I really wanted to love this book. 
 I was a big fan of the Beautiful Creatures novels, and so when i received this ARC I was ecstatic. The intro was very good; it fed the reader information slowly and was never too vague or too much at once. 
 Frankie Devereaux is still morning the death of her boyfriend, Noah, and the aftereffects of witnessing his murder include PTSD, a newfound carelessness for her own life, and a drunken stint that lands her moving in with her father in the Downs, the polar opposite to her upbringing in the VERY affluent part of town, the Heights. Moving in with her dad, an undercover cop, also means enrolling in public school, which in turn brings us to Marco Leone. 
 This is where the problems started for me. There was MAJOR insta-love. Marco and Frankie share ONE glance in a parking lot and suddenly they each can't stop thinking about each other. Then there was the whole "Frankie is a special snowflake" thing because throughout the novel, which is told from her POV, I got no shortage of thoughts of saying "the Old Frankie wouldn't have done this, but I'm the New Frankie now, etc."And how there was constant comparisons between her and other girls, and how she was so different from anyone else because of how she dressed or what she did and of COURSE Marco points out how different she is from other girls and he "can't seem to figure her out". There were just way too many cliches. WAY too many. 
 The thing that was the big redeemer of this book for me was the suspense over who killed Noah and the supporting cast of characters. I loved Cruz, Sophia, and Lex, and the friendships in this book. They were a whole lot stronger than the leading romance, that's for sure. I also enjoyed how I wasn't able to call the killer until he was right in front of me. The whole ending scene with him getting captured was also really good, and I did appreciate the way Frankie aided in taking him out. 
 If this book wasn't so full of cliches as it is, I would have loved it. Heck, if the romance between Marco and Frankie had built on actual substance and had actually made sense because of a natural unfolding of feelings, this would have been a knock-out. But to me, their "love" made zero sense and just annoyed me. It threw off the main story. I also was not a fan of Frankie in general. I understand she was going through a lot and that seeing your significant other beaten to death right in front of you, and then not being able to remember the killer and knowing you're the only one who can, is the cause for some anger and resentment to virtually everyone. It was just overboard to me. 
 Don't take this review and dismiss the book because of how I felt, though. Read it and make your own opinion. A lot of people evidently loved this book, I am just not one of them. It wasn't for me and my hangups made it impossible for me to really enjoy it, but the plot and characters are good, and the illegal racing theme is original and not something I've read about before. I liked that. My advice is to go into it blind and experience everything yourself and to not judge this based on what others are saying, positive or negative.