A review by bookbonds
The Clown by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“First of all, I’m not your boss. Second of all, I’m not stupid enough to waste my breath. And third, I don’t want to fix you, Simon.” She snickered. “Anybody who looks at you and goes, ‘he’s just moody and misunderstood, I can fix him with a little casual sex,’ needs to get their own freaking head examined.” She set down her coffee mug. “I know exactly who you are. Do I approve of your puppets? No. But I didn’t go into this naïve. Whatever the hell ‘this’ is.”

this is definitely my favorite installment thus far, and that may be just because we got an adorable scene of them cooking french toast the morning after they fucked😁 it was very cute.
this book also really nails the whole “yea he’s a TERRIBLE person there is no fixing him” point 
sorry to the “i can fix him” girlies, you either like this guy or you don’t. simon says some real depraved shit in this book, and there’s another quote that sticks out to me, 

“Don’t mistake my affection for you for some kind of personal redemption.”

this author is honestly so good at what she does, she deserves her flowers for writing men that have WAYYY more than a few screws loose but are somehow still swoon worthy. idk i just adored this book since it was all just cora and simon bonding. the “plot” only picked up in the last 20 pages or so; just setting up whatever shit is gonna go down in the next and last book, now that her and simon are at a semi stable point in their “relationship” 
looking forward to seeing wtaf happens