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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Deadly Lover (Forbidden Lovers #1) by Charlee Allden

Science Fiction Romance

From Goodreads:

Love can get you killed.

Security contractor Lily Rowan is clawing her way back to normalcy after a training mission gone horrifically wrong left her physically and emotionally broken. She’s returned to the city she grew up in, but not to hide from her nightmares, to face them. Living alongside the Ormney—genetically altered refugees who’ve settled in The Zone—is a daily reminder of the Ormney trainee who nearly took her life. Lily knew it would be tough, but she couldn’t have known coming home would drop her straight into a madman’s deadly game.

Someone is drugging Ormney men and turning them into mindless killers, reenacting the attack Lily barely survived. To stop the killing spree and put her own demons behind her, Lily must overcome her fear and work with Jolaj, a refugee Law Keeper with dangerous secrets and hidden motives of his own.

Jolaj long ago dedicated his life to his people, risking everything to find them a new home. But working with Lily could prove to be the most difficult task he’s ever faced. Despite the Council’s decree making relationships with the outsiders forbidden, he’s finding it hard to keep the courageous Lily at a distance.

With the fragile peace between their people on the line, Lily and Jolaj must stop the horrific crimes before their growing attraction makes them the killer’s next targets.

In the near future, the world is forever altered when the existence of the Ormney is made known. But two things remain the same—serial killers still walk among us and murder is still as ugly and terrifying as ever.

I found Deadly Lover to be fun but predictable. It did not keep me for enjoying the book but it could have been stronger if there had been a twist that added additional surprise to the story.  I could anticipate the action and knew who the villain was as soon as he appeared in the story.  Changing either of those would have added strength to the story.

The aliens coming to Earth and being kept in a compound was not a new concept but the way they arrived was.  That part was a surprise.  The plot moved at a steady pace with scenes full of tension followed by time for the reader and the characters to catch their breath.

There is a large cast of characters.  Both Lily and Jolaj were very well developed.  I like how it took time to reveal the circumstances that lead to  Lily being injured.  That part was very well done and added some mystery to the story.  Jolaj’s character was revealed early.  His place with the Ormney was not know for quite some time.

There are multiple side characters.  Some developed and some not.  There certainly plenty of choices for the next book.

The world building was very good.  Little by little using description and action everything came into focus.  Nothing was forced just revealed as needed.

I purchased Deadly Lover from Amazon and one thing that really bugged me was the number of typo’s.  Had this been an ARC they could have been forgiven but this was the final edition.  Every time I has to stop and figure out where a word really belonged or hit a misspelled word it took me out of the story.  I hope Allder finds someone to do a better job of proof reading next time.  The story deserved better.

The things I liked about Deadly Lover certainly outweighed the things I did not.  There are just not enough good SciFi Romances being published.  Charlee Allden has started a series that will add to anyone’s collection.

 Amazon Digital Services published Deadly Lover by Charlee Allden in 2015.

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