Review: Cloak and Dagger by Nenia Campbell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The IMA #1
Release: October 24, 2012
Length: 336 pages

Michael Boutilier is a young assassin working for a mysterious organization of mercenaries called the IMA; an organization so powerful that government denies its existence. When a hacker breaks into their computer's mainframe, they send Michael out to finish off the loose ends. But so far, there's just one lead to go on. The hacker's daughter, Christina Parker.

Christina seems like any other high school senior. And she is — until she gets kidnapped by a group of people who think she's the key to the malicious code that has infected their mainframe system and she is plunged into a world where the lines between right and wrong are blurred beyond all recognition and terror knows no bounds. What do you do when the odds are against you, and the stake is your life?

As she quickly learns, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes Michael's one, sometimes he's the other--but usually he's both. And right now he's the only one who can save her.

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My Review

I had a real love/hate relationship with this book. It had a great premise and included what I usually look for, such as subterfuge, action, conspiracy, suspense, betrayal, and somehow the author even wove a love story in it too. The writing was amazing, it was fast-paced, and definitely kept me interested right until the end.

Now let me get into why this wasn't a 5 star read:

One answer. Christina.

Many people will probably excuse her behaviour because of her whole 'woe is me. I'm only 18yo and I've found myself in quite the predicament' routine, but I wasn't fooled. Being ONLY 18 isn't a freaking excuse. Age ain't nothin' but a number sweetheart. And if this were reality, not fiction, I would expect more of

Or even

Maybe the fact that I wanted Michael to punish her for her insolence makes me a terrible person. Maybe. Maybe the fact that whenever Michael did physically discipline her made me cheer makes me a horrible person. Maybe. I don't really think so ;)

Although it was later revealed that her mother didn't really deserve any niceties, Christina was rude to her own mom yo.

She mouthed off to her captor, Michael

She tried to attack Michael

She was rude and tried to fight Michael's boss, leader of all of the mercenaries

She played herself as a fool with Michael's rival, Adrian

How the frig is she still alive? Really??? And what stupid idea flew into her head to make her think that she, an 18yo nobody, could possibly hold her own against trained and lethal mercenaries???

Honestly, I wanted to kill her ass a LONG mothereffin time ago!!

I didn't like Christina. Not even a lil bit. There was only one part of the story that gave me even a glimmer of hope that I may like her in the future and that was when she refused to betray Michael for evil Adrian.

I know many of you reading this review are probably agog about how I feel regarding the heroine. Alas and alack! IDGAF!! I like my female MCs feisty, fierce, spunky, etc. But I also like them smart. I really tried to escape reality. I did. I tried to go with the flow of the story and accept it at face value, but reality seemed to have a firm hold on me.

Am I going to continue the series? Hell yeah!! Michael's freaking HOT and the action and suspense were freaking intense!!

XO