It's been a really long time since I've either given up on a book or disliked it so much that I couldn't even hate-read it through to the end.

Ben is the protagonist who's father came home one day and announced he was gay.  Mom walked out--which just effed up.  Ben, having had his world fall apart, goes full-on delinquent, alcohol, drugs, general terrible behavior.  After a while dad forced them into therapy, they have some breakthroughs.  Things get a lot better, not perfect, but better.  Ben cleans up his act and has even gotten used to his stepdad, whom he calls momdad, even if he doesn't love the situation.  He has one slip-up and they decided it's a good idea to move a teenaged city boy to the middle of nowhere Montana.

So we're talking two gay men moving back to one's hometown--the town he moved away from for very good reason, and they bring their son/stepson with them.  They move into his childhood home with his mother, who doesn't like that her son his gay, but he's still her son, so there's that.

Bonnie Mae, or Miss Mae, is old school country, respect is demanded, manners are insisted upon, no cussing or sarcasm, beatings and/or starvation as punishment.  Yeah great idea for a smart-assed teenager with two dads.

This books is just a mess.  Verbal threats, physical abuse, starvation, and forcing Ben to sleep in the woodshed.  And this is all from Miss Mae.  And dad just sits back and lets this woman do this to his child.  Like, what?!  I don't care what lame excuse you want to use, "they do things different," "she's from a different time," "we're guests in her home."  I'll be damned if I let someone lay a hand on my child.  You'd best not even discipline my child, especially if I'm close enough to be called to handle a situation.

Miss Mae is an asshole.  Dad is an asshole.  Ben is an asshole.  The only one who's decent is Edward, who willingly came back to the town that tortured him throughout his childhood, just to help his partner's child stay on the straight and narrow.  The neighbor is also an abusive, homophobic asshole, who beats the living daylights out of his son because Ben was talking to him, even after the boy told Ben to leave him alone, even after Ben told the man that he had approached the boy who didn't want to talk to him.  

I didn't think I would finish it because I didn't even care if there was character growth or a redemption arc.  But I toyed with the idea of slogging through it anyway.  And then the little neighbor boy shot a stray cat just because.  That's it.  Just. Because.

I "noped" out of that book and cannot recommend anyone to read it.

3 Stars
Excellent narration
This was a good murder mystery profiler story better than most with a creative back story. I had planned on continuing the series till the last 1/4. All the characters seems to fit well in their rolls and I was not sure who did it till near the end. What threw this down was the "I'm a Christian" "I trust God" "I made an educated choice and believed in God"... There was so much of this all the sudden. Okay I was good with her being a Christian, a few sentences would have been fine. But I felt it turned into an evangelistic read at the end. There was a speech on her why's and how it was truth. The MC had several characters questioning their beliefs. Why ? This didn't fit in with the story, this wasn't a Christian book and it was directed out from the character. I'm not a Christian, but I will read Christian writings and have enjoyed them. I do not like feeling like I was snuck attacked by a hidden Christian read that wasn't marked as one.

3 stars (rounded up)-story
audiobook
Narration-excellent
The story was fascinating, beautifully written, visual, flowing as I have come to love of
Ms. Taylor's style and it was too long and over written. I wanted to love it, wanted to have that can't wait for more feel, instead I was asking, "when will this end". It was slow for me, dragging at times with inner dialog, extreme detailing of everything, that my mind would drift away to mundane thoughts instead of being in the story. Till the last hour of the book, that woke me up and grabbed my attention fully and then CLIFFHANGER ! I listened to over 18 hours struggled to stay with the story to finally have something happen and was left hanging with "to be continued" ARGUH ! Seriously ? That really pissed me off. For me the book was twice as long as it needed to be. There was a part where she went into such extreme details about kissing, omg how many pages did that carry on for in print ? The first 3/4 of the book was so slow and over written for this reader.
Will I read the next book ? Right now I have no interest. I'm so tired of the story, the endless self discoveries, and awakening feeling I really don't care. I am shocked I feel this way I adored her last series.

At last!!!! At long last, I have finally finished!!!! Hooray!!!!

Assorted thoughts:
1. I am so disappointed. I loved the first two books. But this one? Nope.
2. The main reason I didn't like The Winner's Kiss was because it was sooooo slow. It dragged on and on and I thought it would never end.
3. Idk why, but I really didn't like the writing in this one. I used to love it, because it was beautiful, but in this one it was too purple for my tastes
4. I don't even have much to say, I'm just glad to be done with this thing.

Probably not going to write a full review for this. I don't wish to dwell on it anymore, I'm just relieved to be done with it.