disclaimer: I received this free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

finally, i have finished my first book in three months

not a bad book, but just a little too romance-heavy for me

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book. This was a fun read with immersive world-building and an above average plot. The writing is solid and I had a good time in general. However, it did start to feel like a lot of what i've read before from this genre. That isn't necessarily bad, but it is therefore, not special. It is missing that wow factor for me. I might consider reading the following books, but its not on the top of my list.

I did end up finishing this one but it was such a letdown. I had high hopes and this one just didn't work. There were moments I did enjoy which is why I pushed through, but mostly it couldn't hold my attention. It was also annoying how a lot of the action happened off page or was minimal.

This sci-fi romance is engaging. The post-apocalyptic setting isn't my favorite, but that's personal taste not a problem with the story.

To be honest, I had a bit of a hard time with this book. The idea is good. It's set in the same post-apo/dystopian world as the Beyond series. But except for the Flares, there is very little in common. It takes place in a different part of America, and I could not find any direct reference to the previous series. (Meaning, I did not notice any mention of the character from the Beyond series. But if I missed some and you find any, please, let me know! I was really curious to see if there would be some.)

While the world and the story were not a problem, the characters were. I could not connect with any of them. They seemed like vaguely similar to some characters from the Beyond series but way less fleshed out. I did not like any of them. I did not dislike any of them. I just did not really care about them in a way. As if they were just shells, a mirror reflection. Something was missing from them.

I truly enjoyed the world-building and setup of the series. Unfortunately, I didn't feel connected to the characters and, consequently, wasn't invested in the romance.

I've read and enjoyed the previous work by these authors. Hopefully, this is just the growing pains of a new series, and the next will work better for me.

Really enjoyed it, the authors have great world building and I will be going to purchase more from them right now

I am ashamed that I didn't read this book before because of how perfect it is. I just finished reviewing Hunt the Stars, which scratched the very same itch--two teams of competent people who function as Found Family getting together to do an Undertaking and develop Grudging Respect and Pantsfeelings for each other. This book was maybe even better because the warm fuzzies were focused less on cooking and more on post-apocalyptic provisioning, which I *love*--freeze drying food, running a tool library and printing press, bartering with the neighbors. Plus lady supersoldiers.

There was just enough longing, but not too much, and everyone had their eyes appropriately on the mission. There was much Sticking It to the Corporate Overlords Cat. Nip.

I just found a new post-apocalyptic romance series to fall in love with!! This one was so good with a bunch of kickass characters(mercenary librarians? I mean how cool is that?), sexy romance and amazing found-family bonds! It had a great mix of action, romance and suspense! Highly recommend it!

I'm not going to bother with much of a review here, because I really don't have much to say about this book. It was frustratingly, agonizingly slow, and although I considered DNFing it several times it was never quite so bad that I wanted to quit. I pressed on in the hopes that it would get better, hit the climax of the book roughly 60% in...and it kept going on and on and on. I pretty well skimmed the last 20% just to get a rough idea of how it would end. And it ended pretty much exactly how I expected. To say Deal with the Devil is uneven is an understatement, to make it even more burdensome, there's no real stakes despite all the various conflicts. This is the very definition of a blah read.

Overall I did enjoy this book, but I found it to drag in the middle. Both the romance between Maya and Gray and the tasks the women and the Silver Devils were undertaking seemed to get bogged down in details and backstory. Once it picked up, though, it was filled with twists, turns, danger and excitement, along with a surprise or two—all I’ve come to expect from Kit Rocha.

“Survival’s simple. The complicated part is deciding what you’re willing to do to survive.” – Garrett Knox

One of my top reads this year! What a ride! What a story! What an amazing crew of broken and perfectly flawed characters!

Garrett Knox has a mission – kill Nina and her crew of female misfits. He’s not happy about it, especially after his team and hers start working together, but he has no other choice. If he doesn’t do the job before a certain deadline, or at least surrender Nina to the one who gave him the mission, the woman who has been helping him and his team stay alive for so long will pay the price. When you start falling in love with your target, can you still put your morals before your heart?

Honestly, I loved every single thing about this book. Dystopian settings are always a hit or miss, and this one was definitely a hit. The way the story progresses through Kit Rocha’s world – or, well, her version of a dystopian America – has you in a tight grip, not bothering you with unnecessary details, and yet not leaving you in the dark. The perfect balance for any reader to get immersed in a book and invested in its tale.

There was so much action, the pace was in reality a whirlwind of motion. Even the quiet moments didn’t seem stale or still, but helped the plot move on to its original designation. The dialogues were all remarkably fun to read – so much wit, and sarcasm, and emotions all over the place! The transition between dialogues and description was a well-oiled mechanism that never once faltered.

