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wellactjoally's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
3.0
Revenge. Accidentally falling in love. False pretenses. Moles. Car accidents. Poison. Avian flu.
mvbookreviewer's review against another edition
4.0
Lily Mansfield is a woman hell bent on vengeance & revenge against the powerful Nervi organization operated in Paris. Seeking justice for the assassination of her close friends Tina and Averill (both of whom had previously being contract killers themselves) and their adopted daughter Zia who had actually been found abandoned and starving to death, by Lily on one of her jobs to Croatia. Since Lily’s life as a hired killer didn’t provide the most stable environment to raise a little girl, Lily had let her friends adopt Zia, and the three of them had held Zia dearer to them than anything else.
Lily kills Salvatore Nervi, the head of the Nervi organization nearly killing herself in the process and goes into hiding in the one place Salvatore’s son Rodrigo Nervi wouldn’t think of looking for her. But as most powerful organizations in the world, the Nervi organization has their hands in all the important agencies of the world with pretty strong political ties with the richest governments in the world, which makes it quite easy to identify the woman who had deceived Rodrigo’s father and ultimately led to his demise.
The CIA dispatches their agent Lucas Swain to track Lily down and bring her down. With Rodrigo hot on Lily’s trail as well, Lucas befriends Lily & ultimately finds himself intrigued on what had actually lured Lily’s friends Tina and Averill out of their retirement into bombing one of Nervi’s laboratories, which had resulted in the murder of the whole family. Unearthing the secret that the Nervi organization was in fact producing a vaccine to combat a strain of the avian influenza virus that has the capability of human-to-human transmission, whilst mass producing the strain of the virus itself to unleash on the world to reap the benefits in millions of dollars, being the only organization having a vaccine at hand.
Things get interesting when Lily and Swain are hired by the same anonymous person who lured Averill and Tina for the initial attack on the laboratory, to destroy the lab and the scientist who is engineering the virus & the vaccine once and for all. As most of the novels by this author, this too delivers a superb tale with a splendid cast of characters, with the right mix of intrigue, mystery, passion, love and family politics with a surprising twist at the end of the tale.
Lily kills Salvatore Nervi, the head of the Nervi organization nearly killing herself in the process and goes into hiding in the one place Salvatore’s son Rodrigo Nervi wouldn’t think of looking for her. But as most powerful organizations in the world, the Nervi organization has their hands in all the important agencies of the world with pretty strong political ties with the richest governments in the world, which makes it quite easy to identify the woman who had deceived Rodrigo’s father and ultimately led to his demise.
The CIA dispatches their agent Lucas Swain to track Lily down and bring her down. With Rodrigo hot on Lily’s trail as well, Lucas befriends Lily & ultimately finds himself intrigued on what had actually lured Lily’s friends Tina and Averill out of their retirement into bombing one of Nervi’s laboratories, which had resulted in the murder of the whole family. Unearthing the secret that the Nervi organization was in fact producing a vaccine to combat a strain of the avian influenza virus that has the capability of human-to-human transmission, whilst mass producing the strain of the virus itself to unleash on the world to reap the benefits in millions of dollars, being the only organization having a vaccine at hand.
Things get interesting when Lily and Swain are hired by the same anonymous person who lured Averill and Tina for the initial attack on the laboratory, to destroy the lab and the scientist who is engineering the virus & the vaccine once and for all. As most of the novels by this author, this too delivers a superb tale with a splendid cast of characters, with the right mix of intrigue, mystery, passion, love and family politics with a surprising twist at the end of the tale.
gossamerwingedgazelle's review against another edition
4.0
Good, although not 100% thrilling. I was pleased that the female lead wasn't pissy. I hate that.
kcoleman's review against another edition
4.0
this was a great book! I love the spy games and the strong Heroine and the great guy!
geisttull's review against another edition
3.0
A quick read - an older novel from Linda. I do like her.
fishgirl182's review against another edition
3.0
Another fun Linda Howard read. This one is part of the John Medina series, which I didn't realize until later. It doesn't have much to do with him except that it's set in the same world of CIA espionage at the other books in the series. The general story was intriguing - a rogue spy out to get revenge for the deaths of her friends. Lily was competent and interesting, if somewhat reckless in her trust. Lucas was fun and brash and I could see where the attraction was. There wasn't as much heat at some Linda Howard books but it was still plenty hot. I thought that the end was a bit rushed (the part after they complete the mission). I would have liked to have seen a bit more anger on Lily's part for his betrayal. She was way more understanding than any normal woman should be and a good fight was in order. I would have liked to see Lucas's turmoil over over his decision instead of just a few paragraphs at the end where we learn that she's forgiven him and he's very sorry the whole thing. That part was a bit unsatisfying but otherwise it was an enjoyable read.
caraheard's review against another edition
4.0
As usual, I liked this Linda Howard book. I like her characters and her story lines. This one ended a bit strange, but not necessarily bad strange. There was one question I still had at the end that didn't get answered, but I enjoyed it.
danireadsbooks1's review against another edition
4.0
Look, it’s not my favorite by Howard, but it’s also not my least favorite. It’s a solid romantic suspense written in the early 2000s so keep that in mind.
The ending is fully worth it though. When everything comes together and it all makes sense? Incredible.
Also I would just like to say: an assassin gets revenge on a crime boss for murdering her friends and their daughter and is just in general a bad ass? “At this angle I’d shoot through your testicles and into your intestines” and I was in love with her. 100%
The ending is fully worth it though. When everything comes together and it all makes sense? Incredible.
Also I would just like to say: an assassin gets revenge on a crime boss for murdering her friends and their daughter and is just in general a bad ass? “At this angle I’d shoot through your testicles and into your intestines” and I was in love with her. 100%