The Atonement– Kiersten Modglin (Rating C)

Rating: C — A disappointing third act that trades suspense for implausibility, salvaged only by its excellent narrators.

By the time I reached The Atonement, the third book in Kiersten Modglin’s Arrangement series, I had already felt the energy slipping with each installment. Sadly, this one fell even shorter. What started as a fun, twisty premise in The Arrangement has unraveled into something so over-the-top and unbelievable that it’s hard to stay engaged. If it weren’t for the stellar narrators, I honestly don’t know if I would have made it through.

Where the first book balanced scandal with suspense, this one leans too far into implausibility, losing the tension that made the series addictive in the first place. The cat-and-mouse game between Ainsley and Peter should have been thrilling, but instead it felt repetitive and stretched thin. While some readers may enjoy the sheer outrageousness of it all, for me, the story had long since crossed the line from darkly entertaining into eye-rolling.