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The Huntress #1
An Assassin's Death
As an assassin of the Lifeless League, there are two rules I live by:
1. Never kill another hunter.
2. Obey orders.
When I find that my newest set of targets are branded with the Mark of the Hunter, I don’t know who I can trust anymore. I can’t take their lives without knowing why these mysterious men turned their backs on the League.
A choice will have to be made eventually. Even if they refuse to make anything easy for me. The four brooding ex-assassins give me trials, training, and tests to study my unusual powers and prove myself as one of them. A deadly plan is now in place but they’ve all made one grave mistake: Underestimating me. Because I’m adding a third and final rule to my list:
3. Survive.
This is a Reverse Harem Series, recommended for readers 18 and over.
1. Never kill another hunter.
2. Obey orders.
When I find that my newest set of targets are branded with the Mark of the Hunter, I don’t know who I can trust anymore. I can’t take their lives without knowing why these mysterious men turned their backs on the League.
A choice will have to be made eventually. Even if they refuse to make anything easy for me. The four brooding ex-assassins give me trials, training, and tests to study my unusual powers and prove myself as one of them. A deadly plan is now in place but they’ve all made one grave mistake: Underestimating me. Because I’m adding a third and final rule to my list:
3. Survive.
This is a Reverse Harem Series, recommended for readers 18 and over.
248 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 21, 2018
1308 people are currently reading
1938 people want to read
About the author
A.K. Koonce
103 books883 followersA.K. Koonce is a USA Today best selling author. She's a mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal romance author by night. She keeps the fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop, while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular but demanding fictional characters who always fill her thoughts
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
December 30, 2018
Three stars.
Because I can’t make up my fucking mind.
The good
-The men
-The MC’s persona (mostly)
(I too throw raging pity parties, Alexa)
-The plot and what’s to come
The bad
-HOLY FUCK DO I NEED TO TELL THESE AUTHORS WHAT A TRANSITION IS??? Because that was some of the sloppiest writing I’ve ever seen. 3 days time takes up half the book. Then all of the sudden it’s week 3. I read all the fucking words in this book and I still cannot fathom how someone could mess up transitions that heavily. It’s called good writing. To get from Point A to Point B in a well written book, things progress... less awkwardly.
This was all fucking sorts of awkward. She’s trying to kill them. Then she meets them. THEN POOF! They’re a team. But they don’t trust her. THEN POOF they’re all liking each other anyway... (maybe I did skip some words???)
-Can we please discuss the fact that we have to fill in the blanks for a lot of shit.
It almost comes off kinda half written- like we missed the introduction or something. (Read above, ties in with that)
Somehow I still liked the book. It has what I love to call potential.
I’d love to see the authors not royally fuck up book 2.
I shall go read it now.
Because I can’t make up my fucking mind.
The good
-The men
-The MC’s persona (mostly)
(I too throw raging pity parties, Alexa)
-The plot and what’s to come
The bad
-HOLY FUCK DO I NEED TO TELL THESE AUTHORS WHAT A TRANSITION IS??? Because that was some of the sloppiest writing I’ve ever seen. 3 days time takes up half the book. Then all of the sudden it’s week 3. I read all the fucking words in this book and I still cannot fathom how someone could mess up transitions that heavily. It’s called good writing. To get from Point A to Point B in a well written book, things progress... less awkwardly.
This was all fucking sorts of awkward. She’s trying to kill them. Then she meets them. THEN POOF! They’re a team. But they don’t trust her. THEN POOF they’re all liking each other anyway... (maybe I did skip some words???)
-Can we please discuss the fact that we have to fill in the blanks for a lot of shit.
It almost comes off kinda half written- like we missed the introduction or something. (Read above, ties in with that)
Somehow I still liked the book. It has what I love to call potential.
I’d love to see the authors not royally fuck up book 2.
I shall go read it now.
August 5, 2021
2.5 Oh, the disappointment....
This book (series, I guess), has so much potential and it could have been so great, you can't believe it until you try it.
Too bad it kind of sucked though...
Not completely, don't get me wrong. I love the idea and the characters were promising, but nothing actually worked out.
I see a great idea, potentially amazing characters, but badly written.
Everything felt like it was fast-forwarded. This book should have been 3 books, at least. I didn't have time to get to know the characters and understand the plot, it felt like the author was in a hurry to get it over with.
Because everything was so fast, a lot of things don't make sense. How the female MC acts and why is a mystery. Why people hate/love each other is a mystery as well. Even why the MC decides to is alien to me. It's a great idea, it's good that it happened, but WHY!
I've always had problems with logic when it comes to plots. When a character does something that's... well... not in their character, that's a problem for me (unless I understand it at one point). When things happen that make no sense, I start to dislike what I am reading.
Why did I give this book 3 stars, not less?
As I said, the potential is amazing! It's missing a few (hundred) pages, but I sense potential in this author.
I'll give up on this series, but I'll still give the author a try. Who knows, maybe I'll find something good in the end.
This book (series, I guess), has so much potential and it could have been so great, you can't believe it until you try it.
Too bad it kind of sucked though...
Not completely, don't get me wrong. I love the idea and the characters were promising, but nothing actually worked out.
I see a great idea, potentially amazing characters, but badly written.
Everything felt like it was fast-forwarded. This book should have been 3 books, at least. I didn't have time to get to know the characters and understand the plot, it felt like the author was in a hurry to get it over with.
Because everything was so fast, a lot of things don't make sense. How the female MC acts and why is a mystery. Why people hate/love each other is a mystery as well. Even why the MC decides to is alien to me. It's a great idea, it's good that it happened, but WHY!
I've always had problems with logic when it comes to plots. When a character does something that's... well... not in their character, that's a problem for me (unless I understand it at one point). When things happen that make no sense, I start to dislike what I am reading.
Why did I give this book 3 stars, not less?
As I said, the potential is amazing! It's missing a few (hundred) pages, but I sense potential in this author.
I'll give up on this series, but I'll still give the author a try. Who knows, maybe I'll find something good in the end.
March 1, 2019
I devoured this book and can't wait to dive into the next one!
An Assassin's Death is filled with my favorite thing: assassin's. However, it also has some smut and sexual tension. So in other words, I devoured this book.
In this you will meet Alexa and some hot ass guys. She's on a mission to kill someone but gets a little star struck when she realizes that he's an assassin as well. Then she later finds out that all of her targets are actually assassins from the same league. Well, they aren't in it anymore but she is trying to figure out why she needs to kill them. Apparently it's frowned upon to kill another assassin.
Later on she finds out that her boss wants them dead for personal reasons. But that's not all folks! Nope, he wants her killed after she does the dead. Now I don't know about you.. but that would definitely make me not want to do the job.
Now this book has smut, teasing, and so much betrayal. It also has some cool has magical powers in it as well. The twist and turns were so good. I love the guys and obviously have a favorite already... but I wont tell you who. Then there's the damn ending that has got me hooked. Which is why I already have the second book and can't wait to dive into it!
Overall, I loved this book and need to read the next one now!
An Assassin's Death is filled with my favorite thing: assassin's. However, it also has some smut and sexual tension. So in other words, I devoured this book.
In this you will meet Alexa and some hot ass guys. She's on a mission to kill someone but gets a little star struck when she realizes that he's an assassin as well. Then she later finds out that all of her targets are actually assassins from the same league. Well, they aren't in it anymore but she is trying to figure out why she needs to kill them. Apparently it's frowned upon to kill another assassin.
