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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
This is by far the strongest of the Nadia Stafford novels, and if I still wasn't crazy about Jack's extremely laconic dialogue or his relationship with Nadia, this book did a better job overall of selling them as a potential couple. The revelations about Nadia's past and the hunt to put her earlier tragedies to rest once and for all made for an engaging and satisfying novel.
Yes! After four years, we now have Nadia Stafford closure.
In this book, Nadia's target, who had been abusing his wife for years, ends up murdering his wife. Greatly affected by this, Jack tries to cheer her up... by finding the man who had raped and murdered Nadia's cousin. After Nadia decides to take "justice" into her own hands and get vengeance, she finds someone has beaten her to the punch of killing him. Nadia delves into who the killer is and their motivations. Meanwhile, the night of when Nadia's cousin was killed is not all it appears to be...
At the end of the second Nadia book, one frustration I had was the open endedness of whether she was going to go for Jack or Quinn. This one, basically caters to both but there is resolution.
The way that Armstrong took the story was interesting and gripping. However, some of the connections that the characters made made absolutely zero sense to me.
I do agree with other reviewers about how Jack talks seem to be stilted. In the past books it didn't bother me since he would give one or two sentences, but now he spoke in paragraphs. As much as I adore Jack, it kind of halted the narrative, I thought. I had to reread a few times too since I wasn't clear on what he meant.
All in all, I though that the book was a nice conclusion to the series.
In this book, Nadia's target, who had been abusing his wife for years, ends up murdering his wife. Greatly affected by this, Jack tries to cheer her up... by finding the man who had raped and murdered Nadia's cousin. After Nadia decides to take "justice" into her own hands and get vengeance, she finds someone has beaten her to the punch of killing him. Nadia delves into who the killer is and their motivations. Meanwhile, the night of when Nadia's cousin was killed is not all it appears to be...
At the end of the second Nadia book, one frustration I had was the open endedness of whether she was going to go for Jack or Quinn. This one, basically caters to both but there is resolution.
The way that Armstrong took the story was interesting and gripping. However, some of the connections that the characters made made absolutely zero sense to me.
I do agree with other reviewers about how Jack talks seem to be stilted. In the past books it didn't bother me since he would give one or two sentences, but now he spoke in paragraphs. As much as I adore Jack, it kind of halted the narrative, I thought. I had to reread a few times too since I wasn't clear on what he meant.
All in all, I though that the book was a nice conclusion to the series.
Ohh my goodness
I am over joyed that this series will continue!!
I am over joyed that this series will continue!!
Listening to audiobook.
This is book three in a trilogy suspense series that Kelley Armstrong has been working on for a while, book one was published in 2007. The main character, Nadia Stafford, is a former cop who went rogue and killed an unarmed suspect. When she is forced to leave law enforcement, she buys a wilderness lodge in Ontario. It eventually falls on hard times, she takes a job as a hit man to help pay the bills. Throughout the series we spend time with her hitman mentor, Jack, his mentor, Evelyn, and a US Marshall, who is also a part-time hit man Quinn.
At the beginning of this book, Quinn and Nadia have just ended an attempt at a relationship, or at least Nadia considers it ended. Quinn isn’t quite as sure. Jack contacts Nadia because he has found the person believed to have killed Nadia’s cousin, Amy, when she was a teenager. Nadia had also been kidnapped at the same time. She barely escaped with her life, but when she sent her cop father back to cabin, Amy was already dead and the suspect was gone. They do eventually catch him, and there is a trial. But he is acquitted. When Jack finds this killer, someone has already killed him before they get there. They do find his journal and Nadia has to come to some hard truths about her past.
It takes Nadia, Jack, Quinn and Evelyn a long time and many dead ends before they finally figure out who was the killer. There are many twists and turns and you will keep guessing until the end. I was surprised with many of the things that are uncovered in throughout the story. I don’t want to give any parts away, so I won’t go into much more of the plot. Just know that you don’t get from point A to point B in a straight line.
