I fell for a cute cover and an interesting synopsis.

Unfortunately, that's where my kind words stop. I tried to keep going with this one because I love stories set in the art world. The final straw was when Veri and Tate were in the car heading to an auction and the narrative says 'Here's a list of things they talked about' and followed with AN ACTUAL NUMBERED LIST. It wasn't quirky. It was long and lazy and unbelievable.

There were other issues that annoyed me prior to that point, too. Veri reads young -- which is good because she just graduated from college -- but sometimes she comes across as too young. She's also naive in a way that's convenient for the plot and not in a way that feels true to her character.

All the other characters felt like caricatures. And they were clearly only there as plot pieces, not as characters we were meant to care about.

The sense of place was off, too. I live in NYC so I might be more sensitive to it but it didn't feel like the author knew the city. If Veri is shopping her portfolio around to different galleries, she wouldn't be up around 78th St. There's like one or two up there -- most of the art galleries are in Chelsea. It needed more research, probably into the art world, too, though I didn't get far enough to notice.

The story might have some hidden potential but it needs work. I'm disappointed because I was truly excited by this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.