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Through the Static
The only way to save him is to let him into her mind...and her heart. When cybernetics researcher Aurelia Locke is attacked, she instantly recognizes her assailants as a Three-a mercenary unit made up of a trio of soldiers whose minds have been cybernetically linked, their pasts erased, their wills subsumed. By the skin of her wits, she escapes to an abandoned house, where she hacks its security system in her desperation to find refuge. Jinx is already on high alert when his Three notices something isn't right with their safe house. But he never expected to find a woman wounded and bleeding out in his own bed, or that his visceral reaction to her would begin to awaken his lost past from a years-long haze of violence. In a mad gamble to escape, Aurelia frees Jinx from his Three by severing his neural connection to them and tying his mind to hers. The power of their link shocks them both, manifesting not only in shared thoughts, but in an intensely passionate physical connection. But dangerous forces pursue them, intent on reclaiming Jinx and silencing Aurelia's knowledge. Her only chance of saving him is to risk everything-her research, her heart, and her life. Warning: Contains manipulation of a person's memory without his consent and brief episodes of mind control, as well as a smart girl on the run, a high-tech soul-bond, and telepathy-enhanced sex.
218 pages, Paperback
First published January 20, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 22, 2015
I liked the idea of this book but I needed much more world building. Aurelia is a scientist who has been studying how to link people together. Bad guys come and steal this information and start what is called “The Threes,” Basically, forcing people to erase all memories and link to two other people – creating a trio who can be controlled to kill or attack or anything else needed. These three that are linked together hear each other’s thoughts and can communicate wordlessly with each other. When this book starts, Aurelia is being chased and ends up hiding in what she thinks is an abandoned house. But when a set of The Three, come home, and realize there is someone sleeping on one of the beds, they go into assault mode.
Jinx is the hero – he is part of a Three along with someone named Curse and Charm. Their link is starting to have problems and it is disintegrating a little bit. Charm and Curse are having romantic feelings towards one another, an emotion I don’t think you should be able to feel. When Jinx sees Aurelia, instead of seeing her as a threat, he has an instant, and big attraction. He breaks away from Curse and Charm’s link and runs off with Aurelia to figure things out. They fall for each other hard and quick, but his link to Curse and Charm is not 100% severed, leading to drama and conflict towards the end.
I like the concept of this book – with the futuristic scientific brain linkage. I also appreciated that the author didn’t info-dump on us early in the book. I didn’t always know what was going on but had enough tidbits for me to keep going. The problem is that I didn’t get enough overall information about the world to really feel like I had a good grasp . I needed more background on the history of how this kind of link came to be. Who all is affected? What is society really like? Who is this bad guy and just how evil is he?
Another thing that bothered me is the insta-lust. Jinx and Aurelia fall hard for each other. I guess the link being intimate in knowing each other’s thoughts opens them up to more emotions – but I wanted at least one of them to have a more jaded side. It became very mushy-gushy romance and it didn’t fit with what I thought their personalities were.
Cool concept but I needed more.
Rating: C
Jinx is the hero – he is part of a Three along with someone named Curse and Charm. Their link is starting to have problems and it is disintegrating a little bit. Charm and Curse are having romantic feelings towards one another, an emotion I don’t think you should be able to feel. When Jinx sees Aurelia, instead of seeing her as a threat, he has an instant, and big attraction. He breaks away from Curse and Charm’s link and runs off with Aurelia to figure things out. They fall for each other hard and quick, but his link to Curse and Charm is not 100% severed, leading to drama and conflict towards the end.
I like the concept of this book – with the futuristic scientific brain linkage. I also appreciated that the author didn’t info-dump on us early in the book. I didn’t always know what was going on but had enough tidbits for me to keep going. The problem is that I didn’t get enough overall information about the world to really feel like I had a good grasp . I needed more background on the history of how this kind of link came to be. Who all is affected? What is society really like? Who is this bad guy and just how evil is he?