Later on she finds out that her boss wants them dead for personal reasons. But that's not all folks! Nope, he wants her killed after she does the dead. Now I don't know about you.. but that would definitely make me not want to do the job.
Now this book has smut, teasing, and so much betrayal. It also has some cool has magical powers in it as well. The twist and turns were so good. I love the guys and obviously have a favorite already... but I wont tell you who. Then there's the damn ending that has got me hooked. Which is why I already have the second book and can't wait to dive into it!
Overall, I loved this book and need to read the next one now!
December 31, 2018
This book is entertaining, but it’s definitely not good. It has super funny dialogue and narration, but the plot makes no sense, and the writing is a mess. Apparently A. K. Koonce is just hit or miss for me because I DNF Hopeless Magic at 22% (see my review) but Taming is one of my favorites (see my review). Still, these characters (even the MC, despite her best efforts) are so entertaining that I’m already reading book 2. Although this book has a ton of insta-lust, I guess I’d call this medium burn because only two of the four guys are actually in the harem by the end of the book.
The MC—Alexa, who has the magical ability to stop time for 60 seconds—initially gets involved with her harem because she was sent to kill them but hesitates when it turns out that they are from the same assassin group. They make it clear that they could easily hunt her down if necessary, so she volunteers to spy on the assassin leader, Armond, for them so that she can pretend to be on their side. She soon realizes that Armond plans to kill her after she kills them, so she for real joins the guys’ effort to take down Armond.
Alexa has very funny narration and dialogue, but she is so damn desperate for any sort of affection. I guess it’s because she hasn’t talked to anyone except Armond in who knows how long, but it’s really irritating to read about a supposedly dangerous assassin who could probably be felled with some belly scratches. She repeatedly thinks things such as “I’ve given up everything and I have no one left on my side. It’s clear these guys don’t really include me. They use me.” However, that recognition does not ever cause her to do anything to change the situation except try harder to make them like her. That desire for affection may not have been so bad except it made her TSTL. Joining their team makes sense, but she decides to fully trust them instead of just using them to help her get rid of Armond. She has absolutely no reason to trust them, but she almost immediately is determined to keep them from underestimating her. Yeah, they should have a general idea of what she can do so that they can include her in the plan accordingly, but if she needs to fight them for real, then she just lost a bit of an advantage.
She also has TSTL in areas unrelated to her desperation. At one point, Armond starts strangling her and uses his power to start draining her life force. This apparently pisses off Alexa, who then magically grabs his power and pulls her life force back into herself. She has never been able to do this before, but she doesn’t seriously question what just happened. Also, she doesn’t use condoms or any mentioned sort of birth control when she finally has sex with one of the guys, so that could become a problem. She also somehow thinks she’s getting revenge on Mason, who watches her in her sleep presumably because he doesn’t trust her, by wearing sexy clothes. Later, she uses her time magic to escape a dangerous room and then just sort of stops on the curb and waits for the rest of the time to wind down: “I try to process everything that happened as my time winds down.” Now is not the time for processing! The people she just escaped from are definitely going to chase her, and she is losing her head start.
She also had some moments that were more straight-up wtf instead of TSTL. For example, she bemoans how much effort she just fruitlessly put into her relationship with one of the guys, but all she had done was try to be polite to him in a single conversation. Get over yourself. Later, she stumbles across one of the guys in the middle of the night and out of nowhere starts asking why he never tells her stuff and thinking (again) about how she’s been so stupid to think that they’re friends. He then tells her its safer if she doesn’t know the full story, and yeah, that could be frustrating, but in their profession, that’s probably true. Her response is to again think, “we’ll never be friends. I was an idiot to think I could ever really belong here.” Omg, just shut up already. I still don’t even know why they’re having this conversation right now. She then says, “You want me on your fucking team, then act like it.” She invited herself onto the team in the first place. None of the guys ever said that they actually wanted her on the team.
Alexa’s harem will eventually have four guys in it (presumably), but by then end of this book, only two of the guys are actually in it. Maybe that why those two are the only guys I really liked by the end of the book.
Tylin is pretty much the leader of the group, and he’s the first one we meet. The book basically begins with Alexa hoping he will hurry up and stop masturbating (he’d been going for 30 minutes already) so that she can kill him. That voyeurism continues to be a part of their relationship in book 2, and I dig it. Most RH books involve some voyeurism if the sex scenes involve multiple guys, but this is the first one I’ve read that has it in a one-on-one context. Anyway, Tylin is grumpy and serious, but he at least jokes with Alexa on a few occasions. Anyway, by the end of the book, we learn that Tylin is apparently into her but too stupid to do anything about it. He was in her head, but then he talks about not knowing how she feels about him. I guess she wasn’t actively thinking about him at that moment, so maybe that continued ignorance is plausible, but that dick with the apparent maturity of a high schooler still could have (gasp) asked her how she felt. Still, he’d have to be pretty stupid not to know in the first place, tbh.
We meet Rory second—sort of, he just kind of stands there silently and intimidatingly in a mask. He’s the ultimate grump, but that grumpiness eventually starts making me laugh (not sure if that starts in this book or book 2). He’s the only one who doesn’t show even a hint of wanting Alexa by the end of the book, which is probably why he’s my least favorite. He intrigues me though, as I think it’s interesting that he constantly has to stop himself from using his power instead of needing to exert effort to use it.
Jameson is an idiot, and I love it. Though he can be serious when necessary, he cracks me up. A significant percentage of the funny dialogue comes from him. One of the funny elements in his dynamic with Alexa is her reaction to the size of his penis. She first sees it while engaging in a revenge prank (freezing time to put him in the tiny dress he bought for her), and she thinks, “If my gag reflex has anything to say about it, this will be the first and last time I ever intentionally make Jameson hard again.” I cackled, but we all know she won’t stick to her guns there. Later, poor Jameson asks whether she friend-zoned him after making out with him, and she reveals that she doesn’t think that he’s like a big brother to her but rather that his penis is terrifyingly large (#BookGirlProblems). Mason interrupts this conversation and reveals that Tylin was apparently awake for this entire conversation: “‘Nope. I’m completely ready. My mind is one hundred percent teamwork right now. Go team,’ I add in the most ridiculous cheer I’ve ever said in my entire life. ‘She was totally just talking about Jameson’s monster cock right before you walked in,’ Tylin says, his gaze unflinching.” That entire scene was gold. Also, Jameson makes me think that this harem has the potential for some mm: “If you wanted to see me spoon with Mouse, all you had to do was ask.” That said, it doesn’t seem like any of the guys actually have feelings for each other unless they are buried deep in the Earth’s core, so if we did get mm there, it would likely be in a sex-friends dynamic.
Mason is a cutie, and I think the author did a good job with him. It would have been easy to make him the quiet one and leave it at that, but she didn’t. Mason is quiet, shy, and nerdy, but he also hits on Alexa (he just blushes while he does it) and has no problem creeping on her. This creeping would have bothered me if he was doing it because of an attraction to her, but he’s doing it because they’re both assassins and he doesn’t trust her. The attraction is just a perk. He has moments when he just cracks me up, but it’s not in the same way that Jameson does, which is nice. I’m not sure yet whether those moments arise because he’s oblivious or just purely doesn’t gaf, but it’s great either way.
