Rob Hart won me over with his darkly funny, intense action-adventure-in-a-hotel, tragically romantic novel The Paradox Hotel, which is a book I think Rob Hart won me over with his darkly funny, intense action-adventure-in-a-hotel, tragically romantic novel The Paradox Hotel, which is a book I think about all the time and constantly recommend because I love authors who know how to write perfect blends of dark comedy, intense action, and love of varying types.
Assassins Anonymous runs in a similar-but-definitely-not-same vein as The Paradox Hotel: darkly funny, intense action-adventure (not in a hotel), and a few different types of love. The plot is what it says on the tin: An assassin gave up the game almost a year ago and joined a 12-step program to stop killing people. A few days shy of earning his one-year chip he gets attacked and now he’s on the run to get to the bottom of the matter and get back out all without relapsing and killing someone.
Why wouldn’t I want to read that? Why wouldn’t anyone want to read that? That plot sounds like the bee’s knees.
And it was the bee’s knees! This book was fantastic. From the first page to the last this book was an interesting and fun read. It’s witty, dark, action-packed, adrenaline-fueled, reflective, and emotionally-aware. I nearly cried a couple of times, and I really loved the found family aspect that comes in clutch. I totally recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Often I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and myOften I find I love these punch bowl novels more than most straight-up genre fiction novels. By punch bowl, I rather mean something like what I and my friends call “jungle juice”: a bottle of this wine, a bottle of this liquor, a bottle of that liquor, a bottle of champagne, a bottle of some clear soda like 7-Up, a whole lot of frozen, chopped up fruit thrown in to keep it cold and to mask the taste of the alcohol… You know? A little bit of everything thrown into one big bowl until it becomes something dizzying, delightful, and unpredictable.
That’s what The Ministry of Time is: part-spy thriller, part-time travel romance, part-science fiction novel, part-psychological fiction, a whole lot speculative fiction (which is really what this novel should just be classified as, but try telling that to marketers), and it’s all wrapped up in such lovely storytelling prose I can only describe it as literary fiction.
This book led me through hill and dale, up mountains and down into valleys. It was funny, only to take a steep drop into darkness. Romantic one second, only to turn around and be bereft the next. Often I didn’t know if I should be crying or not. Sometimes I’d find myself crying and didn’t know I had started. This story and these characters wound themselves around my heart, latching on with hooks, for good or for ill, and I knew this could only end in heartbreak but it was worth holding on anyway.
Insofar as the dynamic between our two main characters and their sociocultural norms and mores, that’s an intrinsic issue built into the framework of the book and is too much to explore in a review. It’s completely interesting, though. I highly recommend the whole thing.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced because I just knew it was going to be good. It was so much more than good: it was I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced because I just knew it was going to be good. It was so much more than good: it was excellent! I enjoyed Icon and Inferno even more than I did Stars and Smoke. Marie Lu took the magic of Stars and Smoke and turned everything that made that novel work up to 11. What came out is an amazing sequel to a fantastically fun book.
We’re exchanging organized crime for an international special agent extraction and a murky conspiracy against a head of state. We’re exchanging a nascent romance for pining like a forest, opportunist exes, and vulnerable hearts. We’re going from narrow focus to wide. The cast is bigger, the stakes are larger, the action is more intense, and the fall is long and hard.
It’s like a romantic Bourne Identity, but without the mind erasure.
I love these books because it’s just like watching a movie like The Bourne Identity: I don’t care if every little bit makes sense or if it’s a little predictable. I just care about how much fun I have reading these books, and these books are an absolute treat to read. They make me happy in the part of my heart that loves fun, fast, action-packed, romantic, improbable-situation books. I loved every page. If Lu wanted to write another one I’d read that one too.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
So what’s a trauma-bonded quartet of super soldiers all in love with the female super soldier who could easily take them all out after taking out almoSo what’s a trauma-bonded quartet of super soldiers all in love with the female super soldier who could easily take them all out after taking out almost all of her maniacally evil scientist daddy’s experimental laboratories do?
Well, it turns out they go home, rest up, train, research, and try to find out where that crazy mofo went. He’s squirrely. At first time doesn’t seem to be the largest issue; but after a tragic incident, Nova willingly goes back into her own personal hell, and her men are left to track her down as quickly as possible.
