As soon as I saw the blurb for this book I needed to have it. I love hacker books, but I didn't know what I'd get, since I've never read anything by this author before. As soon as I picked it up to start reading, though, I knew I'd love it.

Exploited was an engaging read. From the first page to the last, it kept me hooked and I struggle to put it down. Walters balanced tech jargon and the hacker side of things well with normalcy to create a book that sounded believable but wasn't overly complex. It remained easy to follow and the characters' emotions shone over everything else to keep me interested. I commend her for creating an authentic book without compromising on the plot or pace.

I won't say to much about the characters as I don't want to give anything away. However, I loved Hannah and Mason. I thought they complimented each other well and the secrets they kept created a good amount of tension as I waited for everything to boil over. I enjoyed how their romance developed and I connected with both of them emotionally.

Now, I will warn you this book ends in a major cliffhanger. I knew this going in so it doesn't bother me--well not that much. I'm dying to read the concluding book Aftermath and I hope it's releasing in the fall like it states in the back of book rather than January 2018 like it say on Amazon. No doubt I will probably have to wait until January, but it's on my list of titles to look out for.

Overall, Exploited was an engaging, fast-paced, and exciting read. The romance is mixed perfectly with the tension and I couldn't put it down. I would highly recommend!

The Hacker and the FBI Agent

Hannah Whelan wants justice. A tragedy deprived her of her father and her sister is now incapacitated. She’s a tech genius and the way she decides to get revenge is by hacking into the companies she thinks are responsible for the hurt in her life. Her hacking moniker is Freedom Overdrive.

Mason Kohler is an FBI agent. He’s experienced and has a reputation for solving cases. After his brother’s death, he needs a fresh start. Unfortunately, he gets stuck with an assignment to bring down the hacker, Freedom Overdrive.

Hannah makes it her business to meet Mason. It’s absurdly easy. She bumps into him in the coffee shop line. Soon they’re involved. She’s using him, but she’s also falling for him.

The plot is innovative, the hacker and the FBI agent in a romance. However, with these characters, it just didn’t work for me. Hannah is a smart hacker, and she’s using Mason to get information. He’s supposed to be a super agent, but he doesn’t see what she’s doing, and it’s so obvious it’s embarrassing.

I didn’t think the characters were realistic. Hannah comes across as very hard boiled. She thinks she has a mission and that excuses what she does. On the other hand, Mason seems overly feminine. He cries and blushes. I think it’s nice to have a sensitive hero, but Mason overdoes it.

This isn’t the best romance I’ve read, nor is it the worst. If you are intrigued by the hacker aspect, you may enjoy the book, but beware of the cliff-hanger ending. Unless you love the characters and are panting to learn more, the loose ends can be very off-putting.

I received this book from Loveswept for this review.

Exploited was the first book I've read by A. Meredith Walters. When I saw the blurb, I was immediately intrigued. A female hacker and a FBI agent who tracks hackers? Yes, please. The storyline caught my attention and I couldn't wait to jump in. 

I have to be honest and tell you that the book read way too slow for me. I felt like a lot of stuff was drawn out and I found myself itching to skim to get past it. I didn't but I had the urge. Exploited is told in dual POV and I think that the way it was written from each POV, it allowed for some of the same stuff to be repeated. I think for this particular story and for what happened, we didn't need to get both sides of the same situations all the time because it didn't really bring anything extra to it. This is just my personal opinion and I think that is why it read so slow for me. 

I liked that Hannah got an adrenaline rush and that overall excited feeling when she was in her hacking world. The suspense, the idea that you could get caught and the thought of people searching for you is all exciting. I get it. She was living two lives but it all came down to the thrill of hacking. She has a personal reason for why she does what she does that gives her a bit more likability but it does't really save her. As of right now, I'm hoping the next book redeems her actions. 

I'm not sure how I feel about Mason. Overall, I think he's a great guy with a big heart and I liked him but I had a hard time believing his FBI experience and not being able to catch FreedomOveride (Hannah's hacker name). The connections of the hackers identity was basically handed to him and he didn't really make any connections on his own. He's supposed to be the best, right? Then why was everything handed to him? Because of the secret person who wants to see Hannah go down? 

Overall, I enjoy the storyline and think that it has a lot of potential. I was left in suspense at the end, dying to get the answers that I needed. I will read the next book because I want my answers! I just hope that it reads a bit faster than this one.