Although, this series isn’t really a romance or a paranormal, which is what I normally read, it is a great series and I recommend it. I probably wouldn’t have tried it if it was a different author, but I’m a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong and thought I would give it a try. I’m really glad that I did. I really like Nadia and Jack, especially. Evelyn is pretty funny too. There is a ton of action with a great story, which you’ve come to expect from Ms. Armstrong.
This is the first of the trilogy that I’ve done on audio. At this time, book one is been published on audio, but I don’t think book two is out yet. I’m sure it will be, but just isn’t done yet. I enjoyed it on audio. Jack has a gruff Irish brogue that I enjoyed. Nadia is Canadian and you could hear the accent on occasion. The rest of the voices were pretty normal, but were distinct and done well.
Originally posted at Hotlistens.com
This is book three in a trilogy suspense series that Kelley Armstrong has been working on for a while, book one was published in 2007. The main character, Nadia Stafford, is a former cop who went rogue and killed an unarmed suspect. When she is forced to leave law enforcement, she buys a wilderness lodge in Ontario. It eventually falls on hard times, she takes a job as a hit man to help pay the bills. Throughout the series we spend time with her hitman mentor, Jack, his mentor, Evelyn, and a US Marshall, who is also a part-time hit man Quinn.
At the beginning of this book, Quinn and Nadia have just ended an attempt at a relationship, or at least Nadia considers it ended. Quinn isn’t quite as sure. Jack contacts Nadia because he has found the person believed to have killed Nadia’s cousin, Amy, when she was a teenager. Nadia had also been kidnapped at the same time. She barely escaped with her life, but when she sent her cop father back to cabin, Amy was already dead and the suspect was gone. They do eventually catch him, and there is a trial. But he is acquitted. When Jack finds this killer, someone has already killed him before they get there. They do find his journal and Nadia has to come to some hard truths about her past.
It takes Nadia, Jack, Quinn and Evelyn a long time and many dead ends before they finally figure out who was the killer. There are many twists and turns and you will keep guessing until the end. I was surprised with many of the things that are uncovered in throughout the story. I don’t want to give any parts away, so I won’t go into much more of the plot. Just know that you don’t get from point A to point B in a straight line.
Although, this series isn’t really a romance or a paranormal, which is what I normally read, it is a great series and I recommend it. I probably wouldn’t have tried it if it was a different author, but I’m a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong and thought I would give it a try. I’m really glad that I did. I really like Nadia and Jack, especially. Evelyn is pretty funny too. There is a ton of action with a great story, which you’ve come to expect from Ms. Armstrong.
This is the first of the trilogy that I’ve done on audio. At this time, book one is been published on audio, but I don’t think book two is out yet. I’m sure it will be, but just isn’t done yet. I enjoyed it on audio. Jack has a gruff Irish brogue that I enjoyed. Nadia is Canadian and you could hear the accent on occasion. The rest of the voices were pretty normal, but were distinct and done well.
Originally posted at Hotlistens.com
Excellent series and I'm sorry to see it end.
Wild Justice was well written and engrossing with a satisfying ending.
Wild Justice was well written and engrossing with a satisfying ending.
The third and final instalment of the Nadia Stafford trilogy.
It seems as though I have been waiting for this forever! I have no idea why you would want to read this book without having read any of the preceding books, but if for some reason you were, Nadia is a contract killer.
Frankly she's had a tough life. She and her cousin were kidnapped and her cousin was raped and murdered when they were children. Unfortunately her cousin's killer was found not guilty.
Her experiences, and her family's involvement in law enforcement, led her to join the police force but after she shoots and kills a child killer (deliberately) she is forced to leave the police. She ends up as an occasional contract killer nicknamed "Dee" for a New York mob family to pay for the upkeep of her hunting lodge in Canada.
The book opens with Nadia trying to shoot a wife-beater but the hit goes wrong when his wife and child turn up. Resigned to trying again on another day, Nadia is devastated to find out that the man has killed his wife. Soon Nadia is having horrific nightmares harking back to her abduction but also mixing up her latest hit.
Jack comes to the rescue in typical laconic Jack fashion – he has found out the alias being used by Nadia's cousin's killer and in typical Jack fashion thinks that killing him will give Nadia some closure! But when they go to his house to stake it out they find him dead – murdered by an unknown visitor they saw leave the building.
