WHY DID I LISTEN TO ILLUSIVE BY EMILY LLOYD-JONES?
Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones honest to goodness appeals to me on the basis that there is an Ocean’s 11 comparison. Like, in all honesty, I haven’t actually SEEN Ocean’s 11 but I just really enjoy books that get compared to it. Anyways, I knew I had to read this book. But also, there is a virus but also powers. So, those are all the elements I need for interest. Seeing Illusive available via Hoopla was just the cherry on top, I guess.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
Emily Lloyd-Jones’s Illusive is a dual narrated story. The two main characters are Ciere and Daniel. Anyways, the set up is that they live in this world where there was this massive virus called the MK Virus. There was a vaccine that was created to stop it which is great and all. Only, that vaccine ended up unexpectedly giving some of the recipients the powers of super heroes. That is great and all, except for one thing. The government was like you need to serve us or else. So, people chose else and got all into crime.

Ciere is a character who can change her appearance. Clearly, the title is based on her power. So, she falls in with a wrong crowd, mobsters. They basically extort her and ask her to come up with this massive sum of money in only a few days. Ciere then ends up joining a ragtag group of criminals to take on the job which is to find the destroyed formula for the vaccine.

Meanwhile, there’s also Daniel. He was kidnapped by Aristeas. Basically Aristeas is supposed to help people like Daniel. Daniel spends some time with the government, I guess. He didn’t seem to have as much of a role or as much importance as Ciere.

HOW DID I LIKE ILLUSIVE?
Well, Illusive is definitely an interesting book. I think that the set up of the world is fascinating. This is one that I thought was more engaging and faster moving than Renegades which is another superhero based book. Anyways, the Ocean’s 11 team element was probably my favorite part to read about, more so than the virus bits even. I really did enjoy my time listening to this book but I probably won’t highly prioritize reading the sequel.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
The audiobook of Illusive contains dual narrators. It goes back and forth between Caitlin Davies and Kirby Heyborne. Both are excellent narrators in their own right. I enjoyed the listen and have basically zero negative or critical things to say. This is an audiobook that should appeal to you if you are into superhero books and heist books.