Still, Jameson and Mason are on my shit-list a little bit because, as Alexa says, they may make her feel as if she belongs, “but they’re also not stepping up and devising another plan that would keep me out of the line of fire.” The only reason I’m not angrier at them is that she actually is an assassin who can presumably handle herself and no one is actually forcing her to participate in the plan.
Which leads to me to addressing this mess of a plot. First, this book has absolutely no worldbuilding. I initially thought this was straight fantasy instead of urban fantasy, as it apparently is. Part of the problem may be that one of the first characters we meet (Tylin) has a fantasy-book name, but it also threw me that the author never said what city or country this was taking place in. The author also never did anything to indicate that the average people, the non-assassins, in this book don’t have magic powers. It was just sort of implied by something near the end of the book (more on that later). Also, a big part of this plot involves someone referred to as a “higher power” or “higher up,” but I have no idea what that means. Is this guy a deity or just a superior in whatever hierarchy is going on here? That said, Armond is the most confusing part of this world. Wtf is his power? Sometimes the MC describes him as draining people of their lives, and in other situations, he’s draining them of their magic. Everyone else can pretty much do only one thing with his or her power, so I was never quite sure what was happening when he used his. Also, he’s apparently responsible for giving the assassins their powers, and Alexa implies that he can stop her from using her power, but how in the hell can he do any of that? Is he a god? At one point, Alexa describes him as neither immortal nor mortal, but that makes no sense.
Second, every plot point about the “team” was just stupid. As I said, Alexa had no reason to go all in with them. They repeatedly treat her as disposable, but she’s so eager for them to accept her. She absolutely obsesses over her place in the team: “Tylin needs to see my value on his team. He needs to know I’m capable. With Rory, it’s deeper. I have to earn his trust and respect first.” Whyyyyyyy is all that necessary? If they don’t want here there, then she can just ditch them after they take out Armond. At one point, she says, “I’ll admit that I’ve been using them too, but not anymore.” That’s just blatantly false. She was pretending to be on their side for only about a max of 5 waking hours. Near the end, Tylin talks about how she’s supported them all along, but she really hadn’t. She followed their instructions and acted as a sacrificial lamb, but that’s it.
Third, speaking of sacrificial lambs, their plan to take down Armond was awful. So they initially say that she needs to be the one to go to the assassin ball instead of them because Armond has made them targets, but they don’t change the plan after Armond discovers her deception and makes her a target. One of the guys rightly asks, “What makes you think the other assassins will welcome her with open arms?” because she was seriously just outed in a room full of them and had to fight her way out, and another of the guys wrongly says that she will be fine if she wears a mask. When one of the guys asks whether anyone else at the ball will be wearing masks, and the one who gave her the mask says he has no idea: “I wouldn’t really dwell on it because if you don’t wear it, you’re fucked.” And Alexa accepts this! Ffs, “My brows raise as I nod. I guess that’s true.” and “I’ve made peace with being the sacrificial lamb.” Omfg, girl! As if a room full of assassins won’t be suspicious if someone shows up randomly wearing a mask. They also decide that Mason will be hidden at the ball, but they learned earlier in the book that Armond was somehow able to sense his presence. What in the hell makes them think that he won’t be able to do that same at the ball? And then when they’re actually at the ball, Jameson is disguised as a waiter, but he starts hitting on her and spinning her around. Y’all do not need to be drawing attention to yourselves!
Fourth, the plot also had several inconsistencies:
• The assassin Nala initially acts as if Alexa was stupid for falling for her friendship ploy, but then we get this gem: “‘We could have been friends.’ Her pretty eyes are alive with a manic expression.” So apparently all villainous girl have to be psycho Barbies. That’s cool.
• We learn early on that Alexa is behind on her hitlist and has a backlog, though we never learn why. She repeatedly alludes to the fact that she’s behind: “I’m almost a month behind. If I could be fired from the Lifeless League, I’m sure they would have canned my ass by now, but I’m flawless at what I do.” Look, babe, having a backlog is a flaw. Then she discusses the situation with the harem targets with Armond: “‘I ran into a bit of trouble.’ ‘That’s unlike you.’ I hum in agreement. It is unlike me. I’m efficient. I’m the best.” So the best that there is has a backlog for no apparent reason? Cool.
• It seems as if her power always stops time for the duration, but some sets of 60 seconds sure seem to go faster than others.
• Whytf did Armond gasp in astonishment when she used his power against him for the second time? He already knew she could do that! Also, whytf would he just say “interesting” when she did it the first time? He had no reason to let her out of his sight at that point.
• Near the beginning, Alexa tells Tylin that she always researches her targets, but she later says that she stopped asking Armond why her targets were targets, and she doesn’t take any part in creating the big plan, leaving everything to the men and angsting about how they aren’t friends. Omfg, this girl has essentially be alone for her entire life, so she really needs to act like it (i.e., not be so willing to let someone else take the reins).
Fifth, this book had plot points that were just confusing. For example, after failing to kill her future harem at the beginning of the book, Alexa is too scared to return to the assassin house with nothing to show for her night, so she decides to return the house in which she failed to assassinate them to look for clues. I initially had no idea how long it has been since the failed assassination attempt, which was confusing, but then I became more confused when I learned that it had been less than an hour. Whytf would she think going back so soon would be safe? Also, whytf and howtf did Alexa suddenly gain the ability to absorb powers from others? I didn’t see any sort of trigger for it, and the whole thing is especially weird because we learn through an implication near the end that she has this ability because of a trait that she seems to have had since her birth. Furthermore, after Alexa learns that Armond wants to kill her, she vows to never wear her watch again, and I didn’t see any sort of connection. We learn much later that he gave her the time power, so I guess he gave her the watch, but that was never explicitly stated. Later, Jameson—while helping her to escape the kitchen because only he knew the secret behind why she was so out of it—orchestrates a situation so that Alexa ends up pressed between him and Rory, and Mason makes an odd expression. Alexa later asks him if he was jealous then, and he says that he was just “annoyed Jameson thought of it first.” I have no idea what “it” refers to here. He had no way to know what she needed to escape the kitchen, and I have no idea why he would want to be the first to press her against Rory. Near the end, Armond drains Rory of his life, and Alexa in turn drains Armond. However, she loses consciousness before she can return it to Rory. Of course, we were never given any indication to suggest that she would be able to return it to him in the first place. It never seemed like the power went back to its owner after she used it. But then Rory somehow gets his life force back without her doing anything to give it to him. It makes no sense that he would get it back while she apparently still has so much stolen power in her that it’s killing her. The fact that Armond doesn’t have Rory’s life anymore doesn’t mean that Rory does.
