Loving someone has never been so deadly.
Valerie Harper has one assignment, one mission. Assassinate her mark and everyone he loves. But what happens when she finds that she loves him too?
Her instructions are simple; do not fraternize with your target, observe at a distance, and never engage with the enemy. However, as things take an unexpected turn in Val's world, these simple instructions begin to change.
Refusing to be a puppet, Kyle Shultz walks away from his old life and settles into the college routine. But the life of a student is more difficult than he imagined. Making friends and attending parties are as foreign a concept as showing a target mercy.
The lines between the state of the job and the affairs of the heart are blurred as Valerie and Kyle’s worlds collide.
Valerie Harper has one assignment, one mission. Assassinate her mark and everyone he loves. But what happens when she finds that she loves him too?
Her instructions are simple; do not fraternize with your target, observe at a distance, and never engage with the enemy. However, as things take an unexpected turn in Val's world, these simple instructions begin to change.
Refusing to be a puppet, Kyle Shultz walks away from his old life and settles into the college routine. But the life of a student is more difficult than he imagined. Making friends and attending parties are as foreign a concept as showing a target mercy.
The lines between the state of the job and the affairs of the heart are blurred as Valerie and Kyle’s worlds collide.
With
a maze of enemies and hit lists to navigate, will these two young
adversaries proceed wide-eyed and alone into the fray? Or will they
blindly trust the feelings they can no longer ignore?
This is the first book that I've read by this author and unfortunately, it's probably the last also. It wasn't any one thing that didn't do it for me with this book. It was a varied combination of basically every aspect of the book. Honestly, I didn't even finish the last 60 or so pages because I just wasn't invested in the story and I didn't really care how it ended.
One of my biggest issues was with the conversations between the many characters in the book. They didn't seem authentic - they were stiff and the wording was sometimes weird. At one point, I even wondered if the author was from a different country because maybe something was literally lost in translation. Unfortunately, that wasn't the explanation ... well ... unless Arizona seceded from the union and they were able to establish their own language in the last 3 or so years.
Right along with the conversations comes the inner dialogue for the characters. This was also dry and stiff and because of that, I felt like I never really got to know the characters. It was almost like the book was being written from an unemotional pov. Which would be fine ... but that wasn't established within the story and it just doesn't make sense. Now this isn't a direct quote but let me give you an idea of how the story read: He was mad. He stomped his foot. He didn't like what was going on. He was so mad.
Like I said, that's not a direct quote but do you kind of see how you read it in your head with that monotone, robotic voice?!? That is how the book sounded in my head with every single word. Is that the author's fault? Not necessarily. But I'm pretty sure my inner reading voice isn't broken because as I type this and talk in my head, I sound pretty awesome. This robotic read issue could very well be me. But that doesn't take away the fact that the book just fell extremely flat for me.
I thought that the plot trudged along slowly. I think that my attention would have been captured if it had moved just a bit more swiftly. Basically, this just wasn't the book for me. The characters didn't grab me, the plot didn't grab me and I didn't even care enough to finish the book (which hardly ever happens, btw). On to the next one.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *
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