Mason, an FBI agent is a nice, hard working unassuming man. He met a lady at a coffee shop and they hit it off. Unknown to him it was deliberate on her part. Long story short she just wanted to get info of a FBI investigation into an elusive hacker, who happens to be her. She played him for a fool, and the plot thickens. The entrance of her erstwhile college room mate, who introduced her into this world is murky at best. Did the roommate wanted to have an affair with her, or were they lovers? Did this lady outed her out? Mason found out Hannah's identity at the end and then what? We have to wait for the second book to find out the answers to these questions.
Interesting book and premise. Can't wait to read the second book.

4.25-4.5 STARS

Operating under the guise of Freedom Overdrive, for years, hacktivist Hannah Whalen has been leading a double life. Intent on bringing down the corrupt, hers is both a noble and personal cause--albeit, illegal. Hence, her cyber exploits have landed Freedom Overdrive on the FBI’s most wanted list.

FBI agent and cyber-crime expert, Mason Kohler, is a rising star that has unceremoniously fallen. Tasked with uncovering the identity of Freedom Overdrive, Mason is on a desperate hunt for the person who has managed to elude him--AND the bureau--for far too long.

A “chance encounter” that is more premeditation than actual chance, is the start to Hannah and Mason’s budding relationship. For Hannah, using Mason began as a necessary means to a very selfish end. But soon, guilt consumes her, as she finds herself falling for the man who’s hell bent on bringing her down. All the while, Mason ignores his instincts--berating himself for his suspicious nature--in order to give his relationship with Hannah a fighting chance. In reality, his relationship with Hannah is a deceitful sham. For unbeknownst to Mason, the enemy he seeks has been working her way into his bed and heart right from the very start.

Just as Hannah and Mason’s lukewarm relationship grows in intensity, so does the drama that’s about to unfold. And on the cusp of it all, is the suspicious agenda of the nameless entity known as Toxicwrath. Perhaps Hannah and Mason are mere puppets to this puppet master’s more elaborate game. For clearly, there is more at play here than what initially meets the eye.

Embedded with lies, intrigue, mystery and suspense, “Exploited” is part one of a hacker romance that will leave you craving more. A slow-building story that still has much to be revealed, I loved the uniqueness of the premise and the giddy anticipation of what’s yet to come.

It's rather very difficult to review a story I didn't finish. I've read everything that this author as ever read and enjoyed them all. I was very dissapointed with this type of storyline. Computers are way far out of my comfort zone and to read a romance about it, not my thing. I find there was no connection and felt nothing from these characters. Liking a story is subjective.

To say I'm disappointed in this is a massive understatement. I know I'm being really blunt here, but I'm still riding the wave of rage that flooded me at 2 AM when I finished this book. Pounding my pillow, tossing and turning and unable to sleep. My mind turning over the many reasons in which I could not stand this heroine.

It's one thing for a character to be flawed, then learn and experience growth into a better human being. That's expected. WELCOME! But no, she pulled off the exact opposite in my opinion. I wasn't her biggest fan from the beginning, she was cold and very abrasive. But rather than redeeming herself, she destroyed any hope of me ever liking her.

Freedom Overdrive is her hacktivist alter ego. She's an untouchable code cracker. Invulnerable to the authorities because of her genius. Willing to crush lesser mortals and destroy an innocent man to make the world a better place. I'm all about revenge plots, but hers was misguided and self-serving. A boost to her ego in order to enforce how powerful she was. From minute one, when she sidled up to Mason and sank her claws into him, not one word or action towards him was genuine. And with every bit of poison she injected into the trust he gave her, she never had more than a moment's hesitation before she continued her assault.

None of it, not their first date, first kiss, first time in bed, bringing him with her to visit her sister was real. How are you forgiven for deceiving someone, ruining their career and shattering their heart with your lies? You can long for real all you want, but there's no coming back from what you did.

The hero was a really good guy. If you could put aside the fact that he's an FBI agent with ten years of experience, and didn't have the faintest inkling that Freedom Overdrive was his girlfriend. After not just one, not two, but countless times he was handed clues that pointed to her. Everything but a neon sign was shoved in his face and yet he never connected the dots. Never. Mason's character was not believable, not as a skilled and perceptive agent.

The romance was non-existent and I couldn't care less about their "HEA". The repetitious internal dialogue, two main characters who fell flat, and a plot that had me pulling my hair were just pieces of the larger scale of my frustration. I honestly had no love for either one of them. I felt a shade sorry for the hero and how easily susceptible he was to her deceit. But that's as far as it went. As for being interested in continuing with the next book to find out who her mysterious partner was, and how she would get Mason to forgive her? Sorry. That DAY has a ZERO percent chance of happening with me.

