Sunday, August 6, 2017

Book Review: Digital Velocity (McAllister Justice #1) by Reily Garrett


The deadliest weapons are the ones we never see.

Keyboard prodigy, Lexi Donovan has risen from teenage orphan of the streets to complete independence with little help along the way. When a friend is threatened, Lexi’s anonymous message sends police into a firefight, leading to a wounded cop.

Detective Ethan McAllister’s well-ordered life turned upside down the day an obscure text message led to a sexual predator’s identity. Since then, Callouston PD’s finest can’t trace the elusive hacker. The latest tip leads him to a brutal mutilation and a riddle indicating the identity of the next murder victim.

The dark net houses a playground for the morally depleted and criminally insane. When Lexi discovers the killer’s digital betting arena, she finds herself centered in a cyber stalker’s crosshairs bearing equal talent.

Street life strengthened Lexi while toughening her protective shell, but nothing could shield her from the shrewd detective forging a path to her heart.









This is the first book I've read by Reily Garrett and while I jump into this one totally blind, I really didn't know what to expect on these pages. I found the blurb to be pretty interesting, so when the author asked me to give it a read, I jumped on it. 

The beginning of the book was a little slow for me and I think that it's because you're meeting multiple characters and you're caught in a game of catch up at first while you're delving into the plot. It's all completely necessary information but it did slow the book down a little bit for me. I found out after the fact that there is a novella that precedes this book. While I'm under the impression that it's not a "must read" for the series, I'm fairly certain that the back story included in that novella would have enriched what I was reading in this one and maybe make things seem more like a reintroduction rather than an overwhelming jumble. 

Now once you get into the book and past the beginning where you're meeting everyone, things do speed up. I was blowing through pages but then it slows down again and speeds up. I soon found myself on a literary roller coaster. Which made the book lag and then add in the fact that personally, it was just a little too descriptive and you have another lag. I just prefer to have a lot of excitement and a book that chugs along at a fairly quick pace. I'm pretty sure it's because I have to put down and then pick up whatever I'm reading multiple times throughout the day so I need something that chugs along quickly or I become lost and bored within the plot. 

The characters were okay. I really didn't have this massive connection to Lexi and like I said before, I'm pretty sure I would feel differently if I had read the novella. Apparently, that is where you get to know Lexi on a deeper level and really dive into who she is and what her motivations are. I did like Ethan but ... this will sound weird ... I liked him better when hew as with his brothers. When you first meet Ethan's brothers ... you'll fall in love with them immediately. I'm totally serious; all of them were absolutely fabulous and the camaraderie between them was wonderfully ornery and endearing. 
So when Ethan was with his brothers, the story came to life for me. 

When it comes down to it, I think that the reason this wasn't a five star book for me was because it was a little too descriptive for my tastes and I didn't really connect with the main characters. But those are all just personal things and this book is rated highly on Goodreads and Amazon, so don't take just my word for it.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *



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