The lead characters’ well-defined intimacy gives this uneven tale a boost of energy.
In Lynn’s (Enticing Iris, 2019, etc.) romantic thriller, a software engineer seeks help from an alluring hacker who had a complicated history with her missing twin sister.
Lindsey Morris is accustomed to her identical twin’s flakiness, but she’s infuriated when Lena skips out on their parents’ anniversary party. Lena finally responds to Lindsey’s messages with a vague text, telling her to get help at a particular address. Lindsey first goes to her sister’s trashed apartment, where a strange man calling himself “Griffin” shows up, claims to know Lena, and asks Lindsey not to notify the police. Lindsey then goes to address that her sister supplied, where she’s surprised to see a man she knows: Jace Adams. Lena had asked Jace to hack into MIT’s system years ago to change her grade, which resulted in him getting the boot from the university. Lindsey convinces him that she’s not Lena, but he’s reluctant to help her search for her missing twin. Still, he and Lindsey quickly grow close, and he soon shares his suspicions about who may have abducted her sis. It turns out that Jace works for the Nest, a clandestine group of white-hat hackers whose former member has a vendetta against him. Lena’s disappearance, however, may have to do with yet another secret. In any case, Lindsey, a highly skilled coder, is determined to find her, even if she has to do it alone. Lynn successfully establishes a believably contentious relationship between the two leads. Jace initially has trouble trusting Lindsey, as he’s hated her sibling for years, and Lindsey, quite rightly, deems him “a real asshole” shortly after they meet. Nevertheless, a mutual physical attraction is there from the start, and their sympathy for each other gradually grows into affection. Lynn also keeps the plot moving at a steady clip, with steamy, sometimes-explicit sexual encounters and instances of imminent peril. However, the story’s technological aspect feels stunted, as readers hardly see Lindsey’s capabilities; her covert installation of software, for instance, involves little more than plugging in a flash drive, and she tackles another problem by merely rebooting a computer.
The lead characters’ well-defined intimacy gives this uneven tale a boost of energy.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-535-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
You’ll need your own detective’s notebook to keep tabs on all the characters and connections on display here. Even so,...
A tenacious reporter won’t let personal ties to a decades-old case stop her from finding the truth.
On the advice of her agent, Savannah Sentinel reporter and author Nikki Gillette is looking for fodder for her latest true-crime novel when she realizes that the perfect subject is about to be released from prison. Savannah’s notorious Blondell O’Henry has been locked up for some 20 years for the murder of her oldest daughter and Nikki’s childhood friend, Amity. Now that Blondell’s son Niall has recanted the testimony that put her away all those years ago, it looks as if she’ll be a free woman unless Nikki’s fiance, Detective Pierce Reed, can find a reason to keep her detained. Pierce and Nikki both work to discover what happened years ago at that cabin in the woods, though Pierce bridles at Nikki’s rather unconventional—all right, illegal—research methods. It seems to Nikki that the more she investigates, the more connections she discovers to her own family, beginning with the fact that her Uncle Alex was the original defense attorney on the case. But all of these uncomfortable connections make Nikki still more determined to learn the truth, even if she doesn’t like what that may mean.
You’ll need your own detective’s notebook to keep tabs on all the characters and connections on display here. Even so, Jackson (You Don’t Want to Know, 2012, etc.) shows a mastery of the true-crime thriller formula that will please fans.Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-5858-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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