Another thing that bothered me is the insta-lust. Jinx and Aurelia fall hard for each other. I guess the link being intimate in knowing each other’s thoughts opens them up to more emotions – but I wanted at least one of them to have a more jaded side. It became very mushy-gushy romance and it didn’t fit with what I thought their personalities were.
Cool concept but I needed more.
Rating: C
December 31, 2015
I'm so tired of cliche "I'm so tired and wounded and shell shocked from losing all my work and forced to trust a man I don't know anything about, and there are bad guys chasing us like right now, and we don't know what to do and where to go...
So let's have sex!!!!!!" :(
So let's have sex!!!!!!" :(
February 16, 2015
Originally published at Reading Reality
Through the Static is a story about the things that the unscrupulous will do in order to create supersoldiers. And all the ways that love, affection and even simple human doggedness manage to defeat those who would pervert humanity for their own wealth and (sadistic) pleasure.
Whoever coined the phrase “two’s company, and three’s a crowd” would understand the psychology behind creating these supersoldiers in mind-melded groups of three. Two people form a relationship, or at least consensus. Three people always argue, two against one. In order to settle those arguments, someone else gets control. Or at least that the way the “Threes” work in Through the Static.
That “static” is in the mind of Jinx, one member of a Three whose group is already starting to break down. His two partners, Curse and Charm, have developed a romantic relationship that leaves Jinx in the cold. But members of Threes have their minds wiped and their identities (and free will) taken away when they supposedly volunteered to become part of a Three. Curse and Charm are not supposed to be able to have separate enough personalities to feel anything emotional, just the loyalty to the Three and to their handler that is built into their programming.
Something isn’t right.
Jinx is also experience something that he shouldn’t. In dreams he remembers bits of his past. As if in clouds of static created by his programming, he sees images of a woman he almost knows - and who has eyes just like his.
Aurelia Locke is not a member of a Three. Instead, she is a cybernetics researcher who is being haunted and hunted by multiple Threes, because she and her cohorts have conducted unauthorized research into the way that Threes are made, and the way they can be broken. Or fixed.
On the run from yet another Three kidnapping attempt, wounded and desperate, Aurelia stumbles into an empty cottage a long way off the road. She breaks the security system and collapses, only to find herself under the suspicious eyes of yet another Three. But this is the Three made up of Curse, Charm and Jinx, and their programming is already frayed at the edges. Aurelia is able to make a mental connection with Jinx, and suddenly the situation changes.
With Aurelia in his head instead of Charm and Curse, Jinx is able to experience his own thoughts and feelings without the static. As his humanity returns, he finds himself wanting to protect Aurelia at all costs. He also just plain wants Aurelia, feelings that members of Threes aren’t supposed to have, except of course that his partners clearly do.
Jinx and Aurelia escape, and that’s where things get hairy. There are no coincidences. Aurelia is researching Threes because it is her own discoveries, perverted by a ex-lover, which took something that was supposed to help couples bond and perverted it into the creation of mindless mercenary assassins.
Aurelia wants to protect her research. She wants to save Jinx, to give him the chance at a life he never had, even if it isn’t with her. Jinx wants to be free of everything except Aurelia. But his past reaches out to pull him into the future, and her past kicks the door down and tries to wipe out any chance either of them might have to live.
It all comes down to an internal struggle to see who has more control, Jinx, Aurelia, or the meddling mastermind who won’t let either of them go.
Escape Rating A: The Threes remind me a bit of Robocop or the Terminator, attempts to create supersoldiers by removing any possible capability for human feelings and emotions, either by memory wiping and torture, or by not putting them there in the first place. (In a strange coincidence, my book for tomorrow, In the Devil’s Nebula by Anna Hackett, also explores this theme).
Unlike some of the antecedents for cybernetic supersoldiers, this version does not use implants to create massive armor or even massive muscles (or the equivalent). The process works by removing the original personality and replacing it with something without a conscience, but with an inbuilt requirement to obey they authority of their programmer and absolute loyalty to the members of their Three. Everything else appears to be training.
