This review (my opinion) is shaped by the German translation (since I only read this version), but I will go into the characters and plot, too. I struggled a lot while reading this book and I should‘ve dnf‘d it after 30 pages, somehow I didn‘t because there was still hope it would get better - it didn‘t. First things first, the translation is so weird — no smooth reading flow, because way more than half of all sentences felt cut off — a lot of „der/die ist…; der/die hat…;…“ etc. instead of „er/sie“ - this gave me a very degratory feeling (I’m wondering if this was intentional or why the translator chose those words) More about the writing (that has a lot to do with the authors writing, too. Not only the translation this time): — I haven‘t read the english version but what really bothered me was that it lacked a lot of „show and don‘t tell“ because there were many phrases that said „she/he did this and that“ while not actually showing it - so there wasn‘t a way that this book could‘ve felt immersive and that the reader was actually a part of the story, experiencing what the characters were going through - e.g. After Lachlan‘s game were Lyla meets his brother Liam and his mother for the first time, there was a sentence like „I talked to Lachlan‘s mom“ but without context, but would a conversation like this (were they are meeting for the first time!!) not be important? At least, let us be part of the story! Things like this (and it happend a LOT every chapter) let the characters feel plain — Some sentences held the same meaning, e.g. she was clouded in his perfume and the next sentence was „she smelled the perfume in her nose“ - well no shit Sherlock, I wouldn’t have thought —> So if all of this runs through the whole book - please tell me - wouldn‘t this be annoying to you? Secondly, there were info that was irrelevant and gave nothing to the plot: — e.g. They’re are all paying 100$ into the jar if they can‘t sleep with the amount of women that were thrown by the dice, more over, this only makes you dislike the characters more and since this wasn‘t part of the story later on it gave (again) no substance to the plot or the characters The characters: Where was the tension between the two characters? This was insta-lust and had nothing to do with love. They hate but wanna get down on eachother. There was NO way I felt a connection between them. And Lachlan is hella annoying „Oohhh every woman wanna f*ck me (as if you don‘t wanna get with them too); the icehockey team was shit but when I arrived it immediately got better (this is a TEAM sport bro???)“. I heavily disliked Lachlan and this book was only declared as DARK for the sake of it and not because it investigates behaviour that‘s considered „dark“ — He doesn‘t wanna harm Lyla but he wants to make her pay (So he does wanna harm her) —> this very contrary behaviour was multiple times shown, not only by him (her too), so they both (actually everyone) lacked character depth, so I couldn‘t decipher who they truly are — I felt like I was reading about some fourteen years old‘s and not some „adults“ —> If they would have talked!!!! they could have find solutions early on. I fully understand Lyla‘s fear and her choice made by that (since the police didn‘t believe her), but Lachlan‘s behaviour is downright hilarious when he finds her again, he didn‘t ask her once how she‘s feeling or why she made that choice (As stated by himself, he‘s a bad boyfriend by not asking how she feels) — There was no character growth, same characters at the end as of the beginning —MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS— The plot: Well… not surprising at all. Actually you can tell very early on (the first dinner) who‘s the bad guy in this story (aside from our doggy Lachlan (not my words - he declared himself as Lyla‘s little dog)). Very long book for very few plot. I was so hyped when I read a snippet but now I‘m only dissapointed by having a bad time.

"Until I Get You" ist ein fesselnder New-Adult-Roman, der von der ersten Seite an eine düstere und geheimnisvolle Atmosphäre aufbaut. Claire Contreras erschafft eine spannungsgeladene Enemies-to-Lovers-Geschichte, die den Leser mit ihren undurchsichtigen Charakteren und unerwarteten Wendungen in den Bann zieht. Die Hauptfiguren sind komplex und haben eine belastende Vergangenheit, was ihrer Beziehung Tiefe und eine gewisse Dramatik verleiht. Die Entwicklung von Hass zu einer intensiven Anziehung ist spürbar und macht das Knistern zwischen den beiden Protagonisten zu einem zentralen Element der Geschichte. Besonders gelungen ist der Spannungsbogen. Das Buch spielt geschickt mit Andeutungen und Geheimnissen, die sich erst nach und nach entschlüsseln, was die Handlung durchweg unvorhersehbar macht. Die "Dark"-Elemente sind spürbar und tragen zur Intensität der Erzählung bei.