Publication date: November 1 2018
Published by: Harvey Berrick Publishing
Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Military
Rating:
James Spears is part of an elite group who lives and breathes danger. Where others run from it, he walks towards it, calm, focussed ice-cold. James is a top EOD operative.Explosive…
Ordnance…
Disposal…
You’d call him a bomb disposal expert. Or crazy. A guy with a death wish. He’s heard it all before and he doesn’t give a shit. He’s the best.
They say he doesn’t have blood in his veins, he has ice. They say he has no nerves.
All that’s about to be tested.
Amira is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate a terrorist cell living in rural Pennsylvania. She’s the perfect plant, no one would ever suspect her. Because her brother was killed when a bomb was dropped on the Syrian hospital where he was working as a doctor. And now hate burns deeply inside her. She’s perfect.
That’s what they tell James when he’s told to train her to be the best damn bomb-maker there is. In a secret camp, deep in the woods, James teaches her everything he knows about building bombs. He’s not a praying man, but now he’s really hoping that he’s doing the right thing.
Can he trust her? Will she ever trust him? Who is playing who? And who will pay the ultimate price?
Cover fail 👎
I am a bit disappointed, to be honest. Berrick wrote the awesome, amazing The Education of Sebastian and I put a lot of faith in her when I decided to read Tick Tock. But not only it was not nearly as good as EoS, it was very rushed, the story not believable and the romance did not make any sense.
I knew that writing about suicide bombers and terrorism would be a bit dicey, especially from an American romance author, but surprisingly enough, religion and race were not my main problem with TT.
The problem was the underwhelming and undeveloped story and characters.
Amira and James, the MCs, were likable enough (James more than Amira) but nothing more. We learn next to nothing about their lives before the events in the book, and that made it really hard for me to care about them.
Amira’s “recruitment” process was almost laughable; she was supposed to be an American spy infiltrating a terrorism cell operating in US soil after, what? 8 days of training? And she kept passing out, crying and vomiting, but no! She could do it, because she was so strong and brave. Yeah, ridiculous. After that, it was very hard for the story to catch my interest, which got even more far-fetched as it went along.
The romance between James and Amira was even worse. I never felt any deep connection between them, other than the fact that they were a man and a woman at a remote place, scared out of their minds, who just sought comfort in each other. That would have been great, if it wasn’t for Amira’s very strict adherence to her faith (she didn’t even eat in the presence of men!) which made her having sex with a guy she barely knew almost off putting. She was prepared to risk her life for her faith and she just defies it that easily? What is that supposed to say about her? How is the reader supposed to connect with her character in any way and understand where she’s coming from? I wouldn’t mind them having sex IF we had more context, more insight into their lives, more time with the two of them actually talking and bonding. We had none of that.
James was a more complete character than Amira (just slightly) but again, his obsession with Amira-after Amira made it perfectly clear that she could not and would not be with him-is not at all justified. Again, context and contact time.
What I did like in TT was the ending. I have to give it to Berrick, it takes an insane amount of guts to write a romance book with no HEA and I found it very refreshing and unique. Sad, sure, but also a relief that this dysfunctional story came to an end. It would have been dreadful if it went on.
I won’t be reading the next book, Bombshell but I read the excerpt and I found it more interesting than the entire TT!
I knew that writing about suicide bombers and terrorism would be a bit dicey, especially from an American romance author, but surprisingly enough, religion and race were not my main problem with TT.
The problem was the underwhelming and undeveloped story and characters.
Amira and James, the MCs, were likable enough (James more than Amira) but nothing more. We learn next to nothing about their lives before the events in the book, and that made it really hard for me to care about them.
Amira’s “recruitment” process was almost laughable; she was supposed to be an American spy infiltrating a terrorism cell operating in US soil after, what? 8 days of training? And she kept passing out, crying and vomiting, but no! She could do it, because she was so strong and brave. Yeah, ridiculous. After that, it was very hard for the story to catch my interest, which got even more far-fetched as it went along.
The romance between James and Amira was even worse. I never felt any deep connection between them, other than the fact that they were a man and a woman at a remote place, scared out of their minds, who just sought comfort in each other. That would have been great, if it wasn’t for Amira’s very strict adherence to her faith (she didn’t even eat in the presence of men!) which made her having sex with a guy she barely knew almost off putting. She was prepared to risk her life for her faith and she just defies it that easily? What is that supposed to say about her? How is the reader supposed to connect with her character in any way and understand where she’s coming from? I wouldn’t mind them having sex IF we had more context, more insight into their lives, more time with the two of them actually talking and bonding. We had none of that.
James was a more complete character than Amira (just slightly) but again, his obsession with Amira-after Amira made it perfectly clear that she could not and would not be with him-is not at all justified. Again, context and contact time.
What I did like in TT was the ending. I have to give it to Berrick, it takes an insane amount of guts to write a romance book with no HEA and I found it very refreshing and unique. Sad, sure, but also a relief that this dysfunctional story came to an end. It would have been dreadful if it went on.
I won’t be reading the next book, Bombshell but I read the excerpt and I found it more interesting than the entire TT!
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