A review by mells3467
Ricochet by River Hale

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was absolutely unprepared for how much I would LOVE this book. I didn’t expect it at all and here I was devouring this book in every spare minute I could find because I couldn’t stop. It’s not often that a book has me hooked in the first two chapters. I already knew I would love it then and I’m so unbelievable happy that I was right and it just kept getting better and better. 
I mean yes its dark romance, but why was it also so funny? The banter and the verbal sparring was so good! 
Their connection is beautiful and their chemistry is undeniable– it’s obvious that they are two halves of the same whole. The boy who’s obsessed with death and the serial killer. The boy who carries around trauma found himself a consent king. A man who turns all his bad things good. A man who would do anything for him. They deserve all the love! 
Callum hates Stone because he saw his bruises and scars, his vulnerability and his weakness. But he is not weak anymore and Stone never saw him as weak. Hockey and art are his safe spaces and his escapes from the dark shadows of his past. He was saved 5 years ago when he got the best birthday present ever – to experience the murder of his stepdad (my only complaint about the whole book: I wish this unworthy excuse of a human being would have suffered more). 
Stone is a serial killer but he kills the scum of the world who deserve it and he is so respectful, kind and charming to Callum. He doesn’t look at his scars because he knows how much it bothered Callum that he had seen them. Even when they banter, he knows where to draw the line and backs off. He doesn’t want to hurt him, emotionally or physically and the one time he has to, it hurts him much more and he panicked (one of my favorite scenes in the book!). He wants to protect him. Callum is the first person who is able to overlap Stones two sides – the protector and the beast. He is protective, possessive and obsessive but always in a good way. 
I had the song part “I know he did it but I just can’t prove it” in my head as soon as I read the end of the first chapter and I was screaming when Stone confirmed it at the end of the second chapter. I was really glad that at least we as reader could find it out so early in the story. 
‘A therapist would have a fucking field day with me.’ Same boy, same. 
I’m obsessed with this story and the boys and I need more books like that. 
Tropes: College, hockey teammates, murdery puckboy, broken boy, possessive and obsessed, serial killer who murders bad people and his boy with trauma who enjoys death. 
(2-3🔥, strict Stone t, switch after kill one time on page)
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