If you look at my rating for Unstoppable, you can see that Unbreakable gained a half-star in rating over Unstopppable. When I read Unstoppable I didn’t feel it was exactly good enough to reach that four star mark, but I am certain Unbreakable is. Read together, the duet is a solid four star read.
What Unbreakable has over Unstoppable, believe it or not, is less spice, which makes way for more plot and character development. We get more of the character’s inner narratives, more of everybody’s feelings and a better look at how they interact, and some of the thought processes behind their decisions, no matter how painful. Like I said in my review for Unstoppable: I do enjoy the way Knight writes spice, but after a while I start to forget who’s even having sex with Nova because it starts to blur.
I enjoyed this duet, and I recommend it highly for the non-squeamish. If you’re squeamish, please check TW/CW before you start.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Hard Girls is an intriguing novel in one of my favorite sub-genres: espionage thriller. I love a good spy thriller. This is a spy thriller crossed witHard Girls is an intriguing novel in one of my favorite sub-genres: espionage thriller. I love a good spy thriller. This is a spy thriller crossed with a female-centric sleuth mystery laced with suspense. (Throw in a splash of sibling fiction, too).
Hard Girls has a great story. It reminds me of a more mature and less magical The Wilderwomen or Where the Echoes Die, both stories where two sisters who have grown apart go on road trips to search for their (respective) missing mothers. In all three of three books you’ve got a sister who’s more in the know than the other and one who’s a little more jaded than the other. I’d say Hard Girls has more realistic consequences at stake than the other two titles, but I really can’t speak to that. I suspect some folks at Langley would have to do something to me if I knew!
Where Hard Girls wore thin with me was the frequency of timeline switching. This narrative device is a useful tool in many ways, but I felt like it was used as too much of an expositional crutch in this book. Instead of working to fuel the present-day timeline it seemed more often to just explain the past. The result? Glorified flashbacks. I’m of the firm opinion that 95% of the time flashbacks are lazy writing. In the end, it didn’t matter how well-written the past-timeline chapters were, because they didn’t fuel the present-timeline story. They disrupted the pacing of the story. I also felt like the chapters from Harry’s POV either could’ve been eliminated or his part of the story could’ve been dealt with differently. The story should’ve belonged to Jane and Lila.
Other than that, the novel is engaging, imaginative, compelling, and a solid read.
I was provided the eARC of this title by NetGalley and the author. I was provided a finished copy of this title by Mulholland Books and the Novel Suspects Insider’s Club. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Ilium is the debut novel by author Lea Carpenter, a espionage thriller with the prose of literary fiction set just after theReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Ilium is the debut novel by author Lea Carpenter, a espionage thriller with the prose of literary fiction set just after the opening of the 21st century in Europe as the third act in an ongoing play of espionage is opening, and a new asset is needed to bring the play to a close.
Enter our unnamed protagonist, a female orphan with a naive sense of romance and no money. She falls in love with a man who owns the house her mother worked in while she was growing up–the one which used to have a garden she fell in love with and dreamed of owning for herself. The man, who is older than her and used to have a reputation as a career bachelor, decides to settle down with her. Right after he does, he tells her two little secrets: he’s dying, and…
This is how our unnamed protagonist is swept up in a plot to gather intelligence on a former Russian operative living in France, near Cap Ferret in a highly-protected compound. First she is there to listen. Then she is there to listen, watch, and process. Then she is there to listen, watch, process, and learn.
I loved the story, as a whole, and the characters. If you read my reviews you know I love spy novels and spy stories. So I thought this would be a win overall. However, the prose style really threw me off. While I can understand Carpenter’s narrative style choice here, it really didn’t suit me well as a reader and I felt it made the story messy. It also slowed down the pacing, which I felt did the story a disservice. I know that as the story leans more toward literary fiction it’s not beholden to the conventions of a standard thriller; therefore, it isn’t held to the same standards of tension and suspension that thrillers are. That doesn’t mean a reader expects there to be so much slowing down for the sake of narrative construct.