Then it seems as though someone has hired a contract killer to silence Nadia – not knowing that she is also Dee and perfectly capable of looking after herself. Jack and Nadia try to find out who killed her cousin's killer and why, as well as who has taken out a contract on her.
In many respects the final definitive book in a series is always a let-down. You know that the big secret will finally be unveiled, you are 95% sure that there will be an HEA and generally all the loose ends will be tied off with a very pretty bow. All of which can lead me, at least, to feel a bit meh.
However, there was enough of a "new" plot being explored while the series threads were being tied up to make this an enjoyable read. I like Nadia, and I like Jack – I like the way he speaks in clipped sentences and she has to stop herself from doing the same when they are talking. I was going to say that I thought the identity of the villain was obvious, but then when I thought about it I would have said that if it had been any one of several other people too, and I would probably have said it was a cop out if it had been an anonymous random stranger!
So what am I really saying?
Don't read this unless you have read the first two books. It could probably stand alone but you would miss half of the nuances and not understand the relevance of some characters. I would also recommend that you re-read the first two books, I wish I had so that I remembered that Nadia's main client was a mob family.
Having said that, this is not simply a tying up loose ends kind of book, there is still a full-blown "mystery" to be solved.
A great ending to an unusual series – dark and gritty, about grown-ups with plenty of smoking – tell me why does that seem more risqué than graphic sex these days? And the casual way in which Jack tortures (for information) and kills is a country mile away from the more light-hearted (well you know what I mean) torture we see in so many paranormal books – perhaps it is because we then see Jack and Nadia spending hours covering up the evidence rather than merrily walking away?
I'm sorry to see the last of Nadia and Jack but I'm glad they ended on a high, if suitably restrained, note.
It seems as though I have been waiting for this forever! I have no idea why you would want to read this book without having read any of the preceding books, but if for some reason you were, Nadia is a contract killer.
Frankly she's had a tough life. She and her cousin were kidnapped and her cousin was raped and murdered when they were children. Unfortunately her cousin's killer was found not guilty.
Her experiences, and her family's involvement in law enforcement, led her to join the police force but after she shoots and kills a child killer (deliberately) she is forced to leave the police. She ends up as an occasional contract killer nicknamed "Dee" for a New York mob family to pay for the upkeep of her hunting lodge in Canada.
The book opens with Nadia trying to shoot a wife-beater but the hit goes wrong when his wife and child turn up. Resigned to trying again on another day, Nadia is devastated to find out that the man has killed his wife. Soon Nadia is having horrific nightmares harking back to her abduction but also mixing up her latest hit.
Jack comes to the rescue in typical laconic Jack fashion – he has found out the alias being used by Nadia's cousin's killer and in typical Jack fashion thinks that killing him will give Nadia some closure! But when they go to his house to stake it out they find him dead – murdered by an unknown visitor they saw leave the building.
Then it seems as though someone has hired a contract killer to silence Nadia – not knowing that she is also Dee and perfectly capable of looking after herself. Jack and Nadia try to find out who killed her cousin's killer and why, as well as who has taken out a contract on her.
In many respects the final definitive book in a series is always a let-down. You know that the big secret will finally be unveiled, you are 95% sure that there will be an HEA and generally all the loose ends will be tied off with a very pretty bow. All of which can lead me, at least, to feel a bit meh.
Spoiler
I thought it was well telegraphed in earlier books that Nadia was not just an innocent bystander in her cousin's abduction and that she too had been raped but that she had blotted it from her system. In this book Nadia slowly comes to realise the truth and understand what really happened in the woods that day.However, there was enough of a "new" plot being explored while the series threads were being tied up to make this an enjoyable read. I like Nadia, and I like Jack – I like the way he speaks in clipped sentences and she has to stop herself from doing the same when they are talking. I was going to say that I thought the identity of the villain was obvious, but then when I thought about it I would have said that if it had been any one of several other people too, and I would probably have said it was a cop out if it had been an anonymous random stranger!
So what am I really saying?