This is a dnf for me. My expectations of this book didn't quite match to the reality. I usually jump at the chance to read hacker books because I've enjoyed so many of them. I'm a fan of the nerdy characters. While Hannah was a hacker she didn't quite fit the bill of nerd. I can adjust, but there were just a few things in the story that wasn't believable to me and really made it hard for me to connect to it. The book is well written, but not a great storyline.


Spoiler: I had two main issues with this book. 1) the plot. She lost her dad to a car accident due to road conditions. Her sister was in the car and is disabled now. She believes the government cut corners to save money and that's why the road conditions were bad. I just can't really buy that as a plot. 2). The author shows Hannah getting her start as a hacker in college when her roommate teaches her how to fix her grades then later in life she's so good the FBI are having trouble tracking her down. Maybe if she was a hacker her whole life...but not if she had to be taught how to fix her grades in College.

Not my typical story to read. That could be the reason I got bored at times. The story is extremely drug out. It does keep you wondering the whole time about who is who. And this went on the whole book and I didn't like that. I wanted some answers. Now I have to wait and read book two.

Unfortunately, Exploited just didn't work for me. The story was kind of boring, I didn't like Hannah at all, and Mason was definitely not portrayed as the skilled FBI agent that he's supposed to be. This book ends on a cliffhanger, but I don't see myself reading Aftermath as I don't really care about finishing off the story.

Considering I've really enjoyed previous books I've read from A. Meredith Walters, I'm a bit surprised at how much I didn't like this book. Oh well, can't win them all I guess.

Whoa. I am truly blown away by this latest from A. Meredith Walters. I have no idea what end is up at this point and yet I'm damn happy about it. That is what great writing is all about for me. Not knowing who is who. Whether or not Hannah is truly in control of her grand scheme to make people pay for her loss or if Mason is on the brink of destroying her hacker life for good.

The FBI Agent and the computer hacker. As unexpected a pairing as you can get with their worlds colliding left and right, neither of them knowing who to trust but desperately craving the calm they get from one another. I was afraid more times than I can count, to turn the page. Wanting for Hannah and Mason to simply have some love for a change but it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion as their lives unraveled piece by piece.

And as the end draws near, with programs crashing and hearts breaking, I simply did not want it to end. There is a myriad of mysteries all going on at once and the author presents it all masterfully. Yes, we're left with more questions than answers but something tells me this is just the beginning of the tangled web both Mason and Hannah have created.

To say I need book two desperately is an understatement. This is a story to be savored with every single page full of emotion. I'm still unsure of my feelings towards Hannah, a seemingly simply character who is so thoroughly complex. She threw me for a loop over and over again right alongside Mason. Gah!! His job and his trust for the woman he has fallen for is on the line and all I can do is sit on my hands and wait impatiently for what will happen next.

A must read that will have you on the edge of your seat with your heart in your throat throughout. What's better than that?

5+ stars all the way!

Excellent story with a major cliffhanger! This is just the first part of Hannah and Mason's story. Hannah by day works for an IT firm. At night she's a bit of a hacker. She's determined to make the company responsible for the death of her father and her sisters debilitating injuries and the lawyers who represent them pay.

Mason is an FBI agent working in the cyber crimes unit. He's good at what he does but past mistakes have put him in the bosses bad graces. He's given a case no one thinks can be solved. He needs to find out exactly who Freedom Overdrive is and take him down.

These two meeting and being attracted to each other never should have happened and when the truth comes out about their true identities everything could fall apart.

Definitely a book I recommend.

Interesting story of a hacker & an FBI agent. I really enjoyed this story. Hannah has lost so much and now wants revenge. Mason has too find a hacker that no one can ever find. Mason & Hannah are amazing together and both of their loses will pull at your heartstrings. I can't wait to read the next book in this series because the ending is killing me, I need to know what is going too happen between Hannah & Mason

3.5 "I was invisible. Untraceable." Stars

A hacker seeking revenge, an FBI Agent hunting said hacker, romance and suspense? Exploited had my name written all over it.

"He was chasing a phantom. I was the ghost who evaded him."