It’s a solid read and worth checking out, but not something I’d go out of my way to buy. If you can find it for sale or in a library you might want to give it a go, though.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Emma Makepeace has had a somewhat humdrum year since the events of Alias Emma, the first book in this series. She’s eager to really dig into somethingEmma Makepeace has had a somewhat humdrum year since the events of Alias Emma, the first book in this series. She’s eager to really dig into something, but The Agency has been lobbing her softballs for awhile and she’s kind of sick of it. She didn’t become a spy to sit around and play tiddlywinks. Be careful what you wish for.
All of a sudden, an analyst for MI-6 dies from VX gas, of all things, and it looks like two Russian oligarchs are the ones responsible. The problem? One seems to be impossible to find, and the other lives almost full-time on his superyacht. Not only that, but it seems they might have a silent third partner, and no one has a clue who it could be. All of a sudden Emma goes from 0 to 60 so she can become a server on board the superyacht to see if she can unravel the mystery. Without backup. Or weapons. Or, well, anything really.
I loved Alias Emma. I do have to say this book wasn’t as good, but not because of the plot (which is wicked cool and timely), the characters (which are awesome, defined, unique, and thankfully not caricatures), Ava Glass’s writing style (which I love, especially her ability to write fight choreography), or the worldbuilding (you can tell Glass did her research, which I envy, because that means she spent time in the Cote d'Azur). What this book has that Alias Emma didn’t was predictability. I was genuinely surprised constantly during Alias Emma. My heart was in my throat throughout the entire book. With this book, though? It was pretty predictable. I hate that I have to say that. That’s the only thing that’s holding this book back from a five star rating. Other than that, this book is a fabulous thrill ride with great style and a great story to tell. I’ll be looking forward to the next one.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Espionage Thriller/Suspense Thriller ...more
Super secret scientific experiments! Psychopathic dad who uses his daughter as his test subject! Like potato chips, the psycReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Super secret scientific experiments! Psychopathic dad who uses his daughter as his test subject! Like potato chips, the psychopath couldn’t only stop at torturing his daughter: He tortured numerous children, and all but four of them managed to live. But the genetically engineered birds have come home to roost, and they long to use their enhanced brains and bodies to peck some eyes out. They’re more than up to the challenge. Sayeth the Daft Punk:
“Harder Better Faster Stronger”
Off the cuff, this plot sings to me. A BAMF female who would rather kill a warehouse filled with combatants before a drop of blood touches her men, and a cadre of men who would die for her but will shed more than their fair share of blood before that will ever come close to happening. It’s not “touch her and you die”, it’s “touch any of us and you will die”.
The violence goes hand-in-hand with the kind of bonding that would usually form a tight-knit band of soldiers; but in this case it spins a reverential and uncompromising web of shared trauma, emotional intimacy, and deep love between these five survivors turned rescuers. Their mission is to ostensibly root out the deepest, darkest seeds of our FMC’s father’s research, his labs, and to find any and all other test subjects, if there are even any left. Then they are to help burn it all to the ground.
See all this? This, ALL of this, is my jam. If this were The Voice, I’d be begging this book to pick me as its mentor. I’d smash that red button. The thing is, there’s a lot of issues with this book that interrupt the fun.
I’m not even talking about Nova’s (our FMC) relationship(s) with the fabulous males in this book. Those dynamics and relationships are fine. The men sound hot, have great personalities, and recognize Nova for being far more dangerous than they are. And they’re here for every blood-soaked minute.
No, the main issue I have about this book is predictability and repetitiveness. These characters are supposed to have enhanced intelligence, yet they’re written like they don’t. And the spice scenes? Well, don’t get me wrong–I adore the kind of spice scenes Knight writes in this genre of book, where the characters both crave and can take it hard, fast, and violent, but the spice scenes seemed so much the same with almost every male character and proceeded almost all in the same manner that I stopped trying to keep track of who Nova was engaging with because it all blurred together. In the end, the spicy scenes stopped being hot and started being boring.
In the end, I decided I couldn’t rate it a full four stars because I just didn’t feel like it earned it, but it didn’t warrant a 3 star because the story is too good all on its own. You could’ve removed half the spice and I would’ve still been happy.
I was provided a copy of this book by the author. Any views, thoughts, or opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I was trying to think of which of my March ARCs I should read before I start my April ARCs, and I decided on this book, feeling like I needed somethinI was trying to think of which of my March ARCs I should read before I start my April ARCs, and I decided on this book, feeling like I needed something fun and purely escapist as a palate cleanser before I started a pretty thriller-heavy month for me. Plus, I’ve never read a Marie Lu book before (I know, late to the game, right?) and I just wanted to give her writing a try, even though I know this isn’t her usual game.
