This is a high-octane espionage intrigue mystery thriller that you should definitely add to your TBR list if you’re a fan of writers like John le Carré, Frederick Forsyth, Tom Clancy, and Terrence McCauley. A definite 5-star read riddled with suspense, deceit, and intrigue that brings more thrills and chills per page than you could possibly expect.

Liars' Paradox by Taylor Stevens is a book that defies a preview/summary because everything I might say includes a spoiler. Liars' Paradox is a fast-paced, heart-pounding, marathon of a story leaving the reader breathless at the turn of every page. It makes the term, "thriller," seem meaningless when used with other books. There is a chase, then another, then another. There are killings, surprises, mysteries, and so much more. Read it. You will not be able to put it down. It is miraculous, death defying, and heart breaking.

I recommend this book. You will love it. It is difficult to put down. It will make you cray and scream.

I received a free ARC of Liars' Paradox in exchange for a fair and honest review. #netgalley #liars'paradox

The breakneck pace of this thriller, and the parsimonious way real information is doled out, makes this a truly can't put it down read. Jack and Jill, twin brother/sister assassins, trained since birth by their on the run mother, are two of the greatest new characters in the genre. I am sure we'll see much more of them. This time, they have to save their mother - or do they - and deal with various types of collateral damage even worse than that done to their psyches by that mother over the years. I loved it and can't wait for the sequels. Taylor Stevens is a wonderful writer.

Wow! A totally new and engrossing thriller — part spy novel, part psychological exploration, part family drama, and a propulsive, unstoppable action-packed thriller.

I simply could not put this down, and my brain is still buzzing with all the permutations of truths and lies.

Liars' Paradox, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Taylor Stevens's seventh novel, is destined to be just as successful as her previous books. The premise is sound and highly original, and the explosive action starts right away, no messing about and continues to move the plot forward at a fast-pace. This is a tale of assassins, espionage, Jack and Jills love for their mother and some shady involvement from the CIA and KGB. Danger lurks around every corner and the characters don't know who is trustworthy and who is not, giving the whole book a menacing undertone to it. You never quite knew what was about to happen. This is a well written and crafted story that will have you nibbling those nails for the duration.

The action is compelling and her characters well-built and easy to connect with. They are all rather unlikeable but they come alive on the page and with each passing word the tension slowly but surely builds to an astonishing crescendo. This is one of those rare character-driven novels that also comes with a complex, multilayered plot. A fun, lighthearted read that often comes across as ironic, not least because of the names of our two main characters, Jack and Jill. I did pick up on some plot holes and things that really didn't seem logical, but this had little to no impact on my enjoyment. I look forward to the next high-octane instalment.

Many thanks to Kensington for an ARC.

Taylor Stevens's Vanessa Michael Monroe series is a strong action series with a memorable, bad-to-the-bone female lead character. With Liar's Paradox, Stevens begins the Jack and Jill series. This new series in the same genre of international action and intrigue, but, so far, Jack and Jill don't measure up to Monroe.


Jack and Jill are twins, now in their 20s, who have been raised by Clare, their mysterious, paranoid, reclusive mother. They spend their entire childhood on the run, never knowing their father. Clare trains them in the arts of self-defense, spy craft, survival, hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and staying invisible.


The story starts with Jack kidnapping Jill from her boyfriend's house. He drags Jill against her will on a road trip to their mom's house, an off-the-grid hideout in the middle of nowhere. Just as they arrive, the house blows up, and Jack and Jill come under fire. Thus begins the flow of the book: Jack and Jill, on the run, hunter and hunted. They want to find whoever killed or kidnapped their mother. Jack and Jill are hunted by hired killers. The chase, the plotting, and the fighting become the focus of the book.


Stevens writes the action well. The fighting and hunting scenes are breathless and exciting. The weakness of Liar's Paradox is the rest of the story. Why are these people hunting each other? Who is Clare, really? Who's calling the shots? To the extent that these questions are answered, I never really cared. Stevens falls into the same problem as a number of movies I've seen, where assassins are targeting each other but the motivations are murky. That's the case here. Stevens sheds little light on who these assassins have worked for, or who their targets have been. We just know they are now targeting each other. It just seems pointless and cartoonish. . . .


