Review: Wicked Lies

Reviewed by Jen
 

I have been reading the Dark Mission books since the very beginning, and I was so surprised and excited when I found out A) this book is about Jonas; and B) it is a m/m novella.  I have been intrigued by Jonas for, well, forever and I love that his character is gay and gets a romance of his own.

If you need a quick refresher, Jonas is the techie who worked for the Mission up until the end of the last book. His legs are messed up from an old injury.  And he's always there to help out the heroes when they need support.  Now, he is on a mission to save the grandson of the rebel leader.

Jonas is drawn to Danny from the moment he sees him on surveillance cameras, being tortured by Mission operatives.  He organizes a rescue and the two make a quick connection over the coms.  But it's not until they are alone in the safehouse that things really heat up.  From there, Jonas has to decide whether to let Danny in, or shut him out, like all of the casual lovers who came before him.

So let me tell you what I liked.  Both heroes are very compelling. I already sort-of loved Jonas from previous books, but we learn so much about him here.  It's really interesting how much of him has been hidden from the other characters and the readers --and I'm not just talking about his sexual orientation.  He hides himself!  Here we really see him, maybe for the first time.  (He's pretty screwed up, BTW.)  --And Danny... I loved that he knew what he wanted and he didn't give up. I loved that he saw the beauty in Jonas and held on with both hands.

I also really enjoyed the sexual tension and the love scenes.  Hot. And with attention both realism and detail. --In addition, I give bonus points for Karina Cooper giving just enough backstory to remind me what was going on, without any major info dump... plus cameos from familiar faces from previous books.

I only have two complaints.  One, it was love too fast.  It's my biggest peeve in romance of any subgenre.  And I wished the story would have been longer.   There was a lot of promo stuff behind the novella in my ebook and I felt the ending sneaked up and bit me.  I would have enjoyed a whole 200+ pages devoted to watching these two make a go of it.

Rating: B

*ARC Provided by Avon

Click to purchase: Amazon

Wicked Lies

by Karina Cooper

Release Date: March 5, 2013

Publisher: Avon