's mental state, and love everything about Italy. To my horror, I later discovered that it did dismally as a commercial product because Mr. Grisham's readers primarily came to him for legal thrillers, but Playing for Pizza turned out to be more of a travelogue or NFL story of sorts. I sadly foresee the same fate for this book, but am hopeful of being proved wrong.

I wish the author good luck and success for the book. Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to preview it, & can't wait for it to be released to follow other readers' reviews & opinions about it.

This was a wonderfully done novel and enjoyed the feel of this story. The characters were everything that I wanted and enjoyed the concept and how they worked. Francesco Paola has a strong writing style and was invested in what was going on.