Nevertheless, as I said, Stevens writes good scenes. It's just the framework holding it all together that was sketchy. Now that she has created these characters and developed their backstory, I could see this series taking off when she comes up with an actual story going forward.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Kidnapping, car trunks, tracking devices, fist fights (to put it mildly) knock-out hypos; those are a few of the ways twins Jack and Jill treat each other in the outstanding Liar’s Paradox. Not the typical demonstrations of sibling affection.
Supposedly the closest bond on earth, twins Jack and Jill spent nine months in the closest physical proximity. Then they spent the next 17 years in the closest emotional proximity; depending on one another, loving one another and finally hating one another. They must come together to rescue the mother who might not want to be rescued. Or need to be, with her "particular skill set."
Their mother, Clare, who raised them bouncing from country to country, oft times leaving them with strangers for months; strangers who taught them to add to their "particular skill set." Clare who turned them loose into a crowd of strangers at age five to complete an assignment of finding their way home. Their mother, Clare, who was never satisfied, who played psychological games with Jack and Jill, who taught them all of the skills to be assassins and to survive in any environment. Clare, who taught the twins to become anyone, move anywhere, and survive anything at the drop of a dime. “Same tinfoil, different hat,” as Jack described it. Clare, who unwittingly turned the twins against one another. Clare, whom the twins eventually decided was paranoid. bat-s. crazy, and delusional with her stories, lectures and disappearances.
Until she wasn’t. Until Clare disappears in a ball of fire and the twins watch a helo lift off in the distance.
In Jack and Jill’s hunt for their mother they do their best to protect the innocents they unwittingly draw in, to battle other assassins, and in the end turn the murky dangerous world of assassins into a free for all. An assassins ball so to speak. It would be fun to watch. From a distance, a very great distance.
The massive physical and psychological exercises that Clare put the twins through left me feeling seasick. A maternal model she ain’t. Taylor Stevens did a masterful job of drawing me in and having an emotional investment in these characters.
Stevens also has marvelous powers of descriptions; from the killing desserts on the Mexico-United Stated border to one of the best depictions I’ve read of the killing cold of a Moscow winter. (I know, I know, but I only watched Dr. Zhivago)
Part thriller, part mystery, and part psychological study on just how far family members will go to protect each other.
Taylor Stevens is one of the best thriller writers I’ve come across. Her first series featured a character by the name of Vanessa Michael Munro. For the last few years her fans have waited for the next VMM. Instead we were gifted with Liar’s Paradox. Well worth the trade. Stevens' trademark action-packed, original and thrilling storytelling is present in Liar’s Paradox, the first of what I hope will be a long running series.
Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I can’t help my gushing. It was that good.

https://www.dallasnews.com/arts/books/2018/12/14/taylor-stevens-latest-liars-paradox-truly-high-energy-page-turner-thriller

Liar’s Paradox by Taylor Stevens
Jack and Jill Thrillers #1

Roller coaster ride in a book – This action-packed, intense, thriller with twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.

Talk about dysfunctional families...Clare may have thought she was doing the best thing for her son and daughter by teaching and testing them for two decades but what she did may have left them scarred and unable to really function in society as we know it. That said, it would seem that assassins and spies are a breed apart and perhaps Jack and Jill may find a place within their ranks as this series continues.

This book is told in the present with snippets of the past interspersed to give depth to the characters and the story as it unfolds. The backstory helps to explain why Jack, Jill and their mother Clare are the people they have become. As I read I realized there was more going on than Clare being kidnapped and whether or not she would or should escape. There was a puppet master that thought himself invincible but was he really? There are a few supporting characters that I found intriguing and hope will show up in the next book. I wonder if Jill will find a romantic partner that understands her...and think there just might be. I wonder if Clare’s suppositions about the father of her twins will prove to be true or unfounded. I wonder how the future will unfold for Clare, Jack and Jill and also for Holden/Christopher as he also become a big part of this story. There is not a cliffhanger but there is a hook that left me wanting to see what will happen next.

This is the first book I have read by this author and it was a treat indeed. I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Taylor Stevens does a great job telling an interesting story with unexpected circumstances. In this Jack and Jill mystery we're introduced to twins who've had an unconventional upbringing. They have a love/hate relationship with each other and their mother. It makes me glad I wasn't raised by their mother.

