"You Shouldn't Have Come Here" Review

As a naturally critical person, I tend to rip apart movies and TV shows and books. Even things that I enjoy aren’t safe! I can pretty much always find something that didn’t add up or could’ve been revised for clarity or just general enjoyment. However, as someone who appreciates the time and effort put into different works, I find it hard to not acknowledge or value the good elements or where the potential lies. That being said, it’s honestly a rarity that I find something truly worthy of a 1 star rating, but every once in a while you can’t help but stumble upon something truly heinous. 

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Recently, I decided to try my hand at reading some popular thriller authors. Now, as someone who is extremely picky when it comes to specifically thrillers, I had written most of these authors off just on their general popularity. I’m sorry but me and the masses don’t really like the same things! But I thought to myself “What if I’m missing something great because of my own stubbornness?” So, I decided that I would take a chance and play a fun game called “I’m gonna read one book by this person and that will tell me everything I need to know about reading their books in the future.” Long title, I know. 

Up first: Jeneva Rose.

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The premise for Home Is Where The Bodies Are did entice me, but that unfortunately was not available on Libby, so I settled with reading You Shouldn’t Have Come Here. The novel is about Ms. Grace Evans who is looking to escape the busy city life by throwing a dart at a map and traveling there alone. She manages to land her dart in the Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming where she stays at Calvin Wells’ Airbnb. There is an Instant connection between these two hotties, and Grace is drawn to Calvin’s good looks and country charm. Then, weird things start to happen. Missing girls, screaming in the night, wild animals all start to taint this relaxing getaway for Grace, but will they dampen what she has with Calvin, too? 

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Now, if that brief description gave you any feelings that this book would be interesting SPOILER ALERT it’s not. At all. From the very beginning of this book to the very end I have only a few words to describe it: Boring, Predictable, Uneventful, & Cringe. Both characters are extreme stereotypes of themselves. Calvin is that hardworking, slow talking country boy who makes beans and bacon for dinner, while Grace is Miss Big City who can’t escape her work and can’t hang with the country folk. The insta-love that forms between these two is baffling to say the least. Try and take a shot every time Grace has thoughts about Calvin then follows them up with “I’ve only known him for a short time but…”, you’ll be passed out before you’re 50% done! A short time is a month. Grace, you’ve known him for 12 hours and most of that time was spent sleeping. Real people don’t act like these characters. 

WARNING: This paragraph contains LARGE spoilers. If you wish to proceed without spoilers please continue to the next paragraph. Okay, so here is my real gripe with this book: IT IS NOT A THRILLER. This is a Romance? A Joke? God only knows, but it is NOT a thriller. From the moment you meet Calvin, you are aware that he is the villain in this story. For a brief period of time, I wanted it to be Grace (which like it kinda is????) just for a little something interesting, but I knew my hopes were too high for the tragic writing I was met with. I mean, the mere sprinkles, if one were to even call them that, of mentions of the actual mystery and thriller elements of the book were so poorly written you forget that’s what the book is about. Not only that, but they do nothing to throw you off of Calvin! I mean not even an attempt at a twist here. The locked basement in his Airbnb, which just so happens to be his farm… where he lives… and is just renting out a single room… tells you everything you need to know. And here is the kicker: Grace isn’t even phased by this! A single “that’s weird” floats through her head and is gone in a second. Which makes the ending so completely unbelievable, because apparently Grace knew he was a killer the whole time! In fact, the only reason she came to his farm was to kill him! Yeah, that apparently is her whole thing. And my favorite part, you ask? Oh, definitely that all of this “action” takes place in the last 20 pages of the book. 

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I feel as though this is the most unhinged review I’ve done, but truly I just can’t say enough bad things about this book. I could go on and on about the horribly cheesy quotes (“She was everything and she was nothing, which made her the perfect amount of something.”) or the mention every two seconds of Grace’s “blue, blue eyes” or even the fact that there is quite literally no foreshadowing about the twist at the end (I mean why would she romance him for the entire book only for this ending…) but I won’t because I can’t give this book anymore thought. 

Needless to say, this book is a big ole’ SKIP for me. If you’re looking to torture yourself then hey, add it to that TBR. As for me, I’ll be staying away from Jeneva Rose in the future. 

Xoxo,

Wednesday

P.S. I should’ve known to run by the Colleen Hoover blurb on the cover and the references to her in the actual book.