So, it’s the lack of a conscience that allows the Threes to function as heartless mercenaries, because their hearts have been programmatically removed. The only problem, from the perspective of the person controlling the Threes, is that the program is breaking down in the longest-serving Threes, and they need Aurelia’s research to shore up the gaps.
The problem, from the perspective of Aurelia and her colleagues, as well as from the emerging Threes themselves, is that no one volunteers for this shit. People are kidnapped and reprogrammed against their will into doing things that most of them would find heinous. Also, the programming is breaking down and while they may not remember their original lives, the internal conflict is eating them alive.
Aurelia intends to free Jinx. Jinx just wants to keep Aurelia safe, and also, simply to keep her. There is a certain amount of mutual Stockholm Syndrome going on, but it works in this story. They have come to rely on each other because of the mental connection that Aurelia creates between them. But the more she tries to set Jinx completely free, the more it backfires on both of them. They need each other for a whole lot of reasons that go beyond their original mutual kidnapping.
The bond also enhances their absolutely smoking-hot chemistry. But the love scenes are more than pure sex. Jinx doesn’t remember love or affection, so his experiences are heightened because for him it is the first time for so much in so many ways.
The SF part of Through the Static sets up a gritty world where technology has been abused. The R part of the equation is combustible. And the blending into SFR is explosive.
Through the Static is a story about the things that the unscrupulous will do in order to create supersoldiers. And all the ways that love, affection and even simple human doggedness manage to defeat those who would pervert humanity for their own wealth and (sadistic) pleasure.
Whoever coined the phrase “two’s company, and three’s a crowd” would understand the psychology behind creating these supersoldiers in mind-melded groups of three. Two people form a relationship, or at least consensus. Three people always argue, two against one. In order to settle those arguments, someone else gets control. Or at least that the way the “Threes” work in Through the Static.
That “static” is in the mind of Jinx, one member of a Three whose group is already starting to break down. His two partners, Curse and Charm, have developed a romantic relationship that leaves Jinx in the cold. But members of Threes have their minds wiped and their identities (and free will) taken away when they supposedly volunteered to become part of a Three. Curse and Charm are not supposed to be able to have separate enough personalities to feel anything emotional, just the loyalty to the Three and to their handler that is built into their programming.
Something isn’t right.
Jinx is also experience something that he shouldn’t. In dreams he remembers bits of his past. As if in clouds of static created by his programming, he sees images of a woman he almost knows - and who has eyes just like his.
Aurelia Locke is not a member of a Three. Instead, she is a cybernetics researcher who is being haunted and hunted by multiple Threes, because she and her cohorts have conducted unauthorized research into the way that Threes are made, and the way they can be broken. Or fixed.
On the run from yet another Three kidnapping attempt, wounded and desperate, Aurelia stumbles into an empty cottage a long way off the road. She breaks the security system and collapses, only to find herself under the suspicious eyes of yet another Three. But this is the Three made up of Curse, Charm and Jinx, and their programming is already frayed at the edges. Aurelia is able to make a mental connection with Jinx, and suddenly the situation changes.
With Aurelia in his head instead of Charm and Curse, Jinx is able to experience his own thoughts and feelings without the static. As his humanity returns, he finds himself wanting to protect Aurelia at all costs. He also just plain wants Aurelia, feelings that members of Threes aren’t supposed to have, except of course that his partners clearly do.
Jinx and Aurelia escape, and that’s where things get hairy. There are no coincidences. Aurelia is researching Threes because it is her own discoveries, perverted by a ex-lover, which took something that was supposed to help couples bond and perverted it into the creation of mindless mercenary assassins.
Aurelia wants to protect her research. She wants to save Jinx, to give him the chance at a life he never had, even if it isn’t with her. Jinx wants to be free of everything except Aurelia. But his past reaches out to pull him into the future, and her past kicks the door down and tries to wipe out any chance either of them might have to live.