There's plenty of action and mind games to keep the reader interested. Almost every person in this story is a highly skilled fixer. A person called the Broker is known to be the highest level of fixer. If you want someone dead, he's the guy to call to set it up. About three quarters of the way through the book I was ready for it to end. This is not a world I enjoy being part of. It's all about revenge and killing. The plot is solid but the characters were hard for me to believe. If you like hard boiled thrillers, you will probably like the Liar's Paradox. It's scheduled publication date is December 18, 2018.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from Kennington Books through NetGalley.
#Liar'sParadox #NetGalley.

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for this honest review. Also, thanks to Kensington Books and Taylor Stevens for providing a copy of a print copy at Bouchercon.

After three years, Taylor Stevens is back but this time with the first book of a new series about Jack and Jill, 26-year-old twins that have been trained by their mother to always be on the run and to protect themselves from any difficult situation. They are not always sure about their mother’s intentions and whether she is always testing and preparing them or if she’s really in trouble. That’s the case when Jack is asked by his mother to find Jill and meet at their mother’s house. When the twins arrive late, they see their mother has been captured and soon find one of their mother’s friends murdered. Using their years of training, they are in a constant state of avoiding being captured or killed while trying to find their mother.

I was really looking forward to reading this book and had started the print version when I saw the opportunity to get a copy from NetGalley. I do most of my reading while walking on my treadmill and reading on the kindle is much easier that way. There’s lots of this book I enjoyed, but it suffers I think from being the first book in a new series. I struggled to get through the early parts of this book as it had very many flashbacks as it was building up the story of the main characters. I’m not a fan of this technique in books, television or movies as I think it distracts from the flow of the story. I definitely felt that way about this book as it was building the tension where I wanted to find out what was going to happen, I wasn’t happy to go back in time especially since some of what was being providing wasn’t necessary for understanding the main story. But that’s me and many people will not be bothered and will really enjoy learning more about the characters.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed this interesting and suspenseful book. The main characters, especially the twins, are characters I’m looking forward to reading about again. Hopefully, the next book in the series will just have a short section to get the readers up to speed from the first book, but not so much history about them and their mother and father.

The classical definition of the Liars’ Paradox is the statement by a liar that he or she is lying. Thus, if the liar is indeed lying, he/she is telling the truth. While I definitely understand the paradox, I am not sure I understand the liars part of it. In this book, we have three main characters: Clare, the mother, and her twin children, known as Jack and Jill (all three of them have multiple names in the book, although you always know who is who). Clare has raised her twins to hide, hunt, kill, and survive from an early age (5 years old!) and now, at 26, they must use all of these skills to find their mother (who has lived off the grid for several years) when she is kidnapped and then deal with a network of global assassins bent on who knows exactly what. There is plenty of action and the book did keep me reading at a fast pace.

I have read the first two of Stevens’ Michael Monroe series and enjoyed both of them. This one is apparently the beginning a new series, and I am not sure I will continue on. While the story held my interest, the characters (all of them) were generally unlikeable, parts of the action seemed unbelievable (though that is why it is called fiction) and the ending left me knowing that another book is coming. Nonetheless, my thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the Advance Reader’s Copy and offer my opinion.

In Taylor Stevens newest book, Liars' Paradox (Kensington 2018), the first in her new series, twins Jack and Jill have been raised by a paranoid mother who taught them how to protect themselves from danger in a world populated with spies, terrorists, evil, lies, and subterfuge, where no one is to be trusted and every event is to be approached with cynicism. By the time the twins were teenagers, they could survive anywhere and protect themselves from any attack. When they finally become adults, they understandably break away, trying to leave behind the mother (Claire) they believe to be crazy and create their own life. That crashes down on them when they arrive at her house--at her request--to find it blown up, overrun with terrorists, and a helicopter taking Claire they-don't-know-where. But this sort of unknown is exactly what they've trained for their entire lives so they begin the process of tracking and rescuing. As they follow the minuscule breadcrumbs left behind by highly-professional kidnappers, the brother and sister--who love and hate each other in equal amounts--struggle with the realization that maybe their mother wasn't paranoid these past decades at all. Maybe all her stories were real. As a result, they must revisit a childhood they had desperately wanted to forgot, mining it for clues to the predicament Claire now faces.

