Deal with the Devil

Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers in the vein of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author duo Kit Rocha.

The United States went belly up 45 years ago when our power grid was wiped out. Too few live in well-protected isolation while the rest of us scrape by on the margins. The only thing that matters is survival. By any means. At any cost.
Nina is an information broker with a mission: to bring hope to the darkest corners of Atlanta. She and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help those in need. But altruism doesn’t pay the bills—raiding vaults and collecting sensitive data is where the real money is.
Knox is a bitter, battle-weary supersoldier who leads the Silver Devils, an elite strike squad that chose to go AWOL rather than slaughter innocents. Before the Devils leave town for good, they need a biochem hacker to stabilize the experimental implants that grant their superhuman abilities.
The problem? Their hacker’s been kidnapped. And the ransom for her return is Nina. Knox has the perfect bait for a perfect trap: a lost Library of Congress server. The data could set Nina and her team up for years...
If they live that long.

I want to start this review with a huge thanks to Tor Books for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley! I’ve been super excited about this one since I found it while browsing NetGalley. I’m so glad I finally got out of a bit of a reading slump so I could read it!

The blurb mentioned two things that I really love: the tv show Orphan Black, and the books of Ilona Andrews. So how could I resist this one? I wanted to completely fall in love with this one since it seemed right up my alley, but that didn’t quite happen. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a hugely enjoyable read. But I think I went in with expectations of what it would be, and it ended up being something different.

The Good!

First things first, I love the science fiction aspect, and the found family aspect. Genetic manipulation, cloning, evil tech corporations? YES I love that stuff. I definitely wanted a LOT more of that. Maybe since this is a series, that will be explored in future books. And found family!! I mean, I think we all know I’m a sucker for found family. In this case, we got two!! Nina’s friends/crew, and then Knox’s crew. I loved reading about Nina, Maya, and Dani the most. I love that they’re all so different but have found such a close knit family with each other. Knox’s crew does also give off the found family vibes, but I felt that those characters were a little flat. They could have been fleshed out a lot more in my opinion.

The Meh?

The thing that threw me off was that this book was pretty heavy on the romance. I definitely expected some going in, but I guess I didn’t know to what level. The main romance is basically of equal importance to the rest of the plot, so if that’s not your thing then be aware! Additionally, I think that made me enjoy it a bit less because I just wasn’t convinced of Nina and Knox’s connection. I still enjoyed the romantic tension, but their connection just seemed physical to me so it was harder for me to buy into it.

I also wanted a LOT more of “mercenary librarian” idea!! That seems so cool! But we didn’t really get to see it in this book, since the plot of this one was basically a rescue mission for a kidnapped person. It was kind of teased at the beginning, but for a series with that as a title, I definitely want WAY more.

So overall, this was an entertaining read but unfortunately not a favorite! I still recommend it if you are looking for a quick, fun read.