Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: Out Now!
How I got this book: eARC from author
She may learn to live for love…if vengeance doesn’t kill her first.
Plix spends her lonely, gritty life trying to solve the mysteries her father left behind. Armed with a variety of cybernetic enhancements and a talent for getting into places she shouldn’t be, she searches for clues to his murder—and who’s responsible for poisoning her city.
Waking up on a street corner with her brain wiring fried to a crisp, she figures she must have gotten close this time. There’s only one man she trusts to pull her back from the brink: a tuner who can retrieve the evidence hidden deep in the recesses of her mind. A man she dares not let too close to her heart.
When Edison downloads a secret SynDate schematic from Plix’s burnt-out circuitry, he knows with dreadful finality that nothing—not even the fiery kiss he’s been holding back for years—will stop her from pursuing her quest past the point of insanity.
All he can do, as he helps her plan her final mission, is ease her pain, watch her back…and hope one of them doesn’t pay with their lives.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
I’ve long been a fan of science fiction romance, and with the arrival of more cyberpunk stories from Samhain, I was excited to get the chance to read new and interesting worlds that were so different from the ones I already loved.
Plix has one goal in life: continue in her father’s footsteps and find a way to bring down the company SynDate – the ones ultimately responsible for the deaths of both her mother and father. She has been cyber engineered to be faster, smarter and more technologically savvy in order to complete that mission. Thanks to Edison, Plix is closer than anyone ever before in finding out the truth.
Edison fears that every time Plix comes to him broken and beaten down that it’ll be the last time he ever sees her alive. He hates fixing her up and sending her back on her way to get into more trouble. After a passionate kiss and a flirtation with death, Plix might finally be ready to devote more of her life to living instead of vengeance. But she will need Edison’s help for one last mission before she can even think about ever after.
I was so excited to read this book, it sounded like such an adventure with a mix of robotic-like technology thrown in the mix. I was hoping that Grey would do a thorough job of explaining all the tech and world-building, and for me, the world as a whole is still somewhat shrouded in mystery. Much of the first chapter or two is spent with Plix going in and out of consciousness, and I had a difficult time keeping up with both the slang and the tech itself. I wish it would have been explained a little more upfront.
I had a harder time connecting to Plix than I did Edison. I wanted to like Plix, I wanted to cheer for her and be with her every step of her journey. Unfortunately, I found her to be very single-minded in her focus, so much so that she came across as very selfish and a little naive. Her only goal and focus for the majority of the book was to bring down SynDate, and in the process she stepped all over Edison’s heart, time and time again.
I liked that Edison was there for Plix, that he wanted to standby her and support her and yet he never held her back. He was very much a beta hero character, taking a very back-seat role to the kickass Plix. He was the nerdy tech guy who patched her up and loved her from afar. I wanted him to be a bit more aggressive in his dealings with her – especially when it became obvious that Plix was oblivious to his attraction.
Although their romance develops very quickly in the last portion of the book, it was done in a way that seemed genuine. Plix was forced to come to grips with the idea of being in love, being in a relationship. While it happened somewhat quickly, it also made total sense to me, and I loved their few moments of tenderness. I wish we would have gotten to see more of that throughout the book.
All in all I think Grey created an interesting and well developed world that can be expanded and explained so much more in future stories. I would love to see more of Plix and Edison or even other characters help push this world further into change. While the relationship was a little slow in developing, it was tender and sweet in the end. I loved Grey’s voice and will definitely be looking for more in the future.
I give Unacceptable Risk a C+