A. Meredith Walters is another author I've never read for no other reason that you can't read everyone out there. Admittedly, the story begins a little steady, and it wasn't flawless but, as it unfolds, it quickly begins to grab and I did find myself tuning out everything going on around me.

"Could a man trained to find criminals really not know that the woman he touched was one?"

On the whole how the characters are portrayed worked well for me: frustrating and flawed individuals who are determined and experienced in their chosen fields, but who also have fears and insecurities. FBI Agent, Mason Kohler isn't particularly alpha, although I think it's lurking in his depths, and is gentle, honest and fairly open with his feelings and emotions. Hannah Whelan is a technology genius who is smart and passionate, yet quietly calculating: she knows what she wants and with her talent, she can manipulate things to her benefit.

"This was not how it was supposed to be. I wasn’t supposed to feel anything."

In terms of the romance, it is slower burn and at times I did sit questioning Hannah and Mason's chemistry, but all this is essential to the story (remembering this is half) and whilst that aspect is building momentum, the secrets, suspense and questions keep everything ticking over quite nicely.

"I knew I was dealing with a celebrated FBI agent. Intelligent. Talented. Dangerous."

Now for the grumble: Mason's naïvety. Intelligent, yes. Talented, potentially. Dangerous, not so much. Here we have an FBI agent, specialising in cybercrime, missing pretty obvious leads and yes, part of me was looking at it from a love is blind perspective, but deep down I was rolling my eyes a little as considering his professional experience, he should've pieced together certain things much quicker.

"...please stop looking for the worst in me. I’m terrified that you’ll find it..."

Exploited is a read that keeps you on your toes though because how can there possibly be a happy ending for the hunter and the hunted? I went into this knowing there was a cliffhanger ending, in all honesty the outcome wasn't actually a huge surprise, but that didn't stop me emitting a groan when I flicked the final page and, with so many threads left loose, there's no question in whether I'll be reading Aftermath.

From a Hacker to a Cracker and everything in between! This story will take you on an incredible journey into an underground world unbeknownst to most.

As soon as I saw that this book involved a hacker and a female one at that, I knew this story was going to suck me in. There’s something inherently fascinating about the power of the computer, especially when it's in the hands of an expert as we’re lucky in this story to meet a whole host of different hacking and cracking characters.

From FBI Agent and cybercrime investigator, Mason Kohler, to his nemesis, Freedom Overdrive or Freed0m0v3rdr1v3 aka Hannah Whelan, readers are taken on a thrilling journey as Hannah tries to bring down those involved in the accident which left her sister a paraplegic and killed her father. No-one is safe from Freed0m0v3rdr1v3.

After being shown how to hack computers back in college, Hannah has developed a serious talent but despite being on the FBI radar, she only does what she does for the greater good, that is until she partners up with Toxicwrath (T0x1cwrath) and before long, her involvement becomes dangerously close to criminal. Knowing Mason is onto her, Hannah sets herself up to meet him in order to get close to him and his case files on her. What Hannah didn’t expect was to fall for Mason. Mason needs trust and honesty from Hannah but that’s something that she can’t give him and it breaks her heart. Despite having a solid plan in place, Hannah starts to slip up with her lies and soon Mason starts to question his relationship with Hannah and as a result, he starts to dig deeper into her and also his investigation of Freed0m0v3rdr1v3.

Despite her own enhanced security protection, Hannah’s identity starts to unravel as someone, unknown to her starts to leak her name online. Not knowing who to trust, Hannah finds herself questioning her partner, the school friend who taught her everything she knows, and also those she works closely with. With danger around every corner, Hannah finds herself becoming buried deeper under her web of lies and cracking activities. When things suddenly become real, she is left wondering just who she can trust, and sadly for her, she can’t turn to Mason for help and support.

The story ends on a cliffhanger and readers are left with many unanswered questions and with a delicious need to savour the next instalment as soon as possible. With the story’s conclusion due in the Autumn, it’s fortunately not too long to wait to find out what happens to Hannah and Mason.

I really connected with Mason and Hannah and loved their personalities and skill sets. Despite both working against each other, they find a way towards healing each other from their painful pasts. Mason quickly falls for Hannah and despite her best intentions, Hannah falls equally as hard for Mason. This story is a romantic suspense with so many complex layers to it that you can’t help but become engrossed by the storyline and its many characters. The author did a brilliant job with this story and I can’t wait to read on.

