*SPOILERS AHEAD*
April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford. Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
I enjoyed Hannah as our main perspective. I found her to be pretty relatable in both the before and after settings and I liked the fact that her love for her friend but also her compassion for John Neville is what drives her to find out the truth. Had I have been in her situation I think I would of reacted exactly the same.
I also really enjoyed the rest of the friend group as well. At the start it was a little difficult to differentiate between them but as the story progressed I thought they were all easily distinguishable. April obviously isn’t a very likeable person but I can see how her lifestyle and energy would overwhelm Hannah and skew her perception of who April is. She is always making excuses for her and explaining away her pranks and is devastated that April’s personality has faded away from the notoriety.
I just thought Will’s reaction to everything was really weird and not explained enough for me. He kept trying to get Hannah to drop everything and even though his requests were reasonable he would just act strangely. When Hannah finally comes straight out and asks I don’t understand why he acted the way he did. He had to have known that she would come to that conclusion eventually so why would he just laugh?
The dual timelines definitely kept me engaged throughout the course of the book and the overarching mystery surrounding who did it had me turning the pages and eager to see what actually happened to April that night!
⭐️3/5 stars wasn’t anything spectacular but it was entertaining!
amyleighreads.com 