The best series of the year, Aces High Jokers Wild, is back, and still punching hard in this 4th book, Aces and Eights, so if you haven’t start reading this series, do yourself a favor and grab book 1, book 2, book 3, this book and the rest of the series now, because you don’t want to not read this. Our reviews of all the books are here, and do check what other people have said about this amazing, breath-taking series by O. E. Tearmann on Goodreads. Truly phenomenal.
So! To the review!
Book 4 starts with butt slaps, giggles and, yes, butt slaps, you read it correctly, and a party! And it’s heart-warming to read the Wildcards having so much fun, and pranking the birthday boy, all day. Even Tweak was happy, lol, but not long will pass until we start to mentally say our goodbyes to Topher because he is going to be massacred by Tweak. Poor guy, so young to die. May the Lord have mercy upon the remnants of his corpse. Hahahah, lol. You will get the joke once you read the book.
There are lots of romantic (and sex) scenes from the start of the book, and the light atmosphere tucks us into our seats ,making us totally comfortable with all the soft progress that the Wildcards are making. Tweak is smiling more, Yvonne and Sarah are always together and making pranks, Topher is… well…. you’ll read, and Janice’s cursing everything and everyone under high-heaven because she’s Janice. Will it stay this way for long? You bet it won’t, but more on that later.
There is now a strong focus on Kevin as the plot develops around him. We get to know him, his past, his role in the Cavanaugh’s Corporation, his enemies and his parents from a new angle and it’s interesting to read layers of him that we didn’t know existed. The thing is: this focus has a reason, that we will find out as we read, but on the beginning of the book, one thing can be said, for sure: The heat is doubled on his ass, and this has nothing to do with Aidan.
When the action and the thriller comes, they come with attack teams out of nowhere, compromised missions, runaways, bullets for everybody, (Tweak saving most people’s lives while calling them shitheads and competing in terms of cursing with Janice), and lots of blood is spilled. Expect people dying and you won’t be disappointed, because the corps are attacking three times as much and things are ten times as difficult, so yeah.
Trauma, torture, psychological warfare and PTSD shown in crude words raising the hairs on the back of our necks. Readers are warned. It’s …uffh, deep, powerful, graphic and the writers open your mind to many possibilities by telling these things in a way that you feel connected and understand what’s happening and the damaged done.
And between all the gut twisting tension and all the fast-paced scenes that leave you pulling your hairs out, you get much needed brakes. Much needed because if the authors decided to simply continue with the scenes of thriller and action, well, we were going to faint, or have a heart-attack, hahahahha. To show you the level of tension that this book has, the authors had the audacity, the nerve, to cite in Monty Phyton during a thriller scene to make things lighter. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHHAHAHAAHAHA! Ohhhhhhhh man, that was priceless! Hahahahhahahahha. Oh my god, ahahhahhhahahahaah. Ten points for Gryffindor, hahhahhahahahaha.
I think that the writers gave us the romantic elements early on because we won’t have much of that in the rest of the book, (well, we do have Billie, but that’s another story)
Something that we have been noticing for quite a while now in the narrative of O. E. Tearmann is that, the body language reactions of the characters are so detailed, so well put, and so well timed that it looks like both writers stopped, made a brainstorming session about the better suited body movements to use as reaction that created an almost cinematic imagery behind our eyes, because this is perfect, too perfect. It’s beautiful. Excellently done right here.
“Aidan was silent beside him for a beat. Then soft fingers tipped his chin up. “Kev? Look at me, okay?” Wearily, Kevin opened his eyes. In the dim light, the worry lines between Aidan’s brows had deepened. He held Kevin’s eyes. “Don’t do this to yourself.” Kevin looked away, closing his eyes. “I’ve got the alarm set. Let’s talk in the morning.” ”
O. E. Tearmann sprinkled the book with weird, quirky analogies that will make you laugh and think: “wau, I will add this one on my vocabulary”, and yes, the include curses from Janice as well, like “go fuck a frag granade”, ahhahahhahaha. Oh Janice, we love you so much.
Once again, the authors made precious, solid, and heavy arguments on moral points when it comes to treating people, dealing with enemies and keeping one’s integrity in the face of harsh circumstances.
