I feel like this book has either been marketed completely incorrectly or is one hell of a bait and switch. This is not girly finds out her one night stand is her teacher and tension ensues. This is very much not a romance at all. There are sex scenes yes, a third act breakup (which honestly made complete sense to me and was valid and emotionally mature for once!!! Dude had a fucking point! They should not have back-pedaled!) and a happily ever after, but it's not a romance. 
Ely left her Orthodox community after battling substance abuse, eventually she gets clean and finds Wyatt, another recovering addict who is never fully fleshed out and exists purely to prop up the main character. He doesn't even get his own POV at his abusive dad's funeral. They have what she keeps describing as mind-blowing amazing best sex of her life sex, but is actually just standard sex but the bar for men is underground when it comes to female pleasure, and then he does what is absolutely the right thing and says yo we can't see each other anymore because you're my student. Like a decent fucking person! Then we get 300 pages of him being told that's wrong and them having the messiest, most codependent, sobriety-shaking situationship that turns to "love", but it's not really love and they're not really going to last let's be real. I don't know... like I said it's not a romance. This is about a woman who absolutely destroyed her life trying to rebuild it one brick at a time, not very well and with the emotional maturity of a sea cucumber, but still trying. 
The author tries to tackle so many different things, and absolutely fails at all of them because at every moment where there could be character growth, plot, literally any type of resolution or closure or anything she just drops it in favor of the romance that this is not. It is infuriating. 
A huge part is the question of What does it even mean to be a Jew anymore? Is it temple, genetics, upbringing? What?? These are all valid questions, all asked but none of which ever got answered in the story at all because it was mentioned and then immediately forgotten so that we could have more drama with their will they won't they crap. 
But overall I really felt for these characters even to the point where I was like "no no no no no don't do that no no no no no no no no no no" at some of their decisions. So I was invested... and I love to see stories with Jewish characters who are not being hunted and murdered and trans characters who are not also being hunted and murdered. 

This was soooooooo good, student x teacher romances will always be loved by me. I know he isn't her teacher after the first day but it still counts. Wyatt and Ely have such good chemistry and it was so funny watching them become friends while trying to hide that they want to be together. They did stuff together all the time and were basically dating but didn't want to actually give in to it. They are so cute and I want more content of the two of them.

TW: both characters are recovering addicts and the book talks about it in detail multiple times

I received an arc through netgalley.

Rep: Pansexual Jewish FMC, Trans MMC

I really did love this book. A Shot in the Dark is a contemporary romance that examines recovery from substance abuse, difficult childhoods, falling in love, and figuring out what your future holds. 

This novel is written in 1st person dual pov between the two main characters, with a few flashbacks scattered about. The flashbacks worked perfectly for me and were placed just where I was yearning for some more background info. 

This book taught me so much about Jewish culture and I really loved it for that. I did have to look up some terms at times but it was still really easy for me to understand everything (as someone who knows almost nothing about any religion). 

The chemistry between the two characters was really strong, I don’t see how that could ever be argued. However, the whole “can we can’t we” got pretty old pretty quick. 

The first few chapters and the last few chapters didn’t really do it for me, but everything else felt perfect. I just felt that the ending had way too much conflict thrown in in a really short amount of time. 

I really wish and hope that this is advertised more as a contemporary than a romance. I went into this expecting a pretty fluffy romance, even from the synopsis, and it was anything but. 

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a heavy contemporary about starting your life over with a dash of romance. 

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

A hot one night stand?
Turns out he’s your teacher. 🤭🫠
We have pansexual rep.
Trans male main character rep.
A beautiful romance between two people who are sober and through their recovery, with a passion for the arts. Strong friendship support systems.
I truly loved this story so much! I didn’t want to leave the characters, I wanted more. 
As someone who’s pansexual and married to a trans man this was life changing to read. I enjoyed seeing my relationship aspects 🌶️ specifically because it’s something I’ve never personally read before. 
I truly appreciated the authors note at the very beginning about substance abuse and addiction. 
Ely is a recovering addict who’s been sober for four years, who is going through a stage of life when she’s trying to discover who she is. What her faith is, and if she’s going to be accepted into the community or not still. Ely is Jewish and left the community, but is now back in New York City not far from where she grew up. 
Wyatt is a recluse, famous photographer and really ever seen in public. Maybe even one of the most eligible bachelors. 
These two work through their own struggles with family dynamics, work life, and relationships. At times this book felt raw, and truthful in the experiences you can face. 
I love, and loved people with addiction this story shows you a little bit of each side.
I definitely had some moments where I teared up. I’m excited to read more from Victoria Lee and can’t wait to get the final copy of this! 
Oh and I’ll be referring to myself as a pansexual icon now 💁🏻‍♀️
#AShotintheDark #NetGalley