A steamy and action-packed, albeit flawed, thriller featuring a memorable hero.
This blend of espionage thriller, romance, and erotica chronicles the globe-trotting adventures of a beautiful Mossad agent and contract killer.
As Wladowsky’s debut novel begins, Leda—a “Jewess from Israel” and former Russian agent who is now working as an operative for the Israeli army—embarks on a treacherous mission to rescue her husband, Caleb, from a Russian prison. Caleb has been missing for six years, and Leda believes that the Russians abducted him in retaliation for her betrayal years earlier. Leaving her two sons behind, Leda uses her extensive network of contacts (many of whom are hopelessly in love with her) to gather information on Caleb’s whereabouts. Her travels take her from Venice to Switzerland to the Kamchatka Peninsula, and during her journey, she must remain vigilant of the countless Russian operatives sent to kill her. But her dangerous rescue mission leads her to an unforeseen discovery: love. She falls in love with a Croatian NATO general named Drazen and even has a marriage ceremony with him. Shortly after leaving Drazen, she sees her adoptive father, a billionaire named John Doe, and—inexplicably—begins a wildly hedonistic relationship with the much older man. This series opener’s pacing is brisk; the numerous action sequences are gripping; and the striking protagonist is indelible. But the novel has several flaws. The narrative loses momentum in the book’s second half, as the author focuses too much on personal minutiae (such as Drazen’s obsessively doubting his relationship with Leda) and the overtly sexual nature of the protagonist’s liaison with Doe, which becomes gratuitous in places. Additionally, some readers may find certain sexual scenes verging on repugnant, like Leda’s graphic relationship with her adoptive father. Lastly, the main plot thread—Leda’s attempt to save her husband—is all but forgotten by the story’s end. This will presumably be revisited in the sequel.
A steamy and action-packed, albeit flawed, thriller featuring a memorable hero.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Haphazard and undemanding.
A sports agent’s first official client is the man she dumped years ago in college.
After two years of hard work as an underling, Nora Mackenzie is finally being promoted to full-time sports agent. She’s worked hard, kept quiet, and allowed men in the office to call her Mac—a nickname she hates—all to show she’s a team player and “one of the guys.” Unfortunately, her boss instructs her to sign Derek Pender, a football player coming off an injury, who happens to be the man she heartlessly dumped in their senior year of college. Derek signs with her for revenge, seeing it as his opportunity to pay Nora back for callously breaking his heart eight years earlier. He insists she be at his beck and call: answering his emails, running his errands, cooking dinner for his dates. He also refuses to let her explain why she broke up with him without warning or explanation. Nora feels she has no choice but to acquiesce to Derek’s humiliating demands, since she’s worked too hard to let him ruin her dream job. She hopes he’ll thaw and they might become friends, but Derek’s bad behavior is designed to hide the fact that he’s still in love with her. Nora’s characterization is uneven, veering between anger at how she’s treated in the male-dominated field to immature bickering and bantering with Derek. Although Adams likely meant for Derek and Nora’s interactions to have an enemies-to-lovers vibe, the characters instead seem juvenile and stuck in the past. The novel is fueled by a string of tropes—second chance romance! married in Vegas! only one bed!—each randomly deployed to keep the book going despite thin characterization and wan plotting.
Haphazard and undemanding.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593723678
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dell
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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