Review: 4.5 Action-packed stars!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2014
Great read!Upon finding this book, I was SO excited! I read a way-earlier version of this book years ago, and I was basically madly in love with it—have actually done many fruitless internet searches trying to see if this story was ever published. When I found out it had been, I was so excited!!All right, so you know the gist—Christina’s dad is a hacker, Michael is an assassin sent to kidnap her, and so the adventure begins!Meet Christina Parker! She doesn’t exactly have the best survival instincts, so making it out of a hostage situation alive could prove to be quite a challenge for her. But she’s only 18, so while at times frustrating, her naiveté is understandable. Sometimes she likes to make problems for herself, like, “I don’t have shoes on, and there’s glass in my foot.”Yes, because you’re acting like a reckless idiot. She’s stubborn and contrary and honestly, not the greatest judge of character. I would be interested in seeing who she becomes a few years down the road when she’s grown into herself a little more (but there are other books in the series, so who knows? Maybe I will!)Also, her parents really suck, and that’s gotta count for something. Her mom should be eaten by piranhas, and her dad should grow a back bone. Obviously I hated them.Meet Michael Boutilier, badass assassin for the IMA! Christina hates his face! I mean, obviously, because of the whole kidnapping her thing, but even when it makes more sense pragmatically to save her own ass, she still hates his face. Personally, I liked Michael. I certainly liked him more than Christina, but he’s older with all his IMA training and definitely not as thoughtless, plus… I kind of always like badass characters, whichever gender they may be. As far as males, he’s just the kind of male protagonist that I like, and what’s more, he sounds like a male protagonist. That’s so important. When every character (boy, girl, dog, cat) sounds exactly the same… that can be really annoying. I was definitely rooting for him—no surprise there!Now, I’ve seen other people take issue with threats of rape… I’m not sure why, when reading a book about an assassin who kills people, you would be surprised by a threat of violence—which…is what rape is, just so we’re clear. That didn’t bother me, but I guess maybe if it’s a super hot button issue for you… you may want to be aware of that?I think the ending was just right! Except there was no anvil (maybe there was, off camera? Only the next book will tell!)Overall, I’d give it a solid 4.5 stars—I had a really hard time putting it down. Definitely could have been a book I read all in one sitting if I would have had the chance. :)