Of course, the true backbone of this whole thing was the characters. Every single one of them was amazing, complex, flawed, and downright loveable! I laughed, and cheered for them, and felt for them for anything that was happening to them. And while Nina and Knox were the main couple, my shipping heart wanted so much more for the rest of the crew. I want Dani and Rafe to get down and dirty and rough. I want Maya and Gray and their quiet chemistry to soothe my soul. I want Conall to find a partner, too – male or female, I don’t care, though I would really go for a MM romance with tech boy -, and Luna, and Ava – I need a redemption arc for the woman, yesterday!

All in all, this is a book I recommend to everyone. It has action, and mystery, and plot twists galore. Romance, sweetness, sexiness, and humor. It practically has it all!

“I do have two rules that have worked for me so far. You’re welcome to borrow them. Number one—nothing that seems impossible ever really is. You just haven’t found the right answer yet. Or the right question. And number two? No matter what I think I have to do, I also have to look at myself in the mirror tomorrow.” – Nina

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.***

A fun, action-packed delight, with excellent community care vibes. The characters are distinct and a joy to read about, and I'm excited for the future books in this series.

There are a *lot* of POV characters, so not all of them get their due. I'd have liked if it had leaned a bit more into the romance genre (more of an emotional journey) and also more into the librarian thing. Nina and her crew read more on the mercenary side of things, especially at the beginning, and the community-building librarian bit is saved for a few comments later on.

SPOILERS: The inevitable, impending betrayal and its consequences end up falling a little flat when we find out who hired Knox in the first place. It took the stakes down quite a bit.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was good but I agree with previous reviewers that I just found the characters somehow generic. It was not helped by the fact that the author periodically switched viewpoints and I'd not figure it out until a couple of pages in because I missed the name change. Other than that, the world is intriguing and although I kept putting it down, I enjoyed reading this.

Ok, I've been pushing this one so far onto the backburner it fell off the stove. I wanted to love this one, but something about the combination of elements - post apocalyptic landscape, sexy ladies doing gymnastics, and super soldiers just...wasn't doing it for me. Eh, you can't win 'em all.

If all those elements sound fun to you, give it a shot! Hopefully it will hit for you in a way that just missed me.

I just did not get to this in time — my sincere apologies for the ridiculous and ever-growing nature of my TBR.

While the elements were all there to make this a great concept, the execution wasn’t my favorite and I ultimately had a hard time getting through the book. The plot felt really slow despite the material and I found myself not being able to connect with the characters.

I was really excited to read this. At one point I had preordered it, and was so excited to receive a copy through NetGalley. Unfortunately, the story's execution really bothered me. I found I actively did not want to finish it. For whatever reason, every character is described as a "Greek god" or the equivalent. I've grown tired of stories where everyone is "chiseled" or what-have-you. I'm ready to read about people.

I've been trying to finish this for a year already but somehow couldn't make it past the 50% mark. Objectively the writing is great - I've read Kit Rocha's works in the past - but I'm just not into the world or the characters. Regretfully this book is not for me.

Something I didn't know when starting this book is that it is set in the same world as Beyond Shame and the rest of the Beyond series, and Ashwin and the subsequent Gideon's Riders books.

While sharing the same universe, there is something fully fleshed about this novel that makes most of those seem like additional extras to flesh out the world, despite the fact that they came first.

I honestly loved every single bit about this book. I've previously read Kit Rocha's books for the love of their world building, and it was like having a new editor made a fresh burst of life come onto the page and that they were really encouraged to flesh this aspect out.

One of the things I was waiting for, as a long time fan, was to see the cameos of other characters in the universe but, as far as I remember, this didn't happen. It seems as though, at least for now, they are treating this as a whole new series.

The plot of a Kit Rocha book remains the same, though. Two seemingly opposing characters come to meet one another. Nina and her team are beloved in her community and uses the information she gathers to be able to help gain the best life for those around her in this post apocalyptic world in Atlanta sometime in the 2080s. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for good business for the TechCorps who are kind of the overlord bad guys of this world.

Knox and his team used to work for them. But when Knox tried to follow his ethics instead of their creed, he ended up watching one of his men tortured and vowed that he would never put one of his men in that situation again. Unfortunately, the deal he makes at the start of this book to keep his men safe means lying to Nina and getting her to walk into a trap.

Which, because she believes the best in people, she totally goes for.

The interplay between both of these groups was pretty amazing. We got to see a lot of characters who had advancements that had been given to them by future tech as well as a great swath of the world and how it is managing to get by after the fall of civilisation as we know it now.

Best of all, there were only two erotic sequences between the main characters. This book is far more plot drive and character driven than any of the previous books by this author and I cannot wait for the next one.