I picked this up at the library based on a suggestion and I am glad I did! I have not read The Silent Corner, which is the first one (I think), so I can't speak to Jane Hawk's character development. I was still able to read this as a stand alone. It took me a few chapters to get into this book, but once I did it gripped me and I stayed interested! Overall, I liked Jane and I wanted her to unravel everything and find her resolution. I liked that she went head to head with the males in the book. I didn't love the nanotechnology parts simply because it didn't interest me, but there was enough connection to the character to hang in there. It does make me want to go back and read the first one so that I would have better understood Jane.