I also had several problems with the writing. I already mentioned some inconsistencies in the plot, but sometimes the writing itself was contradictory: for example, “I barely notice the cool press of steel against my thigh. Having a weapon with me is a comfort.” If she barely notices it, then how comforting can it really be? I also hated the way the author withheld information at times: for example, “Reaching within myself, I pull the power I drained from Nala without her knowledge.” The problem is that she drained it without our knowledge as well. Because this book is in first-person, it should be impossible for the narrator to do anything without us knowing unless she does it while someone else narrates. The author does the same thing again later in the book: “My plans aren’t going accordingly. Plans that the guys know nothing about.” Again, the readers also don’t know anything about that plan. I get that the author wanted a twist, but that type of twist doesn’t work when you have a first-person narrator. With this type of narration, you can only reasonably create twists by using characters whose motivations and thoughts we don’t have direct access to or by slowly revealing that the narrator isn’t the person whom we thought he/she was (e.g., the narrator is actually the villain instead of the hero). However, that latter type of twist only works when all of the thoughts before the grand reveal still make sense with the new framing. Furthermore, I also saw problems with the writing mechanics: for examples, problems with subject–verb agreement (e.g., “the leather . . . make it”), word choice (e.g., “it doesn’t distract my confidence” instead of “it doesn’t detract from”), spelling (e.g., “reign” instead of “rein” and “lone capitan” instead of “mon capitan”), redundancy and awkward phrasing (e.g., “When I was a teenager, I earned a name for myself in only one way in my life,” “His poor intelligence ego was hurt,” and “starts to verbally tell me”), words used as the wrong part of speech (e.g., “The second his foot reconnections with the floor,” “I didn’t picture you for a dominate,” and “I give him a miniscule of heated attention”), and missing words (e.g., “long lashes coated into a thick array of beauty” instead of “array of beauty products”).
When I lay it all out like this, it makes it even more surprising that I’m happily in the midst of reading book 2, but that should tell you just how funny these characters are. I would not have continued this series if not for the laughs.
PROGRESS UPDATES
11% "It’s not like he’s some charming asshole who’s consuming my thoughts. No, he’s just a regular asshole consuming my thoughts." 😂
28% "I’d strip down further if I could, but I want to kill them, not fuck them. Let’s say that a little louder for my overactive sex drive in the back." 😂😂😂
The MC—Alexa, who has the magical ability to stop time for 60 seconds—initially gets involved with her harem because she was sent to kill them but hesitates when it turns out that they are from the same assassin group. They make it clear that they could easily hunt her down if necessary, so she volunteers to spy on the assassin leader, Armond, for them so that she can pretend to be on their side. She soon realizes that Armond plans to kill her after she kills them, so she for real joins the guys’ effort to take down Armond.
Alexa has very funny narration and dialogue, but she is so damn desperate for any sort of affection. I guess it’s because she hasn’t talked to anyone except Armond in who knows how long, but it’s really irritating to read about a supposedly dangerous assassin who could probably be felled with some belly scratches. She repeatedly thinks things such as “I’ve given up everything and I have no one left on my side. It’s clear these guys don’t really include me. They use me.” However, that recognition does not ever cause her to do anything to change the situation except try harder to make them like her. That desire for affection may not have been so bad except it made her TSTL. Joining their team makes sense, but she decides to fully trust them instead of just using them to help her get rid of Armond. She has absolutely no reason to trust them, but she almost immediately is determined to keep them from underestimating her. Yeah, they should have a general idea of what she can do so that they can include her in the plan accordingly, but if she needs to fight them for real, then she just lost a bit of an advantage.
She also has TSTL in areas unrelated to her desperation. At one point, Armond starts strangling her and uses his power to start draining her life force. This apparently pisses off Alexa, who then magically grabs his power and pulls her life force back into herself. She has never been able to do this before, but she doesn’t seriously question what just happened. Also, she doesn’t use condoms or any mentioned sort of birth control when she finally has sex with one of the guys, so that could become a problem. She also somehow thinks she’s getting revenge on Mason, who watches her in her sleep presumably because he doesn’t trust her, by wearing sexy clothes. Later, she uses her time magic to escape a dangerous room and then just sort of stops on the curb and waits for the rest of the time to wind down: “I try to process everything that happened as my time winds down.” Now is not the time for processing! The people she just escaped from are definitely going to chase her, and she is losing her head start.
She also had some moments that were more straight-up wtf instead of TSTL. For example, she bemoans how much effort she just fruitlessly put into her relationship with one of the guys, but all she had done was try to be polite to him in a single conversation. Get over yourself. Later, she stumbles across one of the guys in the middle of the night and out of nowhere starts asking why he never tells her stuff and thinking (again) about how she’s been so stupid to think that they’re friends. He then tells her its safer if she doesn’t know the full story, and yeah, that could be frustrating, but in their profession, that’s probably true. Her response is to again think, “we’ll never be friends. I was an idiot to think I could ever really belong here.” Omg, just shut up already. I still don’t even know why they’re having this conversation right now. She then says, “You want me on your fucking team, then act like it.” She invited herself onto the team in the first place. None of the guys ever said that they actually wanted her on the team.
Alexa’s harem will eventually have four guys in it (presumably), but by then end of this book, only two of the guys are actually in it. Maybe that why those two are the only guys I really liked by the end of the book.
Tylin is pretty much the leader of the group, and he’s the first one we meet. The book basically begins with Alexa hoping he will hurry up and stop masturbating (he’d been going for 30 minutes already) so that she can kill him. That voyeurism continues to be a part of their relationship in book 2, and I dig it. Most RH books involve some voyeurism if the sex scenes involve multiple guys, but this is the first one I’ve read that has it in a one-on-one context. Anyway, Tylin is grumpy and serious, but he at least jokes with Alexa on a few occasions. Anyway, by the end of the book, we learn that Tylin is apparently into her but too stupid to do anything about it. He was in her head, but then he talks about not knowing how she feels about him. I guess she wasn’t actively thinking about him at that moment, so maybe that continued ignorance is plausible, but that dick with the apparent maturity of a high schooler still could have (gasp) asked her how she felt. Still, he’d have to be pretty stupid not to know in the first place, tbh.
We meet Rory second—sort of, he just kind of stands there silently and intimidatingly in a mask. He’s the ultimate grump, but that grumpiness eventually starts making me laugh (not sure if that starts in this book or book 2). He’s the only one who doesn’t show even a hint of wanting Alexa by the end of the book, which is probably why he’s my least favorite. He intrigues me though, as I think it’s interesting that he constantly has to stop himself from using his power instead of needing to exert effort to use it.
Jameson is an idiot, and I love it. Though he can be serious when necessary, he cracks me up. A significant percentage of the funny dialogue comes from him. One of the funny elements in his dynamic with Alexa is her reaction to the size of his penis. She first sees it while engaging in a revenge prank (freezing time to put him in the tiny dress he bought for her), and she thinks, “If my gag reflex has anything to say about it, this will be the first and last time I ever intentionally make Jameson hard again.” I cackled, but we all know she won’t stick to her guns there. Later, poor Jameson asks whether she friend-zoned him after making out with him, and she reveals that she doesn’t think that he’s like a big brother to her but rather that his penis is terrifyingly large (#BookGirlProblems). Mason interrupts this conversation and reveals that Tylin was apparently awake for this entire conversation: “‘Nope. I’m completely ready. My mind is one hundred percent teamwork right now. Go team,’ I add in the most ridiculous cheer I’ve ever said in my entire life. ‘She was totally just talking about Jameson’s monster cock right before you walked in,’ Tylin says, his gaze unflinching.” That entire scene was gold. Also, Jameson makes me think that this harem has the potential for some mm: “If you wanted to see me spoon with Mouse, all you had to do was ask.” That said, it doesn’t seem like any of the guys actually have feelings for each other unless they are buried deep in the Earth’s core, so if we did get mm there, it would likely be in a sex-friends dynamic.
