Fast paced and dynamic, a well scripted tale which had me hooked all the way. Partly predictable in the nationality of the "baddie" but the plot with the twists makes up for it.

A truly beautiful and suspenseful tale, written with such finesse.

A cornucopia of wonderfully crafted characters help set the stage for a must read. A riveting listen, narrated perfectly.

It was hard to put down such a great book and that ending… just sublime.

Highly recommended .

My recent foray into The Wayward Target by Susan Ouellette, the third book in a series I had not yet delved into, was a testament to the author's masterful storytelling. Despite my unfamiliarity with the series, I found it easy to immerse myself in the story, thanks to the author's skill and the strong, consistent narration by Erin Bennett. Bennett's engaging voice and the author's storytelling prowess made the audiobook experience thoroughly enjoyable.

I accessed this book through NetGalley and was pleasantly surprised by its unique and engaging narrative. The story revolves around Maggie Jenkins, a CIA operative who finds herself in the crosshairs of danger after being exposed by a self-serving politician. This act of betrayal sets off a chain of events, with Maggie and her friends becoming the targets of revenge by terrorists. However, Maggie's character is far from passive—her proactive and fearless approach to handling threats drives the story forward, making for a thrilling read.

While CIA thrillers are not typically my favourite genre, The Wayward Target was a pleasant surprise. The book features multiple viewpoints, adding depth and complexity to the narrative. The fast-paced and gripping action makes it a quick and exciting read. Although the plot was somewhat predictable, the detailed and well-developed characters kept me engaged.

One aspect that stood out to me was the rich characterization. Each character felt nicely fleshed out and brought a unique perspective to the story. This level of detail added to the overall enjoyment of the book and left me eager to explore the first two instalments in the series.

Overall, The Wayward Target is 3.75 stars. It was a solid, action-packed read that kept me entertained and intrigued.

I extend my gratitude to NetGalley and CamCat Books for gifting me the Audio ARC of this thrilling novel. I look forward to experiencing more of Susan Ouellette's work.

Maggie Jenkins is a CIA analyst who lost her fiance to a terrorist attack a year ago in a school shooting. Her name gets leaked to the public by a congresswoman who wants to further her own agenda. Now Maggie is the target of the terrorist Bukayev, and he wants her eliminated for her involvement. Maggie wants to find Bukayev first, but her round-the-clock protection makes that extremely difficult. Her boss will stop at nothing to see that she does not fall to the same terrorist. While she is under protection there are suspicious events that lead the team protecting her to be on high alert for a hit.

This story is very fast-paced and was a great read. I loved the audio version. I had not read the previous book in the series but you can understand the story without them. I would like to go back and read them now. I enjoyed the complexity of the drama of a terrorist hit on a CIA analyst.

The Wayward Target is the third book in the Wayward Series by Susan Ouellette. Thank you to NetGalley and CamCatBooks for this audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review. I will say upfront that I have not read the first 2 books in this series, however I do not feel that impaired my ability to appreciate it as a stand alone. This book was a fast paced thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. The narrator, Erin Bennett, did a great job keeping the speed and tone entertaining. I have listened to other books she has narrated before and I find she has a pleasant voice to listen to and keeps your attention from drifting.

This book begins one year after the last book where Maggie killed a terrorist at a school in the US. Now, the terrorists are out to track Maggie down and kill for revenge. It takes us across the world to try and track down the killers before they can find her.

This book is told from many different POV which provides the reader with varied perspectives. There was a great deal of knowledge on the government and CIA and how the various agencies worked separate and apart. This made the book interesting, but at times I personally found it to be a bit too much.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more by Susan in the future.

Great book, I read the audiobook version, I didn't love the narrator but still I got used to her easily enough, and the story itself kept me hooked. I didn't realise before I read it that there were two books before but honestly there was no real need for me to have read the previous books, it probably was more mysterious for me than people who know the full story but everything gets wrapped up and explained at the end so I didn't have unanswered questions. I would love to see what happens next but sometimes that's the best place to end it, where the reader is happy and imagining all the possible future outcomes. Very enjoyable read, would highly recommend as a standalone book, but I think I will go back and read the first two.

