A review by pagesplotsandpints
Don't You Dare by Jessica Hamilton

2.5

<b>Read Completed 5/26/24 |</b> 2.5 stars, rounded down
I accidentally thought this was a different book when I started it, but nevertheless, I was still hoping to enjoy it. This just wasn't the book for me and if I had known a little bit more about it, I might not have picked it up. 

I'm mostly disappointed in DON'T YOU DARE for two reasons: 1. Because every character was horrible and nothing about Hannah as a main character was redeemable and 2. This was annoyingly smutty, which is not my style and I got really tired of hearing Hannah bang this dude for half the book. Maybe if you're looking for a romantic thriller, this might be more for you, but we spent way too much time hearing about everything sexual going on when I could not have cared less. Some of it was important to the plot, but really, most of it wasn't. 

The characters were absolutely horrible. There really wasn't a grey area where I was like, well, I feel for Hannah. She had some rough things in her past, but so do we all. I got sick of listening to her wallow about her college days, stuck in the past, and instead just drinking and hating her current life, aside from her kids. She makes terrible choices and basically wants zero accountability. Scarlett is also a horrible person, and I always doubted Thomas's intentions as well. I'm all for thrillers that have toxic characters, complicated relationships, and morally grey leads, but the way they were all written, this just didn't work for me. 

The plot of this was pretty weak the whole book and then things FINALLY got a little interesting in the end with some twists. I did see a couple of them coming, but a couple things still surprised me... but I still hated every single one of them in the end and didn't want anyone to have a happy resolution.