Now here is a story where the female heroin is not a femme fatale and uses her looks to get by. She is a woman who is smart, tactical, caring, strong, and a fearsome adversary to her enemies. I loved how she was every bit an equal to her male counterparts in the story! She did not have to rely on sex appeal and beauty, which is how these types of characters are normally written.
The more I read this story, the more engrossed I became. K.J. Howe ends up writing 3 different stories that intertwine in a chilling ending.
But she did more than a kidnap and ransom type of book. She brought in fallacies for her characters, which added to the story. I don’t know if Howe meant to write a story about how not being perfect does not matter to how incredible you can be, but it kind of reads like that at times. The heroes are not perfect and have some serious physical issues, but that makes the story deeper. The antagonists of the story also have some serious issues, which play beautifully into the story. Many times, it actually moves the story along.
This story touches on several themes: child trafficking, racism, kidnap and ransom plots, child soldiers, human trafficking, murder, mental illness, family loyalty, the mafia, hijacking, desperation, heroism, bio terrorism, I could go on and on. There is a lot packed into this book, but it works.
The only issue I have is that Howe gets some language wrong when speaking about military tactics, radio lingo, etc. But honestly, that’s probably because I know about those, so that will only bother those of us with a background in this stuff.
Howe also references a deeper story in her protagonist’s life. So much so that I want to read Thea Paris’ first story to understand what happened with her brother and how her and her father’s relationship severed. And I want to continue to read about her exploits! I’m a Thea Paris fan!
Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy to read. All opinions are my own.
The more I read this story, the more engrossed I became. K.J. Howe ends up writing 3 different stories that intertwine in a chilling ending.
But she did more than a kidnap and ransom type of book. She brought in fallacies for her characters, which added to the story. I don’t know if Howe meant to write a story about how not being perfect does not matter to how incredible you can be, but it kind of reads like that at times. The heroes are not perfect and have some serious physical issues, but that makes the story deeper. The antagonists of the story also have some serious issues, which play beautifully into the story. Many times, it actually moves the story along.
This story touches on several themes: child trafficking, racism, kidnap and ransom plots, child soldiers, human trafficking, murder, mental illness, family loyalty, the mafia, hijacking, desperation, heroism, bio terrorism, I could go on and on. There is a lot packed into this book, but it works.
The only issue I have is that Howe gets some language wrong when speaking about military tactics, radio lingo, etc. But honestly, that’s probably because I know about those, so that will only bother those of us with a background in this stuff.
Howe also references a deeper story in her protagonist’s life. So much so that I want to read Thea Paris’ first story to understand what happened with her brother and how her and her father’s relationship severed. And I want to continue to read about her exploits! I’m a Thea Paris fan!
Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy to read. All opinions are my own.