As always, I don't like to give away any spoilers so I will only say that I loved all the characters, even the ones we're supposed to hate, but I enjoyed hating them. I thought the changing Points Of View were very well done, they gave me an insight into each character so I could better understand the motives behind their actions. Sometimes I hate changing POVs as I want the author to just get on with the story but I felt Susan did this so seamlessly, I was almost begging for the next POV to see what was going on inside each of the characters' heads haha. Definitely recommend the audiobook.

I wish I realized this was the third book of the series but I went in not knowing that. Some of it was confusing as it did have references to things that happened in other books and it would have been helpful. While it was okay as a stand alone I feel it would have been better to read in order. It was not something I usually read but overall I enjoyed the story/plot. It was pretty long and then the ending felt rushed and wasn't as exciting as I was hoping it would be. Luckily it was a good narrator too that helped as well!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read for my honest review.

The Wayward Target is full of action!
Maggie is coming down from the events of the year before where she took down some terrorists at an elementary school. She's started a new relationship with Roger after her fiance Steve died. She seems a little troubled but moving forward with her life her name gets leaked to the press and puts her life in danger with more terrorists.
This books was a change of pace for me but I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's intrigue, danger and a little romance. Maggie and all the characters are believable in their feelings. I even enjoyed the villains perspective.
The narrator did a good job of converting all the different characters without going to far.
I was pleasantly surprised I liked it so much.
I received this audiobook from Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

This is an exciting audiobook thriller. 3.5 stars. Maggie Jenkins is thrown under the bus by a politician more interested in political gain than the human consequences. Now outed to terrorists as the person who killed their associates she and her friends are a target for revenge. There starts the action, because Maggie is not one to sit back on her hands. In fact her way of handling things is the exact opposite of that. Although I enjoyed the story, I didn’t find the narrator’s accent enjoyable to my Scottish ear. Thank you to CamCat Books and NetGalley for the audio ARC. The views expressed are all mine freely given.

This was a good yet predictable read. I thought that the characters were nicely drawn out, very detailed. The story seemed a little too pat for my liking, but still enjoyed it.

This was the 3rd book of a series I had not started, but found it easy to jump in and follow. The narrator was great, had a strong and consistent voice which was very easy to listen to. I got access to this book through NetGalley, and found it to be a great and easy read. This CIA thriller was easily one that is in my favorite genre with the point of view from multiple characters. I found the story to be action packed and a very quick exciting read. I will go back and read the first and second book in the series.

Listened at 3x speed with no issues. Story remained enjoyable and easy to follow.
While I didn't know this was the 3rd installment in a series, I did enjoy this book as a standalone. Enough information is given throughout the story to provide context to the referenced past events without having read them. (I'm sure this would be a nice refresher for someone who may have read the previous stories and needed a refresher before diving in again.)

Maggie is a CIA officer and the story takes her, her boss Warner, and her love interest Roger up and down the east coast and all the way to Russia. The story moves quickly and tries to balance a romance with terrorism with media with etc... there are many modern elements that make the story timely and engaging.

For me, I didn't love how often Maggie seemed to "go rogue" and didn't feel a great amount of the love connection between her and Roger. However, I did enjoy the work-friend relationship that she and Warner tried to navigate and some of the training mentioned for CIA/FBI situations and agents.

A few obvious "twists" didn't work out for me, but I think it was an easy, engaging listen regardless of that.

