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A review by bunnerz
An Assassin's Deception by Harper Wylde, A.K. Koonce
3.0
I liked that we get some more backstory on all the main characters while their relationships develop, and I appreciated the adversity that was thrown into the group for some drama, but I still had so many issues with the plot in the books in the series.
In this book, the group got hired by a family to look for a missing girl who I was very confused at this initial premise to begin with - were they assassins for hire or were they running an investigative agency? But going down that path regardless, we somehow ended up with the group wanting to change their goals mid-way through the book after they found out more secrets about the League and Derek and have some more friends and family join them. Spontaneously, they began planning how to set up a full The book now started to sound like a superhero movie plot with lots of sex and sexy thoughts thrown in instead of just a singular group goal to take down the League for their own personal revenge reasons.
Speaking of Derek, the point of the group co-opting random housing was so that the League can't track them down. When their enemies found out where they live to confront them, why weren't they immediately finding a new place to live?!?!?! They already had so many complaints about the one-bedroom apartment due to lack of privacy, yet at no point were any members of the group described to try and look for new housing. Derek was a very predictable overpowered one-dimensional evil villain who could both teleport and siphon in addition to other new powers that conveniently surprised the group whenever they battled. The dramatic reveal in the end about him being could be seen miles away. Also, man was it naive for them to think that
I was also very confused at how Alexa's time pausing ability works. As far as I understood, it would pause time for her and whoever wasn't caught in it to give her extra 60 seconds while it was real-time for everyone else. She tried to use this ability when one of them is injured by pausing time for him... but that made no sense? Wouldn't that just prolong his pain unless she could somehow pause time for everyone but him and the healer traveling to him?? So odd. I also had issues with her poor timing of using her abilities during action scenes when she was supposed to be this bad-ass experienced assassin -- don't even get me started about her siphoning abilities.
On the bright side, contrary to the last book, we finally saw some more interactions with the outside boring human society even if it didn't make much sense world-building-wise. The assassins continued to be disjoint from normal human life, and it still wasn't really explained how they were hired or sent on missions.
Once again, my impressions were that this was a light and entertaining fast-paced action read with hot smutty scenes, but story-wise it really was quite weak. It was also littered with typos and could have used some thorough editing. Looking at the reviews for the last book in the series, I don't think I'll try to attempt to read it.
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Ratings - abandoned series:
#1 An Assassin's Death: ★★★☆☆
#2 An Assassin's Deception (this book): ★★★☆☆
In this book, the group got hired by a family to look for a missing girl who
Spoiler
who ended up revealing that she's adopted and actually the FMC's half sister from a secret assassin breeding program.Spoiler
anti-League League.Speaking of Derek, the point of the group co-opting random housing was so that the League can't track them down. When their enemies found out where they live to confront them, why weren't they immediately finding a new place to live?!?!?! They already had so many complaints about the one-bedroom apartment due to lack of privacy, yet at no point were any members of the group described to try and look for new housing. Derek was a very predictable overpowered one-dimensional evil villain who could both teleport and siphon in addition to other new powers that conveniently surprised the group whenever they battled. The dramatic reveal in the end about him being
Spoiler
Alexa's fatherSpoiler
they killed Derek in the end when his body disappeared. Haven't they watched any bad guy movie plots?!?!I was also very confused at how Alexa's time pausing ability works. As far as I understood, it would pause time for her and whoever wasn't caught in it to give her extra 60 seconds while it was real-time for everyone else. She tried to use this ability when one of them is injured by pausing time for him... but that made no sense? Wouldn't that just prolong his pain unless she could somehow pause time for everyone but him and the healer traveling to him?? So odd. I also had issues with her poor timing of using her abilities during action scenes when she was supposed to be this bad-ass experienced assassin -- don't even get me started about her siphoning abilities.
On the bright side, contrary to the last book, we finally saw some more interactions with the outside boring human society even if it didn't make much sense world-building-wise. The assassins continued to be disjoint from normal human life, and it still wasn't really explained how they were hired or sent on missions.
Once again, my impressions were that this was a light and entertaining fast-paced action read with hot smutty scenes, but story-wise it really was quite weak. It was also littered with typos and could have used some thorough editing. Looking at the reviews for the last book in the series, I don't think I'll try to attempt to read it.
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Ratings - abandoned series:
#1 An Assassin's Death: ★★★☆☆
#2 An Assassin's Deception (this book): ★★★☆☆