3.5 Stars

This book was all GO and no SLOW. It was a high octane, full throttle, chase book-- sort of reminding me of Catch Me If You Can with the way the character flew through the settings.

I think this book will be easier to talk about if I do a likes/dislikes list for this book.

Likes:

▪️Loved that Aiden was a super complex character with twisty secrets and hidden fears.
▪️Loved the fast paced nature of the book. It kept it super interesting and hard to put down.
▪️Aiden's friends rocked. They were these 2 boys from his prep school, and they were rich/smart/had access to any and everything. Plus, they were really supportive and always wanted to help Aiden even if he didn't want their help.
▪️Shiloh (the not dead love interest). I liked that he played both sides of the fence-- as a reader, I never really knew who's side Shiloh was on and it made it interesting. Also, Shiloh as a person seemed like someone worth getting to know.
▪️The Swans. Who doesn't want to read about a secret group of tech geniuses that are up to no good. It was basically a cult-- and tweeting out swan emojis to claim credit to their crimes was boss.


Dislikes:

▪️The romance part. There was WAY too much life/death/running around stuff going on for me to believe that Aiden would be thinking about a love interest as much as he did. Especially one he didn't know at all. A bomb would be about to go off and Aiden would stop on his way to disarm it to think about whether he could date this guy or not. It felt like the wrong time.
▪️The Swans are a terrorist group. I liked that they sort of blurred the lines with good and bad the way they were acting like they were pursuing justice. It's always nice when things aren't black and white in books. BUT-- I really thought Aiden took too long to agree that killing people is wrong. He was like "Welllllll, this person is not a great person and did that thing that really pissed everyone off-- should I care that this organization hacked his pacemaker and made him drop dead in front of his kids??" It was icky to me. If you don't like the thing a person did, pursue it legally, don't fucking blow up their car. If you have serious doubts about whether it is wrong to blow up someones car because they voted against a law or bill, you might need to do an internal evaluation.
▪️Basically, he just took too long for my liking to not agree with terrorism.
▪️There were DEFINITE believability issues. Do I think that the government would choose a minor to use as their decoy in a game with a terrorist group??? I get that they didn't want what happened to happen AT ALL, but they still put a child into the crosshairs of a terror group. And I don't think that would ever be a thing.
▪️The ending went ONNNNNN. This book ended 30 pages before it actually ended. The final scene commenced-- and then we get 30 pages of unneeded wrap-up.

So-- I really liked this book. It was SUCH an addicting, fun read. I don't think it's one that will super stick with me just because of the fast-paced nature of the book. I would recommend for summer/beach reading because it's such an action-y story with a good mystery and a lot of suspense!!

OVERALL: Complicated feelings about this one. I always love when books make you read them fast!! But I also had moral problems with the main character's feelings on murder. I think this is one of those books that need to be read for the fun of it and not be taken super seriously. It's pure entertainment.

My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books
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CW: Sexual content, suicide ( )

Well this is almost an adult book in that it has a lot of gay sex in it as the protagonist basically uses an app to find a "hook up" in a hotel and wakes up the next morning to find his lover dead. He is also mistakenly identified as a master hacker known as Mr Preston who is being hunted by a gay terrorist group ( they kill any anti-gay politicians) for the codes to hack into military drones and plan mass attacks on the US population. As well as being sort after by the Swans ( the terrorist group), the police and FBI are also chasing our hero for murder and other devious reasons . A gripping tale of suspense for older readers.

Review to come ( )

I really wanted to love this book. I loved Scream All Night soooooo much that I was hoping to find the same magic here, and I didn’t. I should probably say that this book was a “Jimmy” book (a.k.a. James Patterson Presents), and unfortunately it reads like one. In all honestly the story line is incredibly similar to Scream All Night but with different actions. You have a young man of 17 years old with problems in his past and family issues that cause him to “run away” in this case to boarding school. The book is about finding who this young man will grow up to be as an adult, but in the guise of a Tinder app gone horribly wrong. This book wants to be a gay James Bond, but our hero is neither smooth, or willing, and just a nervous wreck. Overall I liked the book, but it’s forgettable. It makes me not want to pick up the authors next book. ( )