Don't read this unless you have read the first two books. It could probably stand alone but you would miss half of the nuances and not understand the relevance of some characters. I would also recommend that you re-read the first two books, I wish I had so that I remembered that Nadia's main client was a mob family.
Having said that, this is not simply a tying up loose ends kind of book, there is still a full-blown "mystery" to be solved.
A great ending to an unusual series – dark and gritty, about grown-ups with plenty of smoking – tell me why does that seem more risqué than graphic sex these days? And the casual way in which Jack tortures (for information) and kills is a country mile away from the more light-hearted (well you know what I mean) torture we see in so many paranormal books – perhaps it is because we then see Jack and Nadia spending hours covering up the evidence rather than merrily walking away?
I'm sorry to see the last of Nadia and Jack but I'm glad they ended on a high, if suitably restrained, note.
5000 stars for the climactic ending alone. For anyone who's ever been victimized, assaulted, rendered voiceless, and suffering from trauma, this book is for us.
I've waited 9 years to find out what happens to the hottest couple I've ever encountered. Kelley Armstrong has been and remains one of my favorite authors and biggest inspirations as a writer. Otherworld ended a bit disappointingly with characters I despise, so I'm ecstatic this one paid off.
I feel that sadness one gets after completing a series and I can't bring myself to listen to the next novella just yet, knowing there isn't an audiobook of the second one (yet). And no more Jennifer Ikeda, my new favorite narrator!
I've waited 9 years to find out what happens to the hottest couple I've ever encountered. Kelley Armstrong has been and remains one of my favorite authors and biggest inspirations as a writer. Otherworld ended a bit disappointingly with characters I despise, so I'm ecstatic this one paid off.
I feel that sadness one gets after completing a series and I can't bring myself to listen to the next novella just yet, knowing there isn't an audiobook of the second one (yet). And no more Jennifer Ikeda, my new favorite narrator!
4.5 stars.
I absolutely loved this book. When I first read Exit Strategy, I really wasn't a fan. It was too different from the Women of the Otherworld books, and it didn't deliver me what I expected in a Kelley Armstrong book. So I never bothered to pick this one up when it came out a few years ago. But I gave the first two books a second chance earlier this year and I'm SO GLAD I DID. Because this time around, I really enjoyed them.
Essentially, it's taken me a long time to get around to reading this book, and it was totally worth the wait. All the threads that have been trickled out over the previous two books are pulled together into a fast paced plot that had me going "WHAAAAAAAAAAAT??" on a regular basis.
Okay, let's talk about Nadia and Jack. It's been sort of obvious from the start that Armstrong was going to have them end up together. And it's been a long, slow road of "maybe he likes her??" through the first two books. The slow burn continues here, but it was freaking glorious. Seriously. I don't ship often, but I ship those two. Add in the fact that we get Jack's back story and it's pretty feelsy, and I didn't want this book to end.
Really, my only gripe was that they seemed to spend an AWFUL lot of time just driving between cities, and that the ending was a tad on the abrupt side. But on the whole, I loved it. And I'm really glad I gave this series a second chance.
I absolutely loved this book. When I first read Exit Strategy, I really wasn't a fan. It was too different from the Women of the Otherworld books, and it didn't deliver me what I expected in a Kelley Armstrong book. So I never bothered to pick this one up when it came out a few years ago. But I gave the first two books a second chance earlier this year and I'm SO GLAD I DID. Because this time around, I really enjoyed them.
Essentially, it's taken me a long time to get around to reading this book, and it was totally worth the wait. All the threads that have been trickled out over the previous two books are pulled together into a fast paced plot that had me going "WHAAAAAAAAAAAT??" on a regular basis.
Okay, let's talk about Nadia and Jack. It's been sort of obvious from the start that Armstrong was going to have them end up together. And it's been a long, slow road of "maybe he likes her??" through the first two books. The slow burn continues here, but it was freaking glorious. Seriously. I don't ship often, but I ship those two. Add in the fact that we get Jack's back story and it's pretty feelsy, and I didn't want this book to end.
Really, my only gripe was that they seemed to spend an AWFUL lot of time just driving between cities, and that the ending was a tad on the abrupt side. But on the whole, I loved it. And I'm really glad I gave this series a second chance.