A couple of big things snapped through my usual awesome enjoyment of any Riley Edwards book and gave me pause.
One-there was a veritable alphabet fricking soup of characters discussed. Approximately 147 characters were mentioned, some from series so far back in the RE universe that I wasn't close to guessing their connection. Yeah, I get that this is military/political? suspense, but that's a sh!t ton of people.
Two-somewhere around the 50% mark, the dialogue and speech-spewing went right off the rails and into the woods. There were so many (and repeated) character description dumps that my head hurt. It also made me lose my place as I struggled to understand why that was happening, instead of more action to let me learn who a character was instead of being told by way of verbal vomit. In fact, I felt a time/space continuum slip because suddenly, I felt like I got dropped into a Kristen Ashley book. She loves to let her characters pontificate self-righteously. Regardless, the reams of spillage knocked me out of the main storyline as I tried to keep my head above the verbal waters. I never felt like I had a real grip on what was actually happening after that.
And OK, I lied. There's a third thing. Three-what happened with the $ex? RE typically delivers on the hot and heavy between leads. This time-didn't happen at all. I felt the attraction. I waited with bated breath. Then...what? Jonas came off like some kind of sadistic tease who made sure he got what he wanted, but sorry, Derrika, you get sloppy seconds. In other words, it wasn't a $exy coming together kind of deal. And none of their encounters, few as they were, messed with the almost immediately capitulation into the soul melding of these two. I just never bought it. Again, way too much telling of their deep connection, not any showing through action. The obligatory kidnapping and rescue felt very anticlimactic here. It just didn't really work.
Honestly, as far as the plot goes, it's a giant ball of yarn that never got unknotted. So, in the end, a couple of sentences solves it all? The Russians are going to apologize, the Chinese are going to refund all the money spent screwing things up, and the US has its honor restored? Seriously? Even putting aside our current place on the world stage as a petulant understudy, I can't buy this clean resolution all wrapped up in a literal three-sentence paragraph.
I am certain that any nonsuspecting reader who picked up this book without reading all the other series would run screaming for the hills within four chapters. This couldn't be a standalone for love or money.
Since Day 1, I've loved me some Riley Edwards. I'm not sure where this goes from here.