This book kept me on edge most it the story wanting to see what happens when the truth is exposed. Hannah a girl driven by hate and revenge from past events is one confused girl. She has lost quiet a bit in her life and feels the people responsible got away without consequences, so she decides to take things in her own hands and take care of that.
She is so focused on these things she doesn't realize how sheltered and lonely her life is until she sets her sights on Mason, an FBI agent in town who specializes in cyber crimes. She needs to see if her plan is safe or if the feds are closing in on her and her crimes. In doing this she finds a part of her self who was missing and realizes the damage she is doing to those around her.
Mason has also lost alot in life as well so when the two come together they fit and complete each other more than he knows. Mason is big on trust due to his job and when he discovers Hannah has lied to him about her life and small things, he becomes watchful to her.
The story has me sucked in and I hated that it ended in a cliff hanger, I can not wait to see where things go in part two. Honest review in exchange for ARC.

Would love to read something by this author again! The story was well thought out and the characters were very likable!

Fueled by her need to avenge her family and to protect others, Hannah Whelan is an IT specialist by day and a hacktivist by night. With her revered cyber reputation as Freedom Overdrive, Hannah must ensure her identity remains anonymous, so when another hacker warns her about the FBI cracking her case, she decides to do her own reconnaissance.

“The angel on my shoulder was officially silenced. I hated the preachy bitch anyway.”

Mason Kohler is an esteemed FBI agent in the computer crimes unit who recently relocated to a new office. After unintentionally creating some discord among his peers, he’s assigned the impossible case file of Freedom Overdrive. In addition to his career being on the line, Mason has his own recent loss he’s trying to reconcile, so focusing on work offers some reprieve until he meets an awkward but kind stranger.

“Sometimes it just takes a little patience to get to the heart of a person.”

For Hannah, playing the alluring type is a bit out of her wheelhouse but being with Mason is much easier than she ever imagined. Guarding any clues about her alter ego, Hannah continues to play a certain role in order to gain access to Mason’s files but she soon realizes that being herself has never been easier. As for Mason, Hannah turns out to have the right combination of shyness and coyness while he discovers they have much more in common than he could have expected.

“She gave me jus enough to draw me in. And at this point I’d have gladly jumped off a cliff to find what she was hiding at the bottom.”

Knowing what is at stake emotionally, Hannah’s sense of self-preservation is great but her heart is starting to ache knowing how she feels about Mason. Despite Mason’s innate sense and FBI training to question everything, he doesn’t second guess Hannah until he can no longer ignore facts that are presented to him. Once Hannah’s motives become clear, Mason knows what he must do.

“This wasn’t all an act, was it, Hannah?”

For some time, I’ve been wanting to try this author’s work and Exploited seemed like it would be a happy medium with its focus on romance suspense. Told in dual POV, getting the voice of Mason and Hannah adds dimension and also tension because Hannah’s plan is known from the beginning and I didn’t want to see Mason get hurt. While Mason should have questioned things a little sooner, I can understand why he chose otherwise.

Likewise, I empathized with Hannah’s conflict until she starts to make some rookie mistakes. As for the buildup and theories about Toxic Wrath’s identity, I have a couple of theories and hope the obvious one is a distraction and there’s actually a twisty reveal in the conclusion.

I would recommend Exploited to those who enjoy romantic suspense with characters that have vulnerabilities and conflicts that need to be resolved.

Cat and mouse game with tension and suspense building as the book progresses. I just wish the book didn't end in a cliffhanger because I need to know if I was right in suspecting who ToxicWrath is!!

This is not a standalone. The story concludes in Aftermath, due out January 16, 2018.

One of the great things about this book was the number of characters. Sometimes with romantic suspense there aren’t enough characters introduced in the story which makes it too easy to figure things out. While we know Hannah is the hacker and Mason is the FBI agent assigned to find her, we also know Hannah is working with a partner, whose identity we don’t know. With so many supporting characters, there are several possibilities as to who it could be.

Now I will say, sometimes Hannah was really stupid. I realize she’s falling for Mason, but she stupidly lets things slip when she’s around him. And Mason is supposedly a very good cyber security agent with the FBI, but sometimes he seemed a little clueless, not picking up on the things that Hannah let slip. So whether he’s not really that good of an agent, or he’s just too in-love with her to want to believe the truth that’s right in front of him, I don’t know.

The book did feel a little slow at times, but I think this book was just setting the ground work for the next book. The real mystery is who is Toxicwrath? I have my suspicions, but I’ll have to wait until January to get the answers.

ARC kindly received from the publisher via NetGalley.