First impressions are essential and this book starts off with a bang, blood, and murder – “MOE SHERIDAN, Esq., fell to the floor unleashing an agonizing scream. His perfectly knotted bow tie sagged to one side and a quickly growing bloom of crimson blood covered his finely tailored shirt.”
Well, hell yeah! With all the initial confusion, blood, bullets flying and all questions raised in less than 2 paragraphs, we know that this is going to be an excellent book! When the humour kicks in we are already having a blast and it takes less than a page for us to be introduced with the comedic ability of Jocie McKade with her funny exaggerations , like:
“Jacqueline crawled slowly around the desk. Lifting her well-manicured fingers, she used only the palms of her hands. Her butt was way too high, her head was sticking up like a watermelon, and each time she moved forward a gold bracelet banged against the wood floor, or the ridiculously pointed toes of her designer heels chattered like a stapler. Obviously, she didn’t crawl very much.”
This book is our type of jam. Badass female protagonists with guns, conspiracy spy theories, humour and thriller, ohhhh yeaaahhh.
The humour is on-point, the characters reactions to the conversation are really realistic, the mystery is instantly gripping, as so many questions are raised so fast, and things develop without a hint of what we will find next. *claps* Jocie McKade is an excellent writer, no doubt whatsoever on this. Excellently done.
Ok, I’ll tell you this: I’ve never read a book that is so… casual yet intriguing as this one, it’s like this book was written by a highly experienced person with the spirit of playful child, it’s just… FUN to read! Like, this book is really fun! You will laugh a lot while reading this and having a generally good time throughout the book, I mean, who else, but Jocie McKade would write : “I love you more’n chocolate and peanut butter.” and how can someone not crack up reading this? Excellent stuff right here. I love this book so much.
So, to the plot. We have Jackie and Emma, two twins separated by birth, that lost their parents on the same day, were raised by single parents, one with the father, one with the mother, and both receive an envelope from a firm telling them to go to Washington DC to take care of their father, and mother’s, state, yet their parents, of each one, lived humble lives. To make things even worse, inside the envelope there’s a letter from their now deceased parents that they MUST go there, or they would be in extreme danger, and things only get crazier as events unfolds.
There is a duality of narrative to this book made sort of compulsory because of the fact that the main characters are twins and there are two complementary perspectives to share but Jocie doesn’t repeat herself or the story, which is something really cool. Another part of the duality is that the personalities of the two twins are symmetric, causing several clashes between the two.
The book gets intense quickly, very quickly and it’s amazing to see how well the characters personalities are enhanced by the quick passed and factual-style of narrative of the author.
If you love thrillers filled with mysteries, pay very close attention to this book and this author, because she isn’t playing, at all. Jocie McKade, will make you ask about every aspect of this plot, the characters and the intentions of the story to the point that you won’t look sideways from the book, you will want to discover everything and demand every conceivable answer. This book is as gripping as it is funny. The mystery here is perfect, so perfect in fact, that even half-way thought the book, you are still pretty much clueless of what’s going on, you still have many questions to answer, everything is still developing, and you are still very much entertained by the development of the story, which is something very hard to pull off.
There are many things happening in this book, one mystery rolls over the other and the characters get involved in the search of the truth many times hidden in deep layers of very well kept secrets that lead to apparent dead-ends. Every character has something to hide, something to lose and something that that character wants to know, so it’s not like the plot will revolve entirety on our two main characters, which is neat in many ways, and that enriches the experience of the reading, because no matter which character you choose, you will have a plethora of things to find out about them. Breath-taking writing this one.
This is one of the coolest, funniest and mysterious books I’ve read this year. It’s a total recommendation from my side, for this Adult Romance, which YA reads will also very much enjoy because of the “youthful” and playful style of writing of Jocie McKade. Super entertaining! Loved every word of it.
Pros:
- Excellent narrative
- Excellent humour, just priceless, this is one of the funniest books you’ll read
- Empowering for women, LOVED it!
- GREAT female characters all over. SUPER STUFF right there
- The duality of the narrative and the light-shadow compensation of the main characters was simply perfect and very dynamic
- GREAT male characters, very nice indeed
- Great “villains”
- Complex plot that leaves you baffled and intrigued until the book ends
- A perfect ending that makes us BEG for the sequel, that is already available here
Cons
- None.
Lesson of the book: “Keep your enemies closer than your friends”
Favourite Character: Sydney
Cover Score: 7.7/10
Book Score: 8.8/10
Get your copy on Amazon // CozyMysteries //Smashwords // Author Page
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