Mason is a cutie, and I think the author did a good job with him. It would have been easy to make him the quiet one and leave it at that, but she didn’t. Mason is quiet, shy, and nerdy, but he also hits on Alexa (he just blushes while he does it) and has no problem creeping on her. This creeping would have bothered me if he was doing it because of an attraction to her, but he’s doing it because they’re both assassins and he doesn’t trust her. The attraction is just a perk. He has moments when he just cracks me up, but it’s not in the same way that Jameson does, which is nice. I’m not sure yet whether those moments arise because he’s oblivious or just purely doesn’t gaf, but it’s great either way.
Still, Jameson and Mason are on my shit-list a little bit because, as Alexa says, they may make her feel as if she belongs, “but they’re also not stepping up and devising another plan that would keep me out of the line of fire.” The only reason I’m not angrier at them is that she actually is an assassin who can presumably handle herself and no one is actually forcing her to participate in the plan.
Which leads to me to addressing this mess of a plot. First, this book has absolutely no worldbuilding. I initially thought this was straight fantasy instead of urban fantasy, as it apparently is. Part of the problem may be that one of the first characters we meet (Tylin) has a fantasy-book name, but it also threw me that the author never said what city or country this was taking place in. The author also never did anything to indicate that the average people, the non-assassins, in this book don’t have magic powers. It was just sort of implied by something near the end of the book (more on that later). Also, a big part of this plot involves someone referred to as a “higher power” or “higher up,” but I have no idea what that means. Is this guy a deity or just a superior in whatever hierarchy is going on here? That said, Armond is the most confusing part of this world. Wtf is his power? Sometimes the MC describes him as draining people of their lives, and in other situations, he’s draining them of their magic. Everyone else can pretty much do only one thing with his or her power, so I was never quite sure what was happening when he used his. Also, he’s apparently responsible for giving the assassins their powers, and Alexa implies that he can stop her from using her power, but how in the hell can he do any of that? Is he a god? At one point, Alexa describes him as neither immortal nor mortal, but that makes no sense.
Second, every plot point about the “team” was just stupid. As I said, Alexa had no reason to go all in with them. They repeatedly treat her as disposable, but she’s so eager for them to accept her. She absolutely obsesses over her place in the team: “Tylin needs to see my value on his team. He needs to know I’m capable. With Rory, it’s deeper. I have to earn his trust and respect first.” Whyyyyyyy is all that necessary? If they don’t want here there, then she can just ditch them after they take out Armond. At one point, she says, “I’ll admit that I’ve been using them too, but not anymore.” That’s just blatantly false. She was pretending to be on their side for only about a max of 5 waking hours. Near the end, Tylin talks about how she’s supported them all along, but she really hadn’t. She followed their instructions and acted as a sacrificial lamb, but that’s it.
Third, speaking of sacrificial lambs, their plan to take down Armond was awful. So they initially say that she needs to be the one to go to the assassin ball instead of them because Armond has made them targets, but they don’t change the plan after Armond discovers her deception and makes her a target. One of the guys rightly asks, “What makes you think the other assassins will welcome her with open arms?” because she was seriously just outed in a room full of them and had to fight her way out, and another of the guys wrongly says that she will be fine if she wears a mask. When one of the guys asks whether anyone else at the ball will be wearing masks, and the one who gave her the mask says he has no idea: “I wouldn’t really dwell on it because if you don’t wear it, you’re fucked.” And Alexa accepts this! Ffs, “My brows raise as I nod. I guess that’s true.” and “I’ve made peace with being the sacrificial lamb.” Omfg, girl! As if a room full of assassins won’t be suspicious if someone shows up randomly wearing a mask. They also decide that Mason will be hidden at the ball, but they learned earlier in the book that Armond was somehow able to sense his presence. What in the hell makes them think that he won’t be able to do that same at the ball? And then when they’re actually at the ball, Jameson is disguised as a waiter, but he starts hitting on her and spinning her around. Y’all do not need to be drawing attention to yourselves!
Fourth, the plot also had several inconsistencies:
• The assassin Nala initially acts as if Alexa was stupid for falling for her friendship ploy, but then we get this gem: “‘We could have been friends.’ Her pretty eyes are alive with a manic expression.” So apparently all villainous girl have to be psycho Barbies. That’s cool.
• We learn early on that Alexa is behind on her hitlist and has a backlog, though we never learn why. She repeatedly alludes to the fact that she’s behind: “I’m almost a month behind. If I could be fired from the Lifeless League, I’m sure they would have canned my ass by now, but I’m flawless at what I do.” Look, babe, having a backlog is a flaw. Then she discusses the situation with the harem targets with Armond: “‘I ran into a bit of trouble.’ ‘That’s unlike you.’ I hum in agreement. It is unlike me. I’m efficient. I’m the best.” So the best that there is has a backlog for no apparent reason? Cool.
• It seems as if her power always stops time for the duration, but some sets of 60 seconds sure seem to go faster than others.
• Whytf did Armond gasp in astonishment when she used his power against him for the second time? He already knew she could do that! Also, whytf would he just say “interesting” when she did it the first time? He had no reason to let her out of his sight at that point.
• Near the beginning, Alexa tells Tylin that she always researches her targets, but she later says that she stopped asking Armond why her targets were targets, and she doesn’t take any part in creating the big plan, leaving everything to the men and angsting about how they aren’t friends. Omfg, this girl has essentially be alone for her entire life, so she really needs to act like it (i.e., not be so willing to let someone else take the reins).
Fifth, this book had plot points that were just confusing. For example, after failing to kill her future harem at the beginning of the book, Alexa is too scared to return to the assassin house with nothing to show for her night, so she decides to return the house in which she failed to assassinate them to look for clues. I initially had no idea how long it has been since the failed assassination attempt, which was confusing, but then I became more confused when I learned that it had been less than an hour. Whytf would she think going back so soon would be safe? Also, whytf and howtf did Alexa suddenly gain the ability to absorb powers from others? I didn’t see any sort of trigger for it, and the whole thing is especially weird because we learn through an implication near the end that she has this ability because of a trait that she seems to have had since her birth. Furthermore, after Alexa learns that Armond wants to kill her, she vows to never wear her watch again, and I didn’t see any sort of connection. We learn much later that he gave her the time power, so I guess he gave her the watch, but that was never explicitly stated. Later, Jameson—while helping her to escape the kitchen because only he knew the secret behind why she was so out of it—orchestrates a situation so that Alexa ends up pressed between him and Rory, and Mason makes an odd expression. Alexa later asks him if he was jealous then, and he says that he was just “annoyed Jameson thought of it first.” I have no idea what “it” refers to here. He had no way to know what she needed to escape the kitchen, and I have no idea why he would want to be the first to press her against Rory. Near the end, Armond drains Rory of his life, and Alexa in turn drains Armond. However, she loses consciousness before she can return it to Rory. Of course, we were never given any indication to suggest that she would be able to return it to him in the first place. It never seemed like the power went back to its owner after she used it. But then Rory somehow gets his life force back without her doing anything to give it to him. It makes no sense that he would get it back while she apparently still has so much stolen power in her that it’s killing her. The fact that Armond doesn’t have Rory’s life anymore doesn’t mean that Rory does.
