A review by sadiegloverx
The Relative by Sophia Snowe

1.5

Okay… where do I even start with this one? 😵‍💫

This book was co-written by two authors, and honestly? You can tell. It felt like they were writing in separate rooms, tossing chapters over a wall, and hoping for the best. Characters would act one way in one chapter, then totally different in the next. Did they even read each other’s work?? 🤨

It’s pitched as a dark romance, and yes — there were dark elements: masked men, running through forests, the whole aesthetic. But the whole time I couldn’t stop thinking: Ronan slept with Cressida’s mum AND her sister… and she’s just OKAY with that?!? Like girl… blink twice if you’re NOT fine. 👀

Plot-wise? I honestly couldn’t tell you what was going on. There were so many characters thrown in, and none of them felt fully fleshed out. Either the storytelling was super vague or I was too disconnected to care (maybe both). I had to reread pages and still felt lost. 🫠

I seriously considered DNF’ing this — first time I’ve felt like that this year — but I’m on a mission to finish every book in 2025, so I powered through. 😤

I’ll give it this: Ronan had something resembling a character arc. He was still weird, but at least he moved from “absolutely irredeemable” to “vaguely tolerable.” Growth?

Would I recommend it?

Only if you like chaos, confusion, and wildly inappropriate family dynamics. 😂