It all comes down to an internal struggle to see who has more control, Jinx, Aurelia, or the meddling mastermind who won’t let either of them go.
Escape Rating A: The Threes remind me a bit of Robocop or the Terminator, attempts to create supersoldiers by removing any possible capability for human feelings and emotions, either by memory wiping and torture, or by not putting them there in the first place. (In a strange coincidence, my book for tomorrow, In the Devil’s Nebula by Anna Hackett, also explores this theme).
Unlike some of the antecedents for cybernetic supersoldiers, this version does not use implants to create massive armor or even massive muscles (or the equivalent). The process works by removing the original personality and replacing it with something without a conscience, but with an inbuilt requirement to obey they authority of their programmer and absolute loyalty to the members of their Three. Everything else appears to be training.
So, it’s the lack of a conscience that allows the Threes to function as heartless mercenaries, because their hearts have been programmatically removed. The only problem, from the perspective of the person controlling the Threes, is that the program is breaking down in the longest-serving Threes, and they need Aurelia’s research to shore up the gaps.
The problem, from the perspective of Aurelia and her colleagues, as well as from the emerging Threes themselves, is that no one volunteers for this shit. People are kidnapped and reprogrammed against their will into doing things that most of them would find heinous. Also, the programming is breaking down and while they may not remember their original lives, the internal conflict is eating them alive.
Aurelia intends to free Jinx. Jinx just wants to keep Aurelia safe, and also, simply to keep her. There is a certain amount of mutual Stockholm Syndrome going on, but it works in this story. They have come to rely on each other because of the mental connection that Aurelia creates between them. But the more she tries to set Jinx completely free, the more it backfires on both of them. They need each other for a whole lot of reasons that go beyond their original mutual kidnapping.
The bond also enhances their absolutely smoking-hot chemistry. But the love scenes are more than pure sex. Jinx doesn’t remember love or affection, so his experiences are heightened because for him it is the first time for so much in so many ways.
The SF part of Through the Static sets up a gritty world where technology has been abused. The R part of the equation is combustible. And the blending into SFR is explosive.
April 7, 2015
This review also appears on Pretty Sassy Cool.
I was very excited to get a chance to review this book. Jeanette Grey has been one of my favorite writers for a few years, and this book is a great example of why. I love when a writer does something I don’t expect; something different and quirky. Through the Static is what I’m going to call a great meshing of sci-fi, romance and erotica. What is not to love?
The story starts with a bang. No, not that kind of bang, you pervs, but a real action-packed bang with bad guys, tasers, guns and a girl on the run. In the immediacy of the moment, we begin to see bits and pieces of the sci-fi element that is built quickly and well. I love that the narrative is not over-laden with world-building factoids, just enough to give you some clues as to what this world is like. And what an interesting world it is.
Neural links are the new thing. The inception was an idea built around the connections people made using the internet and social media, taken one step (or probably a lot of them) further allowing users to link with another’s mind. Cool, yes; however, with great potential for misuse. And misuse is exactly what happens.
In the midst of the battle between forces who want to maintain the mercenary use of the technology and those who wish to take it back, we find our two main characters, who, of course, are on opposite sides of the fence. Aurelia must fight hard to regain the technology she helped create and return it to the good uses for which it was developed, and her opponent is one of the mercenaries in a Three, battle-hardened and controlled by another. Jinx is the odd man out in his Three. His link is old and beginning to degrade. The only way Aurelia has to try and beat the bad guy is to break Jinx’s link, which might just kill him.
Breaking the link is only the beginning of the problems facing Aurelia. To keep Jinx alive and able to help her, she must forge a link with her own mind. Doing so opens up an amazing connection, which leads me right into the STEAM. Holey moley, Jeanette Grey writes some amazing steam and sizzle. Because not only do these two have a strong physical attraction, but their every interaction is enhanced by the neural connection. They feel and see everything the other does, which magnifies every touch, every movement to incendiary levels.