While not perfect, this book is a ton of fun! Is it absolutely over-the-top ridonkulous? Yes, yes it is! Is it, as described inside, Kingsmen meets The Bodyguard? It totally is! Do I care about how much I had to suspend my disbelief? Heck-to-the-NO!
Marie Lu is an admitted fan of BTS, and when I sent my bestie (who is also a BTS fan) the summary of this book, my bestie said, “OMG I know exactly who she based Winter Young on!”. I could only laugh, because I am an occasional BTS listener and don’t know the difference between any of them. Winter Young, the male protagonist in this book, may be a pop superstar on par with the Taylor Swift’s of the world in this book in terms of stardom, but he’s much poorer in terms of family and the people who truly know him and love him. His brother died when he was a kid, his dad didn’t want him, and his mother hasn’t been able to really look at him or be around him since his brother passed. The three people closest to him, his manager and two main backup dancers, don’t even know about his brother. So really, no one truly knows him completely.
If you know me and have read a good deal of my reviews, then you know how much I love female spies and assassins. Our female protagonist is Sydney Cossette (also known as The Jackal), who works for The Panacea Group, the secret black ops company who recruits Winter for a secret mission to help take down one of the richest men in the world by having him perform at his daughter’s massive, private birthday gala while Sydney does her dirty work behind the scenes. She’s to pose as Winter’s bodyguard while Winter gets to know and distracts the birthday girl. Sydney was recruited by The Panacea Group at 15 when one of their agents was accompanying the CIA on a recruitment mission at her high school. The CIA couldn’t use her, but she was perfect for The Panacea Group. Eager to escape her nightmare life in her small town, Sydney left that day to become an international spy and never looked back. She feels alone too, clinging to her handler almost like he’s her father and keeping a great deal of secrets. (And can I just tell you how tickled I was that the girl from the poor side of the tracks had the last name Cossette? Shout out to Les Mis fans.)
Beyond these two protagonists, this book is like a popcorn movie hyped up on coffee, fandom, BAMF females, pretty boys, shiny toys, and glittering fun. It’s a quick, page-turning read that might actually make a solid movie or animated film. If you just want some escapism in a world less ordinary, pick it up!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All views, ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Contemporary Romance/YA Romance/YA Fiction/Book Series/Coming of Age/Espionage Thriller/LGBTQ Friendly/YA Book Series/YA Drama/YA Mystery/YA Suspense/YA Thriller ...more
When Her Name is Knight first came out, I snapped it up because of the cover, but I ended up loving it because it was just a really captivating, enterWhen Her Name is Knight first came out, I snapped it up because of the cover, but I ended up loving it because it was just a really captivating, entertaining, enjoyable book. Same with They Came at Knight. And now we have this book, the last of what is one of the best trilogies I’ve ever read when considered as whole: It Ends With Knight.
If you take this book away from the other two I think it’s stronger than They Come at Knight and is almost on par with Her Name is Knight. The reason this title gets four stars instead of five isn’t because the book is bad: it’s because the book was predictable. I do need to add in, however, that since I read so many thriller and suspense novels I may just be too…inured to the things that happen in thrillers that may surprise other people. Maybe I’m just kind of primed for them and when they happen I’m just not surprised anymore. After all, genre fiction has building blocks. The trick to writing is in how authors use those building blocks.
As usual, Yasmin Angoe’s prose and worldbuilding is excellent. I feel as if the challenge with writing the character of Nena Knight is how to write her as both a mature, wicked assassin but also writing her as someone who is still very unaccustomed or even naive to a lot of things in the western world without making her sound like an idiot or making it seem forced. Nena has endured quite an emotional and psychologically taxing journey through these three books, and Angoe has done a great job walking the tightrope between keeping Nena consistent in her role as an assassin and letting her non-Tribe self grow and develop.
The plot was interesting, with Nena’s father asking her and her team to take on a different role than they normally do (AKA, not killing people) in order to protect tanzanite mining interests for the Tribe in Tanzania. Nena balks at the idea, since usually this sort of mission is something her sister takes on; but since her sister has the baby at home they’re asking Nena to do it.