I also had several problems with the writing. I already mentioned some inconsistencies in the plot, but sometimes the writing itself was contradictory: for example, “I barely notice the cool press of steel against my thigh. Having a weapon with me is a comfort.” If she barely notices it, then how comforting can it really be? I also hated the way the author withheld information at times: for example, “Reaching within myself, I pull the power I drained from Nala without her knowledge.” The problem is that she drained it without our knowledge as well. Because this book is in first-person, it should be impossible for the narrator to do anything without us knowing unless she does it while someone else narrates. The author does the same thing again later in the book: “My plans aren’t going accordingly. Plans that the guys know nothing about.” Again, the readers also don’t know anything about that plan. I get that the author wanted a twist, but that type of twist doesn’t work when you have a first-person narrator. With this type of narration, you can only reasonably create twists by using characters whose motivations and thoughts we don’t have direct access to or by slowly revealing that the narrator isn’t the person whom we thought he/she was (e.g., the narrator is actually the villain instead of the hero). However, that latter type of twist only works when all of the thoughts before the grand reveal still make sense with the new framing. Furthermore, I also saw problems with the writing mechanics: for examples, problems with subject–verb agreement (e.g., “the leather . . . make it”), word choice (e.g., “it doesn’t distract my confidence” instead of “it doesn’t detract from”), spelling (e.g., “reign” instead of “rein” and “lone capitan” instead of “mon capitan”), redundancy and awkward phrasing (e.g., “When I was a teenager, I earned a name for myself in only one way in my life,” “His poor intelligence ego was hurt,” and “starts to verbally tell me”), words used as the wrong part of speech (e.g., “The second his foot reconnections with the floor,” “I didn’t picture you for a dominate,” and “I give him a miniscule of heated attention”), and missing words (e.g., “long lashes coated into a thick array of beauty” instead of “array of beauty products”).
When I lay it all out like this, it makes it even more surprising that I’m happily in the midst of reading book 2, but that should tell you just how funny these characters are. I would not have continued this series if not for the laughs.
PROGRESS UPDATES
11% "It’s not like he’s some charming asshole who’s consuming my thoughts. No, he’s just a regular asshole consuming my thoughts." 😂
28% "I’d strip down further if I could, but I want to kill them, not fuck them. Let’s say that a little louder for my overactive sex drive in the back." 😂😂😂
July 20, 2019
I didn't understand why she was so quick to turn traitor on her organization -- like yes, shortly after she is proven correct in doing so, but the initial betrayal made no sense to me. So, the fact that the guys don't trust her makes 100% sense, yet she's angry they aren't already ride or die, like ???? really? Plus, they are training her... why does she need training... they literally all worked for the same place, they should the same-ish skills that are magic-related.
It was all just way too quick for me.
It was all just way too quick for me.
July 2, 2020
This was a good start to hopefully an exciting series. There’s just something about a female assassin that makes my heart happy. The buildup was a bit slow but I kind of liked it especially when it came to the four men who will be her harem. They went from potential victims to kind of friends and I’m so happy the heroine is not shy with being open about her feelings, her body, and who she is. Of course her meeting the guys as she’s meant to be killing them gave a nice dynamic to the story, particularly as she got to know them and tried to win them over.
While all the assassin’s have some type of power, the heroine is more like a super soldier, something she’s slowly starting to learn. I’m looking forward to the next book since I think after her sacrifice, the relationship with all the guys can now progress with less animosity and more honesty. The guys know secrets about her that are dangerous to her whether she know them or not-so I’m hoping they realize honesty is the best policy. Looking forward to more ass kicking and sass from the heroine who has at least two of the guys so far wrapped around her finger!!
While all the assassin’s have some type of power, the heroine is more like a super soldier, something she’s slowly starting to learn. I’m looking forward to the next book since I think after her sacrifice, the relationship with all the guys can now progress with less animosity and more honesty. The guys know secrets about her that are dangerous to her whether she know them or not-so I’m hoping they realize honesty is the best policy. Looking forward to more ass kicking and sass from the heroine who has at least two of the guys so far wrapped around her finger!!
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March 23, 2020🎁 FREE on Amazon today (3/23/2020)! 🎁
August 23, 2018
Good story with plenty of action and intrigue. Looking forward to learning more about the characters and finding out what happens next.
September 11, 2018
I know that one of the supposed rules for having a successful polyamorous relationship is that you can't love or like one person more than the other(s) because then crap tends to get all off-balanced and shit, but I definitely had a favorite in this one. Mason "Mouse" Bothwell, that little nerdy perverted fucker had me grinning like a demented lunatic throughout this whole book. While I liked the other guys, it was Mouse that kept me interested in this story and it's because of him that I will read the next one in this series.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good book, and that opening scene was a hell of a hook, but there was a lot that was lacking for me too. I didn't get enough background on any of the characters to really feel like I understood the motive for the story. To me, there were just too many nonsensical moments that happened without explanation. For one, our H is supposed to be this super bad-ass assassin right? Well, throughout the whole book she is either caught, knocked flat on her ass, or played. AT NO POINT did she come across as bad-ass. NOT ONCE. She has to be taught how to walk in heels by a guy. She has to be rescued by guys. She has to be cooked for by guys. And, she has to be dressed and taken shopping for said dress by....you guessed it...a guy! Seriously, I can cook for myself, shop for myself, and walk in GD heels...ALL BY MYSELF, without a guy, and I'm just a shy book nerd with no claims to bad-assness. I seriously questioned homegirl's self proclaimed "super bad-ass" status throughout the book. I was not impressed.
I WAS impressed with Mason though--the little freak--so, like I said, I'll definitely be picking up the second one this series just so I can read more about him.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good book, and that opening scene was a hell of a hook, but there was a lot that was lacking for me too. I didn't get enough background on any of the characters to really feel like I understood the motive for the story. To me, there were just too many nonsensical moments that happened without explanation. For one, our H is supposed to be this super bad-ass assassin right? Well, throughout the whole book she is either caught, knocked flat on her ass, or played. AT NO POINT did she come across as bad-ass. NOT ONCE. She has to be taught how to walk in heels by a guy. She has to be rescued by guys. She has to be cooked for by guys. And, she has to be dressed and taken shopping for said dress by....you guessed it...a guy! Seriously, I can cook for myself, shop for myself, and walk in GD heels...ALL BY MYSELF, without a guy, and I'm just a shy book nerd with no claims to bad-assness. I seriously questioned homegirl's self proclaimed "super bad-ass" status throughout the book. I was not impressed.
I WAS impressed with Mason though--the little freak--so, like I said, I'll definitely be picking up the second one this series just so I can read more about him.
March 12, 2019
It’s always amazing to me when an author can well round characters, make them have intense emotions and chemistry, create a whole world for them to live in and give them a purpose and direction. It’s even more amazing when they can do it in so few pages, and also throw in that crazy sarcastic raunchy humor that gets me every time! This one got me! Gripping from the very first freaking paragraphs lol. It’s one of those stories that even if you don’t know what’s going on it’s just entertaining to sit for the ride.
Alexa Hart, our FMC and bad A assassin, goes out in one of her routine jobs and ends up in a whole healing mess of... trouble, danger, yumminess? Yea pick one of those. Her new marks are not your typical jobs.. it turns out they are assassins too which gives her just enough pause for everything to blow up! Turns out our little Hart might be a little “Rogue!” I don’t want to give anything away!