I enjoyed watching Aurelia’s journey and Jinx’s gradual return to the human being he once was. As the story moves on, the connection continues to build and some kick-ass twists occur. Because nothing is ever as easy as it might seem. We have a strong heroine and a damaged hero, who will fight hard to regain his life. That they fall in love along the way is a foregone and happy conclusion.
Jeanette has given readers the best of two worlds: an excellent, interesting sci-fi story and a hot, satisfying love story filled with steamy moments. I would encourage anyone to read this, even if you don’t necessarily gravitate to sci-fi. Trust me, you will love this book.
--
For more reviews and bookish talk, visit our blog at Pretty Sassy Cool
I was very excited to get a chance to review this book. Jeanette Grey has been one of my favorite writers for a few years, and this book is a great example of why. I love when a writer does something I don’t expect; something different and quirky. Through the Static is what I’m going to call a great meshing of sci-fi, romance and erotica. What is not to love?
The story starts with a bang. No, not that kind of bang, you pervs, but a real action-packed bang with bad guys, tasers, guns and a girl on the run. In the immediacy of the moment, we begin to see bits and pieces of the sci-fi element that is built quickly and well. I love that the narrative is not over-laden with world-building factoids, just enough to give you some clues as to what this world is like. And what an interesting world it is.
Neural links are the new thing. The inception was an idea built around the connections people made using the internet and social media, taken one step (or probably a lot of them) further allowing users to link with another’s mind. Cool, yes; however, with great potential for misuse. And misuse is exactly what happens.
In the midst of the battle between forces who want to maintain the mercenary use of the technology and those who wish to take it back, we find our two main characters, who, of course, are on opposite sides of the fence. Aurelia must fight hard to regain the technology she helped create and return it to the good uses for which it was developed, and her opponent is one of the mercenaries in a Three, battle-hardened and controlled by another. Jinx is the odd man out in his Three. His link is old and beginning to degrade. The only way Aurelia has to try and beat the bad guy is to break Jinx’s link, which might just kill him.
Breaking the link is only the beginning of the problems facing Aurelia. To keep Jinx alive and able to help her, she must forge a link with her own mind. Doing so opens up an amazing connection, which leads me right into the STEAM. Holey moley, Jeanette Grey writes some amazing steam and sizzle. Because not only do these two have a strong physical attraction, but their every interaction is enhanced by the neural connection. They feel and see everything the other does, which magnifies every touch, every movement to incendiary levels.
I enjoyed watching Aurelia’s journey and Jinx’s gradual return to the human being he once was. As the story moves on, the connection continues to build and some kick-ass twists occur. Because nothing is ever as easy as it might seem. We have a strong heroine and a damaged hero, who will fight hard to regain his life. That they fall in love along the way is a foregone and happy conclusion.
Jeanette has given readers the best of two worlds: an excellent, interesting sci-fi story and a hot, satisfying love story filled with steamy moments. I would encourage anyone to read this, even if you don’t necessarily gravitate to sci-fi. Trust me, you will love this book.
--
For more reviews and bookish talk, visit our blog at Pretty Sassy Cool
February 9, 2015
3.5 stars
This book started out so promising; the opening action sequence that you are dropped in the middle of really set the bar high, and the writing had your heart racing along with Aurelia's while she attempted to avoid capture.
And then the POV changed.
But not, as you would expect, after say a section break. I'm talking (in my Kindle version at least, I hope it isn't across all editions!) one line you are with Aurelia, the next you are with Jinx. No gap between the two, no nothing. It was so distracting I found myself reading the same page five times over because I thought I'd missed something (I hadn't!).
While this seems very nit-picky (and it is), something like this drives me mad - I spend more time trying to figure out what the heck is going on rather than letting the story flow as it is intended to.
In saying that, both POVs work. When there is a discernible gap between POVs, the story flows. You're drawn into this future-scape. You really empathise with Jinx and his struggles. You find yourself rooting for both of the characters to get their happily ever after.
