Maisy Landry is thrilled when her childhood best friend, Fox Wilder moves back to town. He was her everything and it broke her heart when his parents died and he was shipped off. Except Fox hates her and wants nothing to do with her and she doesn't understand why. But she's determined to get to the bottom of things.

I loved Maisy in Ruthless Bishop and I was super excited to see where her relationship with Fox would go but it was kind of disappointing. Maisy was such a firecracker in the last book, but in this one she's too busy conforming to her parents wishes and buckling under Fox's bullying. She had a few great moments (standing her ground with Sam and calling him out for his terrible behaviour being on him and for trying to slut shame her was a highlight) but mostly she was kind of bland. That said, one of the best parts of the last book was the friendships and this at least continues that tradition. Thea and Maisy are totally BFFs and I loved it. Their whole friendship group just rocks. Connor and Devlin protecting Maisy from Sam was perfection. I just wish there had of been more of their friendship to balance out the rest.

The last book was marked as a bully romance and surprised me by being not only tame but rather positive and happy - I was half expecting the same for this one but no, this was true to form. Fox was an ass for most of the book. Like, just spit out what your problem is. He could've just told her that she broke her promise to not tell anyone what they saw in the garage (his parents had brought home their medical research work) - half the book was miscommunication and the other half was just stupid. He was sweet at times towards the end but I just didn't feel it was enough to overcome his prior behaviour.

Honestly though the biggest issue with this book was the length. This was at least a good 100 pages too long. The suspense plot dragged and fell apart the more they looked into it. It just kept getting bigger and more convoluted and I just didn't care. Plus the convictions of the characters annoyed me. Fox literally came to town for revenge - and fair enough if you falter and decide you don't want to go down that path - on the other hand don't get on your high horse and decide to be a hero cleaning out the trash. He was so judgemental of his and Maisy's parents. Like hello? You came to town for revenge?

So it wasn't as good as Ruthless Bishop. Still, an okay read, 3 stars. ( )