romecca's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Judd is definitely one of my new book boyfriends! This series gets better and better with every book. You can't help but fall in love with the characters and their stories.
bananatricky's review against another edition
4.0
Three and a half stars.
I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago, at that time I likened the novel to Elle Kennedy's excellent Killer Instincts series or Julie Ann Walker's Black Knights Inc series. Having read the second book I'm going to downgrade my initial euphoria. This is the spec-ops equivalent of space opera (in my opinion).
So, a brief recap, Viviana “Quillery” Chambers is 50% of the operational powerhouse known as the Quillery Edge, her BFF Mary is The Edge. Together she and Mary have masterminded more SpecOps missions than anyone else. They were the brains behind the business known as The Hive, which turned out to be a front for a group of terrorists called The Collective.
Mary and Vi developed the cutting edge HERA security program and The Collective will do anything to get its hands on the tech.
In the last book Mary got together with Dylan Mason. He and his six brothers run a rival organisation, The Arsenal, based in their small home town.
Jud 'the Judge" Jensen is an assassin working within The Collective but somehow aloof, when The Collective put a $6 million hit on Vi he steps in to threaten to kill anyone who attempts the assassination because years ago Vi saved his brother Danny when a mission went sideways. When The Collective ups the ante by kidnapping Jud's brother Jud realises he has to make a choice and he chooses to walk away from the dark side and join up with Quillery Edge and The Arsenal.
If you love high octane suspense where everyone has unique skills, everyone belongs to a group with a shadowy name (The Hive, The Arsenal, The Collective, Quillery Edge etc), there are geniuses and spec-ops heroes everywhere and mysterious faceless enemies you will adore this. It's fast-paced, engaging crack-cocaine that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Having said that, Cara Carnes doesn't need her spec-op heroes to rescue her heroines, these gals are more likely to be the ones doing the rescuing! Her heroines are (mentally) strong, extraordinarily bright, focused and loyal through and through. I thought this novel was going to focus on the troubles in the local town rather than Quillery - can't wait to see where the next novel leads us.
If you don't take this too seriously I think you will love this.
I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago, at that time I likened the novel to Elle Kennedy's excellent Killer Instincts series or Julie Ann Walker's Black Knights Inc series. Having read the second book I'm going to downgrade my initial euphoria. This is the spec-ops equivalent of space opera (in my opinion).
So, a brief recap, Viviana “Quillery” Chambers is 50% of the operational powerhouse known as the Quillery Edge, her BFF Mary is The Edge. Together she and Mary have masterminded more SpecOps missions than anyone else. They were the brains behind the business known as The Hive, which turned out to be a front for a group of terrorists called The Collective.
Mary and Vi developed the cutting edge HERA security program and The Collective will do anything to get its hands on the tech.
In the last book Mary got together with Dylan Mason. He and his six brothers run a rival organisation, The Arsenal, based in their small home town.
Jud 'the Judge" Jensen is an assassin working within The Collective but somehow aloof, when The Collective put a $6 million hit on Vi he steps in to threaten to kill anyone who attempts the assassination because years ago Vi saved his brother Danny when a mission went sideways. When The Collective ups the ante by kidnapping Jud's brother Jud realises he has to make a choice and he chooses to walk away from the dark side and join up with Quillery Edge and The Arsenal.
If you love high octane suspense where everyone has unique skills, everyone belongs to a group with a shadowy name (The Hive, The Arsenal, The Collective, Quillery Edge etc), there are geniuses and spec-ops heroes everywhere and mysterious faceless enemies you will adore this. It's fast-paced, engaging crack-cocaine that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Having said that, Cara Carnes doesn't need her spec-op heroes to rescue her heroines, these gals are more likely to be the ones doing the rescuing! Her heroines are (mentally) strong, extraordinarily bright, focused and loyal through and through. I thought this novel was going to focus on the troubles in the local town rather than Quillery - can't wait to see where the next novel leads us.
If you don't take this too seriously I think you will love this.
vickylou's review
5.0
I adore to the extreme all of the 'Arsenal' books... it's just I think... I think that Jud holds a very special place in my heart... he is the best of the best as a badass of an assassin, but he has a great moral compass... Love Vi too... and love all the pieces putting into place all of our character's backstories... onto Dallas and Kamren for me...
ryanmackay's review
1.0
I hated the characters, I hated the plot, I hated everything. The writing itself is good. I don't know if I was just not in the mood for a book like this and that's why I hated it so much because the reviews on here are very positive. But for me, none of this book worked. I DNF'd at 35% and won't read any more of this series.
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