I guess my issue with this book was that the editing really distracted me to the point I wasn't enjoying the book. Were some of the reveals obvious? Well, yes, but I wouldn't have minded so much if I wasn't rereading whole sections to try and work out whose head we were in now.
In summation, a quick, enjoyable read.
This book started out so promising; the opening action sequence that you are dropped in the middle of really set the bar high, and the writing had your heart racing along with Aurelia's while she attempted to avoid capture.
And then the POV changed.
But not, as you would expect, after say a section break. I'm talking (in my Kindle version at least, I hope it isn't across all editions!) one line you are with Aurelia, the next you are with Jinx. No gap between the two, no nothing. It was so distracting I found myself reading the same page five times over because I thought I'd missed something (I hadn't!).
While this seems very nit-picky (and it is), something like this drives me mad - I spend more time trying to figure out what the heck is going on rather than letting the story flow as it is intended to.
In saying that, both POVs work. When there is a discernible gap between POVs, the story flows. You're drawn into this future-scape. You really empathise with Jinx and his struggles. You find yourself rooting for both of the characters to get their happily ever after.
I guess my issue with this book was that the editing really distracted me to the point I wasn't enjoying the book. Were some of the reveals obvious? Well, yes, but I wouldn't have minded so much if I wasn't rereading whole sections to try and work out whose head we were in now.
In summation, a quick, enjoyable read.
October 29, 2014
This was a new author for me. That can often be disappointing but this time I was so happy to have had a chance to read it.
The story moved fast, characters were engaging and very sympathetic. I loved the couple.
While the sex scenes were over the top, they managed to scate that narrow edge between increadible intensity of emotion and just shy of purple prose.
Loved it.
I wish to visit this world many more times and am hoping this will turn out to be the beginging of a series.
I RECEIVED AN ADVANCED COPY VIA NETGALLEY IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
The story moved fast, characters were engaging and very sympathetic. I loved the couple.
While the sex scenes were over the top, they managed to scate that narrow edge between increadible intensity of emotion and just shy of purple prose.
Loved it.
I wish to visit this world many more times and am hoping this will turn out to be the beginging of a series.
I RECEIVED AN ADVANCED COPY VIA NETGALLEY IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
February 9, 2015
A highly entertaining, explosive, and sexy read, Through the Static was unlike anything I have ever read before.
I enjoyed the unique futuristic setting and the strong science fiction elements woven into the story, especially of the Three and their collective minds. The intertwining of thoughts between Jinx and Aurelia was complex and curious, and I found myself turning page after page to find out how their mental link would change with their growing relationship.
This was definitely a change from my usual genre selection, but a fun divergent, nonetheless.
I enjoyed the unique futuristic setting and the strong science fiction elements woven into the story, especially of the Three and their collective minds. The intertwining of thoughts between Jinx and Aurelia was complex and curious, and I found myself turning page after page to find out how their mental link would change with their growing relationship.
This was definitely a change from my usual genre selection, but a fun divergent, nonetheless.
January 26, 2015
I really liked the sci-fi/futuristic elements in this- the concept of The Threes and how communications have got so sophisticated that humans can speak directly into each other's minds. I love everything Jeannette Grey writes (I think I say that in every review, but it's true.) That said, this wasn't my favorite one, but that is like saying this wasn't my favorite piece of cake. It's still a delicious piece of cake.
February 1, 2015
Loved how the author started with an action sequence that helped explain her world building yet wasn't a dump of info. Loved both main characters and was really rooting for them! If you're a fan of sci-fi romance you'll love this book!
April 22, 2015
Pretty good. Review on Amazon
July 9, 2016
Nice blend of SF and romance
March 6, 2015
Really enjoyed the premise of this story ... not your ordinary "woman heals warrior's wounded psyche" book.
June 21, 2015
While I wasn't particularly invested in the relationship between the MCs, the premise was quite fascinating, and the writing engaging and enjoyable.
February 12, 2016
DNF 38%
September 28, 2016
I wish there were more books in the world Ms Grey built for this book. There just seems like there's so many stories left to tell.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews