This book was made for me. I am the girl obsessed with true crime always suspecting people of crimes that I know they haven’t committed. And I felt all of this reflected in this book. Alicia Thompson writes such a funny and loving book about a girl who is obsessed with serial killers but still finds love along the way and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. This book was one of my favourite kinds of romcoms; easy to read and funny in all the right places. Also how cute is the cover!

“It made me dream, for one night at least, of something I hadn’t even dared to as a young girl lying in this same bed— that all the pink heart valentine, sappy love song stuff might be real, and be something I could have.” 

Phoebe has just moved back home after her dad’s death in order to clean out his house whilst also trying to finish her dissertation on serial killers. However, when her new neighbour starts behaving suspiciously, she starts to suspect him of being a serial killer. But as she gets to know Sam, she starts to find herself feeling more than she has in a long time. As she starts to spend more time with her brother, old friends and Sam she begins to realise how much she suspects the worst and maybe something she finds much scarier is love. 

I loved the characters in this book. Phoebe is so prickly and sarcastic; she has a wall up and its going to take a lot to bring it down. Seeing her overcome these issues within this book was so interesting and seeing her interactions with Sam was adorable. Also, her writing her dissertation was so relatable to me at the moment as I am doing my masters, so I loved reading this aspect. Sam was the gender-reversed version of the girl next door. He was sweet, loving and you just wanted to know him in real life. Of course, her brother and his girlfriend were also just the cutest.

My main love of this book was the referencing to pop culture as well as true crime cases that were familiar to me. I did wish that it references how the true crime community can be harmful when taken to the extreme but other than that I loved the references. It showed that the author clearly had an interest in this topic, and I feel as a reader that I really enjoyed reading about it. 

“True crime is especially interesting, because it tends to reflect and shape our cultural attitudes toward crime in general.”

The writing style, the themes and the setting of this book was super enjoyable to me. I was worried that this book sounded too good to be true and I am so glad I loved it as much as I did. My favourite bit was definitely when Phoebe suspected Sam of being a serial killer in the beginning. The relationship aspect of this book was definitely a lot more than the romance which I really enjoyed. It was about Phoebes relationships with the people around her which was really refreshing to see rather than a pure focus on the romance. 

This book was just really fun and sweet. I gave it a four stars and it could even be a four and a half stars because I just had such an enjoyable time reading it. I wish there were more books that contained a romance as well as true crime aspects because I just loved the cross over! I would definitely read more of this authors work in the future and I hope she brings out more like this. 

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book for review!