(CLOSED FOR CATCH UP)Project Athena | Reviews

Author: OhNoesBunneh13

Genre: Dark Romance / Mystery

Reviewer: OutOfMyImagination

Hello and thank you for your request, as you asked I focused mainly on the plot, the mystery of it, and which parts I saw "coming". However, I made general notes as well.

Portland is flooded with drugs, corruption, and mafia rivals, Scarlett Murphy is in the middle of it she just doesn't know it yet. When a dangerous new drug hits the streets Scarlett has the front seat as a witness to what the drug can do.

But the seemingly innocent date tosses her life upside down instead, leaving Scarlett in fear for her and her whole family's lives. The lines begin to blur as she meets the notorious Declan Byrne who shows her the true colours of the Murphy family.

The book cover looks good, it has dark romance and mystery vibes.

The book description could be better though, I know many people use a quote from the book as part of the description but it would be better to put that below the actual description. Readers see 2-3 sentences before clicking on the "read more" option, those two lines should be hooking to click on that option.

The description itself tells too much, I would suggest leaving specifics about the Z drug for the story itself since we have the same info about the step-uncle and Scarlett's family dynamics and line of work in the first chapter it's better to leave that part for the story as well. The fact that Scarlett is kidnapped and her dad/her family is involved with crimes is not a mystery nor a surprise since the blurb spoils that.

So to specify the plot and mystery in the story so far, I can say that without spoilers from the book description, readers possibly wouldn't see some things coming, try to find a way to tweak the description to hide the things I already pointed out.

The plot itself has a few tropes that could draw readers in. The pace of the story feels steady and not too rushed. There are no info dumps as well, and I enjoyed that part of the info was delivered as dialogue, I always enjoy getting information that way. Though Declan's motives for telling Scarlett about himself on the drive back to New Hope are unclear, telling her about her family seemed natural but telling her about his position in the Irish mafia was maybe too soon.

The technical side of the story is great, the story seems polished, and your writing style is descriptive enough. The story felt realistic enough, the way Scarlett felt and her shock finding out about her family, though as a reader I couldn't feel the surprise.

I would rate this story four out of five stars, the story has a good base and tropes dark romance readers love, I am personally not too fond of mafia books but even with that in mind, I was invested in the story.

I would recommend this story to dark romance readers who like mafia, complex family secrets, and kidnapping tropes.