If anything I would have really liked more backstory maybe? All the characters have these powers and the whole plot was based on someone trying to extort them but I would have liked to know how we got here. Also more power play would be amazing! Hopefully I’ll get more in the next books!
Alexa Hart, our FMC and bad A assassin, goes out in one of her routine jobs and ends up in a whole healing mess of... trouble, danger, yumminess? Yea pick one of those. Her new marks are not your typical jobs.. it turns out they are assassins too which gives her just enough pause for everything to blow up! Turns out our little Hart might be a little “Rogue!” I don’t want to give anything away!
If anything I would have really liked more backstory maybe? All the characters have these powers and the whole plot was based on someone trying to extort them but I would have liked to know how we got here. Also more power play would be amazing! Hopefully I’ll get more in the next books!
March 21, 2019
2.5
This book can't seem to decide if it wants to be erotica with a bit of plot thrown in or if it wants to be a plotted story with a bit of erotica thrown in. It just doesn't mesh. I doubt I will read book 2.
This book can't seem to decide if it wants to be erotica with a bit of plot thrown in or if it wants to be a plotted story with a bit of erotica thrown in. It just doesn't mesh. I doubt I will read book 2.
April 29, 2019
I enjoyed this one a lot. I love it when I read a book only for a challenge and end up loving it. :)
I have to start off this time by saying Koonce made me love sexy alpha guys! What can I say? And the heroine, Alexa, is a strong, kick-ass female, so how can you go wrong with this one? And what's her mission? Her mission is to kill four assassins.
It had action but maybe not what I'd call intense and action-packed, but enough for me to enjoy. Plus there were definitely those scenes that gave me satisfaction. And then the romance was thrown in there, and I always loved a bit of romance.
I have to say that I really like all of the characters at this point, but Mouse was my favorite. I'm really looking forward to book 2 and some more of those alpha males!
I have to start off this time by saying Koonce made me love sexy alpha guys! What can I say? And the heroine, Alexa, is a strong, kick-ass female, so how can you go wrong with this one? And what's her mission? Her mission is to kill four assassins.
It had action but maybe not what I'd call intense and action-packed, but enough for me to enjoy. Plus there were definitely those scenes that gave me satisfaction. And then the romance was thrown in there, and I always loved a bit of romance.
I have to say that I really like all of the characters at this point, but Mouse was my favorite. I'm really looking forward to book 2 and some more of those alpha males!
July 1, 2020
Well this was a nice start. Although it was short it had the right amount of romance, action and story. I liked the characters and the idea of the powers was cool. I liked the slow burn of the relationships although right at the start I don't think such a trained assassin would give up all her alliances so fast. i think some parts could have been elaborated a bit to make the action and story flow more.
April 15, 2019
Okay, so I really super liked this book. But I also felt it was lacking. There needed to be more... action? Maybe? I don't know. It was really good. And I like the idea and what's going on in the story. But, I wanted more... Hopefully the second book makes me fall in love with the series.
Alexa is an assassin. She was trained by the head of the Lifeless League, Armond. He took her in when she was young and trained her to be who she is today. Which is the best assassin they have. However, Alexa finds out she's disposable to Armond when she's given the mark of four men. She's told to take them out. But she quickly finds out that they're ex-assassins and a hunter should never take one of their own out.
Tylin, Rory, Mason, and Jameson are big, burly, hot af men who totally steal away Alexa's thoughts from the get-go. She makes it her mission to attempt to be a part of their team because they make is very clear she is just an asset to them. What they bring Alexa in on is something she could never have imagined.
The smut factor in this book is almost not there. You get two scenes. But the sexual tension is off the damn charts. I'm hoping there even more in the next book! :D
Alexa is an assassin. She was trained by the head of the Lifeless League, Armond. He took her in when she was young and trained her to be who she is today. Which is the best assassin they have. However, Alexa finds out she's disposable to Armond when she's given the mark of four men. She's told to take them out. But she quickly finds out that they're ex-assassins and a hunter should never take one of their own out.
Tylin, Rory, Mason, and Jameson are big, burly, hot af men who totally steal away Alexa's thoughts from the get-go. She makes it her mission to attempt to be a part of their team because they make is very clear she is just an asset to them. What they bring Alexa in on is something she could never have imagined.
The smut factor in this book is almost not there. You get two scenes. But the sexual tension is off the damn charts. I'm hoping there even more in the next book! :D
August 28, 2018
ahhh ok... so I will file this one under guilty pleasure read. For me this one is just about the flirty back and forth and banter etc. and even that had me in a bit of a confusion at how quick they jumped into it.
I will put most of my review as hidden since I don't want to accidentally give anything away but I want to explain.. so proceed with caution lots of spoilers ahead.
BUT saying all of that and the end of the day I liked the relationships they were building ... even tho it all felt insta luvy and rushed. That's why I'd call it a guilty pleasure I can see that's what it is and even though it bugs me, I still enjoy it.
I would say use your judgement if you want to check this one out it might be right up your alley and you see nothing wrong with it and I'm crazy or it just might be a guilty fun read as well.
I will put most of my review as hidden since I don't want to accidentally give anything away but I want to explain.. so proceed with caution lots of spoilers ahead.
BUT saying all of that and the end of the day I liked the relationships they were building ... even tho it all felt insta luvy and rushed. That's why I'd call it a guilty pleasure I can see that's what it is and even though it bugs me, I still enjoy it.
I would say use your judgement if you want to check this one out it might be right up your alley and you see nothing wrong with it and I'm crazy or it just might be a guilty fun read as well.
August 18, 2020
3 ‘Mouse-could-wake-me-up-anyday’ stars
My favourite thing about this book was Mouse.
Compared to the others, for me, he really stood out. A nerdy sex-god would be the best way o describe him and HOT-DAMN did he make it work!
But, that’s not to say the other guys fell short - not at all. Honestly, I really did like the other guys...just not as much as mouse. To be honest though, I feel like Mouse was highlighted more in this book than the other guys on purpose....or maybe not.
I really did like the heroine’s personality. She was feisty without being a right tit. But her badassery-‘best assassin around’ bullshit didn’t hit the mark. She wasn’t once a badass. There were a few moments when I thought, hey, maybe she’s about to pull through, but nope.
Another thing I wasn’t a fan of was the lack of explanation when it came to the villain. We didn’t know anything about his past or really how big of a threat he was. To be honest, I found it hard to be scared of him. Also, the other villain, Derek was kind of a side-thought until the end.
A little plot hole I found was,
Also,
But, it really was a steamy read.
Plot:⭐️⭐️
Heroine:⭐️⭐️
Heroes:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sex freq:⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sex steam:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chemistry:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My favourite thing about this book was Mouse.
Compared to the others, for me, he really stood out. A nerdy sex-god would be the best way o describe him and HOT-DAMN did he make it work!
But, that’s not to say the other guys fell short - not at all. Honestly, I really did like the other guys...just not as much as mouse. To be honest though, I feel like Mouse was highlighted more in this book than the other guys on purpose....or maybe not.
I really did like the heroine’s personality. She was feisty without being a right tit. But her badassery-‘best assassin around’ bullshit didn’t hit the mark. She wasn’t once a badass. There were a few moments when I thought, hey, maybe she’s about to pull through, but nope.