Overall: 3 stars (I liked it)

I'll tell my students about: language, violence/gore/murder, alcohol, trauma

**Thank you to NetGalley & CamCat Books | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

I didn’t realize The Wayward Target was the third book in a series when I received my audio ARC. I have not read the previous books in the series, but was able to easily read this one as a standalone. The book starts by referencing an event from an earlier book where Zara, a terrorist was killed in an attack on an elementary school. In book three, Maggie (main character) is being targeted for death by a man named Bukayev, Zara was Bukayev’s partner.
This spy thriller is an adrenaline fueled race against many obstacles as Maggie and her partners must hunt down and neutralize Bukayev before he gets to Maggie.
The story line is believable and reflects modern day events that could occur. The characters are likeable and there is a small romance brewing.
For me though, the narrator made the story. Her reading and inflection made the story come to life for me.
Thank you NetGalley and CamCat Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the third book in the series. Considering that I was unaware of this and haven't read the previous installments, I will rate it as a standalone. The book references things that happened in previous books and while this book explains everything that you really need to know, having read the previous ones would probably make you more invested in the characters and the story.

The book picks up a year after the events of the second book. Bukayev is trying to hunt down Maggie after the incident at the elementary school that left Zara dead. (I assume Zara was his woman and partner in terrorism.) Maggie, Roger, and Warner are in a race against time to track him down and neutralize him.

This genre is not really my cup of tea, but it was fairly enjoyable. Once I figured out who everyone was and how we got to this place, it was pretty easy to follow. There were plenty of "high stakes" moments that kept you on your toes. Maggie was pretty likable, although a bit petty and acted like she didn't remember that she worked for the CIA a bit when she complained about not being in every loop. The main reason that I gave The Wayward Target 2 stars is because it is about 150 pages too long. According to Amazon, it is over 500 pages and felt like it. The plot when in circles more than I would have liked and the ending felt rushed and anti-climactic. I'm honestly glad that I was not invested in the entire trilogy because I would have been very disappointed in the ending. As it was, the recording was good and the narrator was enjoyable. I'm glad that I listened to the audiobook for this one.

This is the third novel in this series, and it read as interesting and captivating as the first. That's rare with series books of this nature. The story was well written, the main characters as well as side characters were well defined, enticing you to want to know more about them which kept me engaged in the story.
The narrator gave life to the story and to the characters and was a delight to listen to, as well.
I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy a good action and spy thriller.

THIS BOOK FELT SO REAL!

I felt that I was involved in an actual top secret case, with extremely classified information. With the disclaimer stating that the CIA was involved in the writing of this book to ensure that there was no accidental slip of info, heightened the excitement for me!

This was very well written, the back story for each character was followable and the kind of love triangle was actually really sweet!

The voice actors were great also, I listened over a span of 3 days. I felt like I was watching a television mini series, maybe a special installment of 48 or JAG.

I would suggest this book to a friend.

This book for me was hard to get into. maybe just not my cup of tea. I think the storyline was ok, just a little boring for me, didn't hold my interest. I listened to the audio version the narration was good.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an arc copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a bit different from my reads of late but I do enjoy a spy thriller and this did not disappoint. Since I’m specifically reviewing the audio version I’ll start with saying that the narrator did a great job with the recitation. She gave enough emotion to get into the books world but without crossing a line and allowed the consumer to create the world in their own way.

This is apparently the third book in a series but you never would have known as it is a great stand alone following Maggie through life and death twists and turns as she tries to save not only her life but that of her lover while betraying her closest friend.

I enjoyed the authenticity coming from an author who has been in the CIA but it was frightening of how a politician could create havoc within that world and put peoples life at risk.

I will go back and read the first two books as I enjoyed this very much and I hope this isn’t the last we have heard from Maggie.

The tv show Homeland in a book…I loved it!

Maggie Jenkins is a CIA agent used to hunting down terrorists but this time, instead of being the hunter, she is being hunted.

This was such an entertaining read…most thrillers are about serial killers and the like but The Wayward Target is about the CIA and terrorists in Russia. I found it to be a great story told from the CIA perspective as well as the terrorist. I received this audiobook in exchange for my opinion but now I’m going to have to go back and read the rest of the books by Susan Ouelette.

This book was a really good book I enjoyed reading it definitely worth listening to again and I would definitely buy a copy of this book