Most of the book has Nena battling impostor syndrome, ruminating deeply on (what she sees as) her past mistakes, thinking back on her beginnings, questioning her future with Dispatch, and contemplating her relationship with Cort and her place with Georgia, Cort’s daughter.
It’s entertaining, engaging, emotional, has a lot of action, has some funny moments, and is the conclusion to a great story. Do yourself a favor and read the whole trilogy in a row if you have the time. It’s a great time.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Espionage Thriller/Found Family/General Fiction/Kindle Unlimited/Political Thriller ...more
I tried to like this book. I really did. But by 20 minutes into what was supposed to be an espionage thriller with some serial killer elements thrown I tried to like this book. I really did. But by 20 minutes into what was supposed to be an espionage thriller with some serial killer elements thrown in, I was bored out of my mind.
And the real story hadn’t even begun yet. Our protagonist, for lack of a better way to sum it up, hadn’t even accepted the call to adventure. More time in that 20% of story was spent describing how cold Belarus is than on the story itself.
We get it. Belarus is really cold.
This book is scattered, with no real through line and no steady story arc to hold the entire thing together. It’s like a whole bunch of really good thoughts that really needed a competent, solid editor to put their foot down and demand everything be brought together into something more cohesive. The book, as it exists, is like a tangled head of hair that needs to be brushed.
I just don’t understand how you can take this concept and make it so bland and, well, lost. I’m actually a little mad Kathleen Kent took such potential and wasted it.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, views, and opinions contained herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. Owing to the 3 star or under rating, this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website. ...more
While I was blown away by the excellent “Her Name is Knight”, this book (the second half of the duology) outshined its predecessor for sure. I had so While I was blown away by the excellent “Her Name is Knight”, this book (the second half of the duology) outshined its predecessor for sure. I had so many positive things to say about the first book: “...a slick novel, moving quick and smart…”, “...a fascinating and compelling page-turner…”, “I couldn’t put it down”. These opinions continue to be applicable when it comes to “They Come at Knight”, but they get turned up a little bit louder due to the increased stakes, the heightened danger, the more tightly wound suspense, family drama, the dangerous game of cat and mouse (or spy versus spy, if you’d like), and Nena’s constant anxiety as she searches for the traitor in the Tribe’s midst that she had only started to allude to in “Her Name is Knight”.
While “Her Name is Knight” is told non-linearly and in two different POVs, “They Came at Knight” is told entirely in 3rd person and in a linear narrative, which Angoe deftly handles by reminding us that her life before becoming a Knight was “Before”, her life after becoming a Knight but before the end of the events in “Her Name is Knight” being called “After”, and all the time accounted for in “They Came at Knight” as being “Now”. These three time periods are emphasized in the text, which I choose to interpret as the way Angoe means us to see the three most important phases in Nena’s life.
A lot of time in this book is spent in Ghana, Nena’s homeland, and it’s written with a great deal of love and affection by Angoe. I’ve never been to Ghana (not for not wanting to after taking a course in the Geography of Africa during my undergrad years), but the chapters we spend there as readers are very well-written and touching.
I wish I could say that the turns in this book took me by surprise, but most of them didn’t. One did, but only because I was very confused (it was a me problem). But, like with “Her Name is Knight”, I simply didn’t care. The book’s just too dang good to spend time caring about something so small when the book is this good.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for granting me access to this title....more
Note: This book is being read and reviewed as both a book that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for months and because the sequel, “They Come at Knight”Note: This book is being read and reviewed as both a book that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for months and because the sequel, “They Come at Knight” is being released this Tuesday, September 13th, 2022. If you’ve read this book, make sure to order a copy! If you’re new to this duology, why don’t you order both books today? My review for “They Come at Knight” will be up in the next couple of days.
Okay, I’ll confess: I bought this book mainly because I love books about female assassins and revenge. But it also has a serious case of “Ooh shiny pretty cover!” I mean, look at it! All those swirls of orange and peach tones? It’s absolutely striking.
But seriously.
