Tag: Black Ops: Automatik

Guest Review: Seconds to Sunrise by Nico Rosso

Posted January 16, 2017 by Jen in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Seconds to Sunrise by Nico RossoReviewer: Jen
Seconds to Sunrise by Nico Rosso
Series: Black Ops: Automatik #3
Also in this series: Seconds to Sunrise
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: January 16th 2017
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Readers of Maya Banks’s KGI series will love the adrenaline-fueled, pulse-pounding suspense of Nico Rosso's SECONDS TO SUNRISE
She thought she’d lost everything…

April Banks thought her website crashing was just a glitch. Starting the online forum for war widows has been the only thing keeping her together since her husband died, and she won’t let anything interfere with her work. But this is no technical malfunction—cyberterrorists have targeted the information locked in April’s website and they’ll do anything to get it. Even if that means removing April. Permanently.

He’ll make them pay…

Automatik gave former SAS agent James Sant a way to protect the innocent again. He thinks life in the shadows is all he deserves…until he meets his newest assignment. April is everything James has never let himself want and he knows she’s already had too much heartbreak in her life to risk feeling for him. But keeping things professional while hunting the hackers with the gorgeous widow is going to be the hardest job he’s ever taken on.

This book is approximately 75,000 words

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise! Find out more at CarinaPress.com/RomancePromise

This is the third book in Nico Rosso’s Black Ops: Automatik series, and this time we meet Automatik operator James Sant, who is called in to help widow April Banks. April runs a website for war widows, and it’s given her a purpose and helped her move on after her own husband died in combat. The site was hacked and brought down, though, and personal data of site visitors was stolen. (Why? Personally I was never clear on why the hackers were trying to accomplish. The premise seemed a little flimsy.) James and April have to physically track down the hackers so they can protect the site users and put a stop to whoever is behind the attack.

This book is a bit of fun and fast paced action. I always love a good road trip, and we get one here. James and April have to chase clues through multiple states to track down the hackers, which leads to some great get-to-know-you time. James is an interesting character because he’s not always been with the “good guys”. He has some major guilt and you can see why he’d be so dedicated to spending the rest of his life making up for past choices, as it were. I enjoyed seeing him work to move beyond his past and acknowledge the good he has done since. I also loved the short scene with his dad. I wish we had gotten to spend more time with him, because seeing James with his family really drove home the point that he WAS a decent guy who just made some questionable choices.

I often feel like Rosso’s books are great for the action but not as great at touching your heartstrings, and Seconds to Sunrise was no exception. I expected more emotion from April’s story in particular, as she lost a husband she loved to war. Instead, I felt like the story just assumed it was obvious that such a loss was really painful, instead of helping us see April’s pain. There was also a little depth missing from James and April’s relationship. The right pieces are all there, but the dialogue and inner thoughts just don’t quite express that deeper emotional connection that I personally enjoy in romances. It’s not that I didn’t like them as a couple or enjoy reading their story, but I certainly didn’t end the book with a sweet sigh and won’t be fondly remembering their relationship. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just something you want to know going in.

If you like action packed romances with racially/ethnically diverse characters and some hot sex, check this one out.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

*I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

three-half-stars


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Guest Review: Seconds to Sunrise by Nico Rosso

Posted January 5, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Guest Review: Seconds to Sunrise by Nico RossoReviewer: Tracy
Seconds to Sunrise by Nico Rosso
Series: Black Ops: Automatik #3
Also in this series: Seconds to Sunrise
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: January 16th 2017
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

She thought she’d lost everything…

April Banks thought her website crashing was just a glitch. Starting the online forum for war widows has been the only thing keeping her together since her husband died, and she won’t let anything interfere with her work. But this is no technical malfunction—cyberterrorists have targeted the information locked in April’s website and they’ll do anything to get it. Even if that means removing April. Permanently.

He’ll make them pay…

Automatik gave former SAS agent James Sant a way to protect the innocent again. He thinks life in the shadows is all he deserves…until he meets his newest assignment. April is everything James has never let himself want and he knows she’s already had too much heartbreak in her life to risk feeling for him. But keeping things professional while hunting the hackers with the gorgeous widow is going to be the hardest job he’s ever taken on.

April Banks survived the death of her husband by starting a website for that supported military widows.  The site grew and eventually there was a financial component so that if the need arose, and people wanted to help those in need, they could.  Now a hacker has crashed her site and is trying to get all of the financial information off of the site.  If successful, thousands of women would have their credit cards and identities revealed.  April tries to stop them but can’t get a lead on who is behind it all.

Enter James Sant. He is an ex-SAS agent who now works for a group called Automatik.  They help those who can’t help themselves and April is one of them.  He and his partner are assigned to just watch her but soon it becomes obvious that the hacker has hired out people to get April out of the picture.  Instead of just watching, James ends up partnering with April and they head out to check out leads when they get them and are attacked time and again.  During it all April and James become closer and April starts to see that maybe there is life after tragedy.

Seconds to Sunrise is the third book in the Black Ops: Automatik series.  I didn’t read the first two books in the series but this was a decent stand alone novel.

I thought the book had a good premise and I liked the characters for the most part.  I did find that I wanted to get to know them more by the end of the story, however.  I think I was supposed to feel more emotional toward April due to the loss of her husband but I never really felt that.  Did I think it sad and tragic? Absolutely, but I didn’t have an emotional reaction to it.  Because of this I couldn’t fully grasp April’s hesitance in going after James and I believe that put a damper on the entire story for me. I couldn’t even get into the sex scene because I wasn’t feeling the connection between the H/h (and it was a long scene!).

That being said, there were some things I definitely liked about the book.  The action scenes were great.  I’ve always loved Rosso’s action scenes as they’re written so well that I feel that I’m there in the middle of it all.  I also  liked the aspect of the story that pertained to James and his issues with his past.  He wasn’t proud of them at all and had hidden the information from everyone.  Meeting April made him realize that he couldn’t live with the guilt and secrecy and he came clean to her and his coworkers.  That was a wonderful part of the book which I liked a lot.  Overall it was a good suspense novel…I just wasn’t feeling the romance part of it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars


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