Current Read: Hide and Seek by Sheridan Anne

I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t I just say I was reading To the Bones and City of Gods and Monsters?

Yes.

Have I finished either of them?

No.

Am I starting another book anyway?

Also yes.

This is simply part of my chaotic life, and honestly, I’m done pretending my reading habits are going to be neat and predictable. My mind bounces around. Sometimes I want horror. Sometimes I want fantasy. Sometimes I want something dark, dramatic, inappropriate, unhinged, and apparently funny enough in the first chapter to make me stop what I’m doing and say, “Okay, wait.”

But also, to be fair, I have been in a little bit of a reading funk.

I started two very different books trying to get out of it, and I do still want to finish them, just not quite yet. They both have things I’m interested in. But neither one immediately gave me that “I don’t want to put this down” feeling I’ve been missing.

Hide and Seek did.

I’m still early in it, but this is the first book in a minute that has made me want to keep reading instead of just telling myself I should read. Yes, there’s a difference. One feels like homework. The other feels like sneaking in another chapter when I should absolutely be doing something else.

I am only in the first chapter, so this is not a review. This is more of a first impression, judge-the-book-by-the-cover, read-the-description-and-make-assumptions kind of post.

I’m not far enough in to have serious opinions but I am far enough in to say the comedy has me hooked already, which I was not fully expecting.

What Hide and Seek Is About

Based on the description, Hide and Seek follows Harper-Rayn, a forensic pathologist in Blackstone. She is used to dealing with death in the morgue, but things shift when bodies start showing up with hidden messages meant specifically for her. (Which is rude, first of all.)

From there, it sounds like Harper-Rayn gets pulled into a twisted game with a masked killer who is not just stalking her from a distance but making the whole thing personal. The description gives dark romance, serial killer, psychological danger, obsession, and “this man is absolutely doing too much.”

There is also Knight Slater, a SWAT team leader who (sounds hot asf) becomes involved when the danger around Harper-Rayn tightens. The book description makes it clear that their relationship is complicated, forbidden, protective, and probably messy in the way dark romance readers expect when they knowingly open this kind of book.

So basically: morgue messages, masked killer, forbidden tension, danger, obsession, and a woman who probably should not be dealing with any of this but now has no choice.

That is a lot for one woman and one autopsy table.

The Vibe I’m Getting So Far

Again, I am barely in this book, so I’m judging mostly from the setup, the cover energy, the description, and the first-chapter vibe.

But so far, this feels like one of those books that is going to be very dramatic, very dark, and probably not for someone who wants a soft little romance where everyone communicates in a healthy manner and goes to therapy on schedule.

This is giving masked killer. Bodies with messages. Forensic pathologist heroine. Protective SWAT man. Forbidden relationship. Stalker romance. Danger with a side of bad decisions. And somehow, comedy.

That last part is what has me interested. I can handle a lot of darkness in a book if the writing has personality. If the main character has a voice, if the dialogue has some edge, if there are moments where the book lets me breathe before dragging me back into the chaos, I’m much more likely to keep going.

Don’t forget to follow me on Goodreads so you can see what I’m reading, what I’m abandoning temporarily, and what fictional chaos I’m willingly walking into next: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/167753061