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A review by banrions
Integrity by E.J. Noyes
4.0
there is a lot to like abt this one.
a looooot of ppl love e.j. noyes books and initally... i was saddened not to be in that camp. i def enjoyed the first few books by her that i initally read (actually, listened to, i've listened to all of her books, solid life choice on my part if i do say so myself) but i didn't LOVE them in the way loads of other ppl seemed to. so, when i finally started getting into some of hers that i rlly loved, i was delighted. she is now a must read, for me, but there are still a lot of hit or miss ones (well, no, that's not fair. hit, or mostly enjoyed, but didn't love; i've never hated anything she's written). i rlly like and appreciate how often her books are such different scenarios than the previous ones. she's happy to take a big swing and try something wildly different, and that's super exciting. however, she's also very into single, first person pov writting and that's... not my personal preference for romance books. i RLLY like getting both (or more, if we're going poly) povs of the ppl involved in the romance. i don't mind first person, but i generally like to get both perspectives. and the books where she does that tend to be more my favs, tho she doesn't do it very often. in this one, we're in lexie's head and i enjoyed it, but i felt like we lost sophia a little bit. like... girl is thrust into an EXTREME situation and we don't rlly get to see her process it and i RLLY hope since this is gonna be a series, we get some of her pov soon too.
(i'll also... okay my one pet peeve wrt first person is when the main character is like... talking to the reader for no in world explination. lexie does that a few times in the novel. like, "i don't want you to think that i'm.. x" and i'm over here going... girl, who are you talking to? is this a confession later that comes up? a diary entry? spoiler, no. unless i missed smth. so, i didn't love that, but it didn't happen too many times, so i got over it. just, making a note that that's part of why i don't always like first person.)
overall, this was a fun thriller/romance. i love road trip/on the run stories bc a lot happens in close, constant proximety that might not otherwise and so in a lot of ways, the development of their romance and attatchment to each other made sense. (it wasn't just a week, we missed their first two dates and a month of flirty texting etc. so it was kiiiiiind of an established relationship from the jump) which is good, bc generally instalove is NOT my fav, but overall (for the most part, again, i wish we'd had some of sophia's pov) it worked for me. my main thing of enjoying both mcs and rooting for them happened, i'm a character reader above all, but the mystery and plot also def held my attention and i'm excited to see what happens next in the series.
abby craden was as wonderful as she always is, which i feel like is a broken record that i always say, but i nearly always have an improved reading experiecne when i listen to her tell me a romance story. so, it was a damn good time, and i'm happy to put this solidly in the "enjoyed" colum of noyes's books, for me.
hope the next one comes out soon! hope we get sophia's pov!
a looooot of ppl love e.j. noyes books and initally... i was saddened not to be in that camp. i def enjoyed the first few books by her that i initally read (actually, listened to, i've listened to all of her books, solid life choice on my part if i do say so myself) but i didn't LOVE them in the way loads of other ppl seemed to. so, when i finally started getting into some of hers that i rlly loved, i was delighted. she is now a must read, for me, but there are still a lot of hit or miss ones (well, no, that's not fair. hit, or mostly enjoyed, but didn't love; i've never hated anything she's written). i rlly like and appreciate how often her books are such different scenarios than the previous ones. she's happy to take a big swing and try something wildly different, and that's super exciting. however, she's also very into single, first person pov writting and that's... not my personal preference for romance books. i RLLY like getting both (or more, if we're going poly) povs of the ppl involved in the romance. i don't mind first person, but i generally like to get both perspectives. and the books where she does that tend to be more my favs, tho she doesn't do it very often. in this one, we're in lexie's head and i enjoyed it, but i felt like we lost sophia a little bit. like... girl is thrust into an EXTREME situation and we don't rlly get to see her process it and i RLLY hope since this is gonna be a series, we get some of her pov soon too.
(i'll also... okay my one pet peeve wrt first person is when the main character is like... talking to the reader for no in world explination. lexie does that a few times in the novel. like, "i don't want you to think that i'm.. x" and i'm over here going... girl, who are you talking to? is this a confession later that comes up? a diary entry? spoiler, no. unless i missed smth. so, i didn't love that, but it didn't happen too many times, so i got over it. just, making a note that that's part of why i don't always like first person.)
overall, this was a fun thriller/romance. i love road trip/on the run stories bc a lot happens in close, constant proximety that might not otherwise and so in a lot of ways, the development of their romance and attatchment to each other made sense. (it wasn't just a week, we missed their first two dates and a month of flirty texting etc. so it was kiiiiiind of an established relationship from the jump) which is good, bc generally instalove is NOT my fav, but overall (for the most part, again, i wish we'd had some of sophia's pov) it worked for me. my main thing of enjoying both mcs and rooting for them happened, i'm a character reader above all, but the mystery and plot also def held my attention and i'm excited to see what happens next in the series.
abby craden was as wonderful as she always is, which i feel like is a broken record that i always say, but i nearly always have an improved reading experiecne when i listen to her tell me a romance story. so, it was a damn good time, and i'm happy to put this solidly in the "enjoyed" colum of noyes's books, for me.
hope the next one comes out soon! hope we get sophia's pov!