“ And today, the news is full of arrests and threat reports and trials. Have you noticed why?” he asked, voice unnervingly calm, like a teacher giving a lesson.
Ezra shrugged again, staring at his meal. “Don’t particularly care, if I’m honest.”
“Kev,” Aidan warned, but Kevin went right on, eyeing their companion coldly. “Most people don’t. Because what does it matter compared to how you’re going to eat tomorrow and when your rent is due?” he asked rhetorically. “But that’s the problem. You see, they’ve given you an enemy to hate. They’ve given you something to fear and to fight; the perverse, the Other. Because what does it matter that there are no more civil rights, that shareholders and corporations run our lives, when there’s threats out there? Threats like two girls in love or someone planting apple trees.” he affected an expression of sarcastically exaggerated horror. “And of course, that’s what you focus on, these horrible crimes that the media keeps telling you about. Because while you’re fighting the terrorists and the immigrants and the ‘fags’, you’re not thinking. And if you ever had the time to start thinking, you might wonder why it’s illegal to collect rainwater, why your Standing dictates the quality of food you’re allowed to buy, why there’s no such thing as upward mobility in the culture we’ve got and absolutely no way for us to make legitimate complaints. You might start noticing the bars on your cage, if you weren’t given something ‘better’ to fret over.” “
How powerful is this?! Oh my god. Love it, love it, love it!
Ok, Naomi is fully integrated in the crew, as you discovered on book three, and she is the new mother-hen (with guns, explosives and a laser-like stare that melts steel) and it’s soooooooooooooo freaking cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute! *screams*. Seriously, Naomi is the warmest, and deadliest, character in this book. Imagine this, if you haven’t yet read book 3: Janice, in full rage, fused with the coldness of Kevin when he is mad, and the warmth of Aidan with the mother-like abilities of Andrea, and the seriousness of Damian. Yep! That! And who is she taking under her bionic wing? You would not believe me if I told you, so you better read it yourself, and it’s super-duper cute.
“Liza held her eyes longer than she would have expected. But she wasn’t winning this. Naomi had learned this game in childhood. Never look down. Never look away. Never let people think you can be cowed. I used to stare down a guy who broke bones with his bare hands, honey. Give it up. When Liza did look away, she bit her lip, glancing from Blake to Janice. Janice gave the stare-down a try next. She held Naomi’s eyes steadily. Now there was somebody who’d been through the same school Naomi had. Hell, she was the professor.”
Love this book. Love this series. Love these authors. Love this story. Love every page, not only for the tension, not only for the dynamics of the character, not only for the originality of the story, for the immersiveness of it all, the couplesand the ways they just… become, it’s…. (*play a Keanu meme*) breathtaking!
This book, this series, these writers are solid gold. OMG!
Oh, a tip: Pay attention to the chapter titles *winks*.
Ok, not a fan of Cyberpunk, but you really want a reason to read this book, right? Ok. Here’s the deal: Fantasy! There are elements of Fantasy on this book, so, if you like to read about magical stuff, while still making perfect sense inside Scifi, this series will please you, or at least, this book, lol.
This book touches so many chords in us, we feel so understood, honestly loved and guided by the gentle hands of the authors. This is a book series that readers, once they give it a chance, will find that it’s not just a set of books that they want, but that they need, and that ending, oh, god, fucking priceless! Priceless!
Pros:
- Flawless continuation of book 3
- Excellent plot
- Excellent character dynamics and evolution. You can see the sutble changes that the characters went through over time. They are adapting and it shows, progressively.
- Excellent stability of behaviour when it comes to each character while also being able to show new traits and sides of the same characters. Impressive. Most impressive.
- Excellent romance scenes
- Breath-taking demonstration of trauma and demonstrations of the physical and mental healing and coping mechanisms relating to trauma, abuse, and PTSD. Simply jaw-dropping good work. Gripping
- Unpredictable plot and scenes all over
- Nerve-wrecking thriller scenes
- The humor is out of this world
- A completely addictive read
Cons:
- None.
Scribble's Worth 
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