No Smoke Without Fire

No Smoke Without Fire
By: Claire S. Lewis

I find this one hard to review. It definitely kept my attention and had me wondering what was actually going on. But I guess it all ended a little too neatly for me. I found the story a bit twisted but not twisty- and I’d prefer it the other way around. Not enough surprises for me.

There is some sexual content, including rape. It is somewhat of a #metoo story so it’s not as if it’s extra to the story (I guess except for the main character’s stalker) but I’ve already read a couple of these recently and maybe would have skipped a third if I had known ahead of time.

I was disappointed by lack of character depth. You really only get to know the main character, Celeste, even though most of it is told in the 3rd person. There are several other characters in the story but they’re all pretty shallow. We get into the stalker’s mind but his involvement toward the end seemed like a lazy way to handle it.

I also thought there was a lot of extra information/facts included that though a few times were interesting, I didn’t feel like it meshed well with the story unlike other authors’ attempt at this. It just felt a bit tedious to read through and move on.

I think there are a lot of people that this book might resonate with and find more appealing. I guess for me it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t necessarily one that I’d be recommending to my friends.

My first thought when I finished was: “Okay....sooo...? Okay, I guess that’s just it then.”

I’d call this book average, but I won’t go so far as to say not to read it. It’s your call, bro.

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**