Stevens is a unique writer. Her Vanessa Michael Munroe series was breathtaking--always fast with head-spinning plot twists. Stevens has a way of building tension with each word constantly until your chewing your nails at the end of each paragraph. She excels at creating powerful physical characters up to any challenge they face in defending or avenging themselves. This new series is no different in that respect though the characters--because of their loveless upbringing and their love-hate with each other--is darker. Also, for me, there is an excess of psychological backstory. Many pages are spent explaining in excruciating detail what made the characters who they are today. This may be entirely appropriate--it's the first book in a new series--but it became a few paragraphs to many for me and is why it got four instead of five stars.

Still, for those who love superheroes who can do anything and a psychological thriller like no other, this is a perfect read.

--review to be published on my blog, WordDreams, 2/28/19

Completely out there but I have to admit I found myself turning the pages. Jack and Jill (seriously?) have a problem- their mom has disappeared, or has she been killed, and now they need to run their own lives. They are assassins, of course, and there is a vast conspiracy, of course. They also have a wicked sibling rivalry and that interaction is what makes this rise above the usual. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's almost impossible to synopsize the plot so suffice it to say that there's lot and lots of action.

It has been years since I have read a book from this author. I will admit that my first impression was not the greatest. Thus, I really did not have much interest in wanting to jump into reading another book. In fact, when I read the premise for this book it is what drew me to want to check it out. I forgot I had read a book from this author before.

I like the vibes of this book. Jack and Jill can kill. They are very skilled shooters. Although, they had a good mentor in Clare. The story started out with a bang. There is nothing like Jack busting through a door to retrieve Jill from her date over his shoulder. Once Jack and Jill get to their destination, they find themselves under fire. From there the story keeps up a good pacing. Yet, I will admit that while the flashbacks to the past was good as it helped to provide details about Jack and Jill and their relationship with Clare; I found it not as interesting as the present. After finishing this book, I will probably check out another book from this author sooner rather than later.

~Book cordially provided by Netgalley~

First time reader of Taylor Stevens

If you enjoyed "Ender's game'" by Orson Scott Card you will most likely become a quick fan of Stevens work.
It has a different feel...less Sci-Fi more Thriller and superb writing. Highly recommend~James Bond n bubblegum kinda fun!

I have only read one other book by Taylor Stevens but fell in love with her high octane scenarios. However, I had not been introduced to the infamous twins Jack and Jill whose complicated relationship, history and style intrigued me to no end. The twins have a complicated relationship with their mother, Clare, who had abandoned them in foreign countries for most of their life. However, now they are 26, and when their mother's house explodes into a fire ball, they are united in a call to action to find her. However, this foray leads them to a world of assassins, KGB agents, and whiplash inducing scenes. Although I had trouble getting started with this book, as soon as I adjusted to Stevens dialogue, the pages began to fly. The dialogue was so visual that it cried to be made into a movie. The suspense is undeniable and for fans of Lisbeth Salander, you will not be disappointed.

Finally, an utterly original concept underpinning an action story! I loved Jack and Jill - the unfolding of their back-, front- and future-stories was managed with an action-level and pacing that I found not only utterly engaging but also surprisingly clever. I must admit I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. Don't misunderstand - I was looking forward to it, but assumed it'd feel like every other "pair on the run, don't trust anyone" story. Instead I found a tale with unexpectedly interesting characters, unusual spins on the espionage concept, take-no-prisoners action, and an engaging plot that definitely left me hungry for more.

There's great potential for a series here. There are a lot of dangling bits that could be spun into story lines and the supporting characters were every bit as compelling as the main ones.

This was a crazy-wild ride and I loved every vulgar, violent, insane minute of it! The only thing I did not love was the way things tied together a little too neatly between Jack, Jill and Clare at the high point of the action - that felt a little trite and unbelievably tidy, and it could have lost me... Fortunately it didn't really detract from the action or pacing (beyond a minor hiccup), which built right back up to the high octane levels pre-reveal and kept the whole book a winner for me...

I’m a huge fan of Taylor Stevens’ Vanessa Mishael Monroe series so was eager to read Liars’ Paradox. It do not disappoint!

A brother and sister pair of spies who are masters at deception and are trained to be killers. This is exciting and suspenseful. Stevens readers will not be disappointed.