Book 1 in the Cassie Tan files, Addict, jumps straight into Cassie's world. She is a private investigator who is approached by Lori whose brother has died. The police have written it off as an overdose but Lori refuses to believe this is true. Her brother didn't do drugs and she needs Cassie to look into it for her. Cassie accepts thinking it will be easy money, but in a world this corrupt, not everything is as it seems.

I read this last month and haven't had much luck trying to come up with a review. I hate to say it but I felt like this book dragged. There was no substance and the inner monologuing went on for pages and was nothing more than an attempt to hide the info dumps that were happening. The way the story was told did nothing for me. As tension would start to build, we had a two page monologue thrown at us and the story lost all traction.

The world and technological side of the story was somewhat interesting, but again, I thought it was all glossed over. It had a very tech punk vibe which was cool, I just didn't come out of the book understanding it all. There was the possibility of real emotion being introduced here, but the way everything was turned into a joke or innuendo made that aspect of the story feel shallow.

Speaking of shallow, Cass and Lori spent the entire story flirting with each other, the book was full of sexual innuendos, which is fine, but I'm not sure how I'm meant to take anything that is said seriously when that's all they do. Once again, I found the characters shallow. I'm sure there was a dead brother's death that needed to be investigated, a conspiracy in the police force, and assassins. Did they forget about that?

And speaking of assassins, lets just go knock on his door and ask him if he killed the victim shall we, because he doesn't lie. He will tell you the truth and then call the police and complain about you harassing him. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

I'm going to stop now, because it turns out I forgot how much this book frustrated me. It's a futuristic, mystery with lots of interesting technology, so if that sounds like your thing, give it a whirl. I checked the ratings on Goodreads and I'm 100% the odd person out.
I recieved a copy of Addict from the publisher via NetGalley.

Huge thank you to NineStar Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book!

For the most part I found this book really interesting. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to technology and sci-fi and while I would have liked a little bit more sci-fi in this book, the tech talk was spot on and really interesting.
It took me a little while to connect with the main character, Cass, but slowly throughout the book she won me over until I really liked her by the end.

Full (spoiler-y) review here: http://wmsreads.tumblr.com/post/181236187112/

not my cub of tea, I imagined so much more from the description, the second lead was so weird to me. something was off from the get go but that's ok

There were parts I like about this book but I didn't enjoy its I finish its but didn't leave me wanting more I dont think I would read the second book. The future world in the book I could imagine and some people I think will love its. Its just wasn't for me.

Overall this was a decent story but there were definitely some bits I didn't really care for. I like Cassie as a protagonist and the cyber-punk setting is really cool and well-developed. There was not a lot of romance in this first book but I thought it was handled well because Cassie was still getting over her ex while dealing with a possible new attraction to someone else so it make sense for her to move slow. The mystery aspect was pretty fun and I definitely didn't guess who did it so I suppose that's good as well.

The part I could have done without, well ...this is clearly a case of 'my bad' because I apparently did not even read the entire book summary [I mean you had me at lesbian cyber-punk detective] and totally missed the part where her new love interest / client is a 'tech shifter' which is [and I'm definitely simplifying here but] basically a fancy way to say 'sci-fi furry' and I am just so not here for that. I mean one of the big parts of the book is how you should be more open and accepting and not judge people for stuff like that but still ...when you've got a woman who is running around in a giant cat exo-skeleton and eating / drinking from a bowl on the floor then that is the point where I'm officially out.

I know there's a second book out or coming out soon but I'm kind of torn on whether or not to continue with it. I like the world and the main character but I definitely am not into the tech shifting stuff and if Cassie and Lori are going to be together I'm guessing that's going to be a large part of it. If you're into that sort of thing you will probably love this though.

De nos jours, il est difficile de trouver une bonne série cyberpunk qui n’aligne pas les clichés en permanence. Avec Addict, premier livre d’une série policière The Cassie Tam files, Matt Doyle réussit ce tour de force. À plus d’un titre…
Détective privé d’origine sino-canadienne, Cassie Tam a échoué à New Hopeland, ville perdu du Midwest américain et vitrine technologique des prouesses futuristes où monde virtuel et monde réel sont imbriqués en permanences, où les robots sont dotés d’IA suffisamment avancées pour servir de familiers ou de garde du corps, et où la cybernétique aident surtout à la réalisation de ses fantasmes plus ou moins avouables. Lorsque Lori Redwood vient trouver Cassie pour rouvrir l’enquête sur la mort par overdose de son frère, la face cachée de New Hopeland va remonter à la surface et, ce faisant Cassie Tam va devoir également affronter son passé pour se redonner le droit au bonheur.
Matt Doyle réalise avec ce livre un beau portrait de femme forte sans tomber dans les clichés les plus évidents. La romance est abordée en douceur, ainsi que les différents fétichismes qui sont au cœur de l’intrigue. Sans jugement de valeur dans un sens ou dans l’autre. Et sans non plus tomber dans l’eau de rose. Côté technologie, même si Matt Doyle ne noie pas son lecteur sous les détails, l’ensemble est assez réaliste pour être crédible. Notamment grâce à de petits détails, comme la lenteur du système informatique de Cassie Tam qui n’est plus de première jeunesse. Et l’intrigue elle-même, sous ses dehors très classiques, utilise parfaitement bien les ressorts techniques de ce futur pour arriver à une conclusion plus que satisfaisante. Après avoir découvert Addict grâce à Netgalley, je n’ai qu’une hâte lire la suite à paraître ce jour même, The Fox, the Dog and the King.

Addict
de Matt Doyle
Editions Nine Star Press

Addict by Matt Doyle is full of action. Cassie is a badass heroine with a side kick named Bert. She has bas bad dreams about her past and family. When a would be client named Lori asks for her help concerning the death of her brother, she can't refuse.. There's a lot of action in this futuristic thriller. People become addicted to the new drugs which have a different kind of high. Was Lori's brother murdered or was it an accidental overdose? Loved the surprise of the ending and Ink of course. I received this book from Net Galley and Nine Star Press for an honest review and no compensation otherwise.

I am always on the lookout for new authors, and I think I found one. This book was well-written, had a good plot, and very interesting characters. I liked how this book had a really different look at an interesting futuristic world, one I would like to have gotten to know a little better, but maybe in future books. While this takes place in the future, it isn’t too far out of reach to feel different than today or to be too complicated, something I worry about not liking in sci-fi genres. Not only were the characters interesting, they were diverse, something fiction could use more of. Add to that, we had a non-stop action plot, with a mystery that wasn’t too simple. Everything came to together to form a great book, and I really enjoyed it from the beginning to end and I can't wait to read more! Highly recommend! I was provided the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.