review || BLAMED

My system for NetGalley books is rather easy -- sort them by publish date and read in that order. However, the books I've received from authors or directly from publishers? My system needs help.

I requested BLAMED weeks ago.... And while it sat in my carousel, it kept getting pushed further and further back until bam -- Edie posted it was release day.

Oh no...!

So I put aside the book I was reading (FOR HIS PROTECTION -- which I don't know ever got it's blog review finished...) and dove into BLAMED -- while the review wouldn't be out by publication date, it would be darn close (or so I naively thought).

This helped me realize, though, that I need to truly perfect my system as a whole. My next Erin Condren life planner will be further utilized -- I will make a point to write every book, every pub date, every tour date, and so forth.

However... I don't think I've done too bad this first few months. It's been a learning process, by I'm getting there :)

Blamed by Edie Harris

Publisher: Carina Press (11/3/2014)

Series: Blood Money, book 1
Genre: Romantic Thriller
Source: Author
Buy it from Amazon | BN || Goodreads

My Rating: ★★★★

Born into a long line of spies, sanctioned killers and covert weapons developers, Beth Faraday carried out her first hit-for-hire when she was still a teenager.

That part of her life—the American spy royalty part—ended one year ago, with a job gone wrong in Afghanistan. The collateral damage she caused with a single shot was unfathomable and, for Beth, unforgivable. She's worked hard to build a new life for herself, far away from the family business.

But someone, somewhere, hasn't forgotten what Beth did in Kabul. And they want revenge.

As the Faraday clan bands together to defend Beth and protect their legacy, Beth is forced to flee her new home with the unlikeliest of allies-MI6 agent Raleigh Vick, the only man she's ever loved. And the one she thought she'd killed in the desert.

- - -

This book starts out intense -- great descriptions, makes you want to read more. I mean, how could you not when you read:

The blood in her mouth tasted like hot pennies.

 Flinching as a secondary arterial spray lashed her face, she kept her fingers clenched in her tormentor's hair, holding his head aloft for the slice of the blade she'd stolen from his tool kit when his back was turned.

The mistake had just cost him his life.

Her stomach lurched, and she shoved the dead man away, wishing he'd deafened her when he boxed her ears on the second--third?--day, so she couldn't hear the back of his skull hit the concrete floor with a sickening thwack. Her hand shook, the knife threatening to slip from her mangled fingers, but once it fell, she knew she wouldn't be able to pick it back up, and she couldn't afford to be weaponless. Injured knuckles white around the slick rubber grip, she staggered back until her shoulders hit the far wall of her prison.

Her torture chamber.

...

The sounds of footsteps, heavy and booted, broke through the encroaching deafness, and then there he stood in front of her, limned in the faint glow of the bunker lights, a tall man with ice for eyes and a nasty-looking gun.

"Beth." 

I mean, c'mon... How can you read that and not want to read more??

I like when movies take the epilogue and put it in the prologue -- keeps the viewer on their toes and whatnot. And for the most part, I appreciated it with this book. However, you know me and my need to know the end... so it irked me a bit because I wanted needed to know more.

It also irked me, just a tad, that the entire book goes from present to tense, to memory, to present tense -- present tense, of course, being before that prologue scene.

I really enjoyed how Edie wrote Beth -- she's a former spy who can't quite get past her fears. She has a system to coming home, to as far as taking off her shoes. She has her little alarm systems, not to mention the big alarm systems her family installed, and knows if and when someone's been messing with her.

You don't become a trained killer as a teen and think the world of big bad men will leave you alone once you retire.

Beth is a bit estranged from her family. Not quite, but most definitely from her brother, Tobias. And their little heart-to-heart? Oh my, I rather loved it.

Then there's the man across the street.

Turns out, the man across the street is the man she's been in love with for years, another spy who's a chameleon to the extreme. And when he lets her in on that little secret (because he has more), she's ecstatic (not so much with some of the other little secrets).

The book goes through Vick and Beth finding their way as a monster is out to take Beth down. Beth is a strong heroine, has to be with her past, and Vick is a man who has a mission that is tearing him in two.

I enjoyed the book. It's a 4-star for reasons such as the back-and-forth, and there were parts I couldn't connect with/wanted to skim, but regardless, I really enjoyed this family. And because of earlier-stated-heart-to-heart... I'm pretty excited to read Tobias's book. I find him to be extremely interesting, and super hard on himself... and I'm only too happy to watch him fall.