I finally broke down and bought this book off of my own wishlist because I had heard so many good things about it and I don’t regret it one bit. It’s a slick novel, moving quick and smart between past and present (or, as the author cleverly puts it, Before and After) as the main character, Nena, tells us in first person POV about how she went from a chieftain’s daughter in Ghana to an assassin for her rich adoptive family and the geopolitical organization they are members of while the author simultaneously narrates Nena’s life in 3rd person POV after she became an assassin and we enter the story as Nena is about to enter a complex and morally confusing series of assignments that will upend her entire life and everything she has worked for.
Often I find that chapter switching and POV switching doesn’t work for me. It often slows down the pacing or makes it uneven. It also tends to rip the reader out of the story by making them work too hard to extricate themselves out of the time and POV they were just reading and get into the groove of reading a new time and a new POV. Angoe seems to have clued into the fact that one of the best remedies for this is shorter chapters and a shorter amount of time spent in Before and After. Don’t make the readers stay in one place too long. Don’t let them get too used to it, and it won’t be so jarring when they have to leave and switch. It keeps the suspense nice and tight, it keeps the narrative fresh, it keeps the pacing even, and it keeps the book moving quick and bright.
This book is a fascinating and compelling page-turner that I read in less than 8 hours. I couldn’t put it down. My only complaint was that it was rather predictable in a lot of ways. But I can hardly complain when it was still so dang good, right? ...more
While it was the title and its play on words (a clever twist on John le Carre’s novel “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) that caught my attention (and I havWhile it was the title and its play on words (a clever twist on John le Carre’s novel “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) that caught my attention (and I have no doubt that was the author’s intention), it was the blurb that got me excited. It promised a thriller: sinister and tantalizing. What I felt I got was a book that was so slow to start I wondered if I was even reading the right book (I don’t think the actual plot activated in any minor way until between 25% or 30% of the way in, which is just about anathema in any novel that purports to be a thriller, in my opinion). Even after the plot kicked in the pacing was uneven, the characters weren’t compelling, and the book simply never felt like a thriller.
Back in June, I read William Martin’s “December ‘41”, which is a WWII espionage thriller and WWII historical fiction novel. As a matter of fact, when I reviewed the title, it was categorized exactly the same as “Mother Daughter Traitor Spy” is on Amazon right now. That book is also set in the same time period, starts in Los Angeles with a lot of the same real-life players and the same real-life locations before spinning off into their own plots. Yet “Mother Daughter Traitor Spy” felt like a women’s historical fiction than a thriller at any time. Dramatic and suspenseful, sure, but a thriller? No.
I really wanted this book to wow me, to give me the female spy vibes I longed for. But it just fell flat.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books, and Bantam for granting me early access to this title. Due to the 3 star or lower rating, this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website. This is my personal policy as an ARC and book reviewer. ...more
I was absolutely giddy to read this book, because I not only love spy thrillers with a female protagonist, but I absolutely adore when it turns out toI was absolutely giddy to read this book, because I not only love spy thrillers with a female protagonist, but I absolutely adore when it turns out to be a Russian spy thriller. I know, I know. I probably shouldn’t be fangirling so hard over Russian spy thrillers in this day and age, but for some reason I can’t resist them and never have been able to. Did I watch too many 007 movies growing up? Maybe. Do I love Natasha Romanoff from the bottom of my black heart? Most certainly. Do I have quite a few biographies and nonfiction books about the Cold War? How about we don’t talk about my nonfiction collection or my love of Russian history.
This book flies by like a great spy movie does. Think Bourne. Think Bond. Think La Femme Nikita. Heck, you can even think of Mrs. Emma Peel if you want. From the time Emma Makepeace is sent out on the mission that makes up the plot of this propulsive and thrilling read up until almost the very end, this book lays its foot on the accelerator and simply does not let off until the exact right time; and when it does, it’s like crossing the finish line only hundreths of a second before the car behind you. It’s fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled, unpredictable, addictive, and impeccably edited to keep that thrilling pacing taut like a piano wire.
I can’t tell if this is the first book in a series or not. Some places (like Goodreads) say it’s the first in the series, but I can’t find that information anywhere else. I’ll tell you what: If Ava Glass decided to make this into a series, I’ll sign up to read it right here and now. I would definitely read more about Emma Makepeace getting her revenge on the Russians one day at a time.
Thanks to NetGalley, Ballatine, and Bantam for granting me access to this title. ...more
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