Sarah Louise's short story Trick or Treat featuring a spicy MMF romance will be available on Amazon from October 31, 2024! This was my first time reading any of Sarah Louise's books. She is known for her book Queen of Hell.

I received an ARC through BookSirens. Here's my review!

I think this book had a lot of really fun potential. I really liked the concept of the story, especially the being-chased-through-the-woods aspect. I'm a big fan of gothic stories featuring the dark woods as a major setting. Personally was a fan of the horror and action aspects of the story, as fleeting as they were; those were the most captivating parts of the story for me, after which it kind of became a bit more fluff for my taste. I did enjoy their dynamic and thought Mason and Carter had a good dynamic going on between the two of them. When Lex was added to the trio, their dynamic still worked, so that's a plus because sometimes the dynamic can fall flat with the addition of new partners if the chemistry isn't written well.

In terms of execution, I think there was probably more filler than needed. It was in a weird little middle spot: as a romantic erotica, I thought it could either have been shortened to the bare essentials to be more 'true' erotica (since it has hints towards the beginning of a plot but not a real, fleshed-out plot), or expanded upon more to really dig into the romantic side (to really dig into the friends-to-lovers dynamic). For example, the long winding prologue before the time jump was kind of unnecessary since the events in between were not fleshed out. The parts that I would have liked to see developed weren't. For example, the story fast-forwards through seven months of them living together, without giving us much of a glimpse into their interactions. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to build up their chemistry and romantic/sexual tension. Some examples of them hanging out, and their banter or touches, would have gone a long way in prepping readers for the sudden switch to/reveal of the guys' attraction and love for Lex.

The rest of the review contains spoilers!

On that point: it was mentioned that the guys had always been interested in Lex from the first moment they saw her. If that was so, it would have been more fun to see evidence of that littered throughout their interactions even as friends. Some subtle clues about how much they wanted her would have been fun to read and increased the anticipation of their eventual polyamory. It was somewhat inconsistent that the guys professed to loving her for so long, but never really doing anything to escalate it from the friend zone to potential lovers earlier on. I know this was somewhat addressed especially with Lex questioning them on this point too, but I think their reasoning wasn't really compelling and felt tacked on at the end. Perhaps the story would have been propelled better with more obvious cues from them throughout, which would tease readers more and give us more of a reason to want the three of them to get together.

One thing that did annoy me a bit was Lex's frequent callbacks to her ex's shaming words about her kinks and secret desires. I get that it can be a difficult thing for some people to move past, but somehow the effect of that on this story was more dragging for the pace than Lex's character development. Just my personal opinion; maybe others won't mind that as much. The whole time, I was like, girl, your ex is just dreadfully vanilla and yucking your yum. Own what you like, especially since you've won with the combo of your two guy best friends both giving you what you want and enjoying it too. She's still hung up about that one year later. Yet, for all the times she showed her insecurities, there wasn't really any closure addressing her self-shame in the end. If it was going to be resurfaced time and time again throughout the story, it could have been resolved with more finality at the end.

Overall, I would have liked the story more if it had leaned even more into their 'dirty dancing' in the woods, because that was the best part! A fun story that could have been made better by developing their relationship more, and by keeping a sense of horror all the way through to the end. Gets a 3.5 out of 5 for me, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

I received an advanced review copy for free, and am posting my thoughts voluntarily.

Check out my Goodreads profile here.

About the author: Sarah Louise

You can find out more about Sarah here.

To read what others think about Trick or Treat, check out the book on Goodreads.

You can purchase Trick or Treat on Amazon from October 31, 2024.

Note about ARCs:

I was not paid for this review; I simply signed up on BookSirens, and was able to choose which books I wanted to check out in exchange for a review. Clearly, I'm in the mood for Halloween!

If you'd like me to review an ARC for you, please message me! You can check out my full ARC Review Policy here.