Asia Mackay

What a line to open a book with: 'I pull my pistol out of my striped Cath Kidston nappy bag.' I was intrigued, at the same time hoping this was not going to be a rather clichéd, cheesy attempt at portraying a kick-arse heroine. It only took another couple of paragraphs to realise that, on the contrary, it was going to turn out to be rather engaging.

Going back to work after maternity leave isn't unusual. Thousands, millions even, of women do it. But, Alexis Tyler is mum to rosy-cheeked, squiggy-cheeked, all-round scrummy little Gigi…in one life. In her other, secret, unbeknownst-to-husband-Will life, she's a highly trained secret agent, risking her life for queen and country, killing whoever needs to be eliminated in the interests of national security. And day one back on job means being thrown right back in at the deep end with a dangerous assignment. That's absolutely fine as long as she can get home to say nighty night to her most treasured possession.

Despite the element of domesticity this was a thriller and a half: fast-paced, gripping, compelling. At the heart of it, is Alexis: dedicated to her job, the best at what she does, fiercely protective of those she loves and vehemently dismissive of the words 'can't' and 'no'.

I really should knock off a star for the rather slack editing, but I really enjoyed the book. It was very evident that the author is a mother and infused the necessary credibility to the work-family tug-of-war Alexis faced. The ending is cheekily tantalising, which means I'll certainly be reading the next Alexis Tyler book.… (más)

When I first got this book, there was some expectations that I had and it turned out to be good,
The plot itself, is constantly moving and it kept surprising me with sudden and really unexpected plot twists and there were things happening I did not think would actually happen. This makes the book really interesting to read. Additionally, the writing style of the book makes the book easy to read as although the topic is very serious and manly and there’s a lot of action, there is still a bit of humor in it, which makes the book a lot lighter to read.
Another thing that makes the book this good, is the complex characters. The main character, Lex, is in her own league and the issues she has to work through make the book more complex and more interesting. Of course, at the end, it was really hard to work out who the bad guys are and who the good guys are so this, I think give the book a bit of edge to it.
All in all, this book was great to read and I enjoyed it a lot.

*I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley for a review… (más)

I really enjoyed this one. It’s has a great mix of action and humour, with a kick-ass female main character too.

Someone has set up a Tinder-style app that matches dodgy employers with secret service employees willing to sell secrets for some easy money. The app could bring down the entire secret service. Lex and her colleagues in team Whistle are the only ones trusted enough to track down the Mastermind behind it, at the same time as ensuring that a visiting Chinese government minister is not assassinated, and remembering to get Lex’s 2-year-old daughter to nursery on time.

This is the second book featuring Lex, I haven’t read the first but definitely will on the strength of this one.

With thanks to Readers First for sending a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review… (más)