Another thing I wasn’t a fan of was the lack of explanation when it came to the villain. We didn’t know anything about his past or really how big of a threat he was. To be honest, I found it hard to be scared of him. Also, the other villain, Derek was kind of a side-thought until the end.
A little plot hole I found was,
Also,
But, it really was a steamy read.
Plot:⭐️⭐️
Heroine:⭐️⭐️
Heroes:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sex freq:⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sex steam:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chemistry:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 2, 2020
Title: An Assassin's Death
Series: The Huntress #1
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Alexa is a member of the Lifeless League (amazing name for an assassin's cult, right?!) and she's been given a job she can't screw up. Or else her life might be on the line. But when murdering Tylin, a hot stranger with the tattoo of a hunter, doesn't go exactly to plan and Alexa finds her loyalties being thrown into question, she must reassess everything she knows. All while dealing with being surrounded by incredibly hot guys.
I'm not a big "sexy adult book" kind of reader. I like my safe YA Contemporary bubble too much, but this was a quick read that flowed quite well with the action alongside the romance, and it wasted no time in getting started with the story. The plot holds a lot of promise with assassins and powers and a higher mystical power screwing things up. This is a series I will definitely continue.
Series: The Huntress #1
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Alexa is a member of the Lifeless League (amazing name for an assassin's cult, right?!) and she's been given a job she can't screw up. Or else her life might be on the line. But when murdering Tylin, a hot stranger with the tattoo of a hunter, doesn't go exactly to plan and Alexa finds her loyalties being thrown into question, she must reassess everything she knows. All while dealing with being surrounded by incredibly hot guys.
I'm not a big "sexy adult book" kind of reader. I like my safe YA Contemporary bubble too much, but this was a quick read that flowed quite well with the action alongside the romance, and it wasted no time in getting started with the story. The plot holds a lot of promise with assassins and powers and a higher mystical power screwing things up. This is a series I will definitely continue.
October 29, 2019
5 stars for An Assassins Death by A.K. Koonce. This is book 1 in The Huntress series. This is my first book from this author and i can say it will not be my last. I can not wait to read the rest of this series. Alexa is an assasin with The Lifeless Leaque. She was sent to kill 4 men , however she discove3rs they all have the mark of the hunter. The first rule of a assassin is to never kill another hunter , so why has she been sent to kill them. When she meets Tylin, Rory, Mason and Jamison she instantly feels chemistry and sexual tension between Alexa and all of them except Rory he seems to hate her. Rory is one of the hardest to understand. He seems angry and Alexa wants to know why. Alexa has no idea who to trust , the one person she thought she could trust was Armond the leader of The Lifeless Leaque and he lied to her.
I loved everything about this book the characters, the story line and so much more. I loved the men , they were some bada**es but what really made the story was Alexa. She is a series , powerful women. I love that in a heroine. I cant wait to read the next book.
I loved everything about this book the characters, the story line and so much more. I loved the men , they were some bada**es but what really made the story was Alexa. She is a series , powerful women. I love that in a heroine. I cant wait to read the next book.
August 23, 2018
*I received a free copy of this book which I voluntarily chose to write an honest review for.
Great world building what can I say. We get a kick butt assassin that is sent on what looks like a normal job until she finds out the targets are hunters too. Now she wants to know what is going on and how it all fits together though none of the answers are what she was hoping four. Luckily the targets are four really hot and dangerous guys that end up working with her taking this story to places I never could have thought of. It was just great. If you are a fan of the genre then you should really try it. I really liked it so I give it 4/5 stars.
Great world building what can I say. We get a kick butt assassin that is sent on what looks like a normal job until she finds out the targets are hunters too. Now she wants to know what is going on and how it all fits together though none of the answers are what she was hoping four. Luckily the targets are four really hot and dangerous guys that end up working with her taking this story to places I never could have thought of. It was just great. If you are a fan of the genre then you should really try it. I really liked it so I give it 4/5 stars.
May 10, 2019
Great read!!
Strong female lead with some awesome males. Never kill a hunter. Well what kinda mess did they stumble into... lol. Can’t wait to read the next book!
Strong female lead with some awesome males. Never kill a hunter. Well what kinda mess did they stumble into... lol. Can’t wait to read the next book!
November 20, 2021
KU 3.5. It wasn't bad, I just don't think the characters were super realistic. I mean the FMC was super anti other people, then suddenly she wants to be apart of a team. It didn't make sense.
April 22, 2023
3.5
Not much really happened but I liked the vibes between the characters
Not much really happened but I liked the vibes between the characters
January 11, 2021
4 stars
May 6, 2019
Alexa is an assassin tasked with killing 4 guys, only they turn out to be assassins as well. Confused about why she is being asked to break the cardinal rule of assassins (Don't kill other assassins), she joins their little rogue group.
I liked this book. It's just different enough from other RHs - I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure which guy is my favorite yet since they all have characteristics that I like. There are a lot of questions at the end of the book that I'm hoping will be explained in the next installment in the series. Smut level on this one was only 2.5 out of 5 - everyone is horny, but not a whole lot happens.
I liked this book. It's just different enough from other RHs - I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure which guy is my favorite yet since they all have characteristics that I like. There are a lot of questions at the end of the book that I'm hoping will be explained in the next installment in the series. Smut level on this one was only 2.5 out of 5 - everyone is horny, but not a whole lot happens.
September 10, 2018
Awesome
Loved the story! Two of my favorite authored penned a great book about an orphan turned assassin who ends up finding more to life than killing for her psychotic boss. She trades that for 4 sexy grouchy grumbly guys who want to use her for their own gains - or is it her using them? Great world building and loved the special ‘gifts’ the assassins had.
Loved the story! Two of my favorite authored penned a great book about an orphan turned assassin who ends up finding more to life than killing for her psychotic boss. She trades that for 4 sexy grouchy grumbly guys who want to use her for their own gains - or is it her using them? Great world building and loved the special ‘gifts’ the assassins had.
November 11, 2025
There are some issues, as other reviewers point out, with the timeline in this book. There are a couple of occasions where time kinda leaps forward and I think the reader misses out on quite a lot of the relationship building between the MCs.
But, overall I liked it a lot, and read the whole trilogy in a couple of days.
But, overall I liked it a lot, and read the whole trilogy in a couple of days.
January 13, 2020
Another one I'm rating low because it had so much potential and just didn't live up to my hopes. 😥
I really liked the start, it seemed so promising. I like the immediacy of the first person perspective and the use of present tense, so it feels like the reader is in the story. The FMC's internal monologue was snarky and occasionally funny and the sexual tension and banter were good.
I liked Mason and Jameson as characters, though the other two didn't really register for most of the book. There was little to no background or depth to their interactions.
But after a while I just couldn't keep my interest. There wasn't enough world building or background info to give context. Too many plot holes and inconsistencies, things that didn't make sense. I reread several sections, thinking I must have missed something.
As the story went on I was less impressed with the FMC and just full of unanswerable questions.
It was like there was a potentially great story to be told here, but it got hopelessly jumbled and hijacked by shallow erotica that didn't even have all that much sex in it.
I really liked the start, it seemed so promising. I like the immediacy of the first person perspective and the use of present tense, so it feels like the reader is in the story. The FMC's internal monologue was snarky and occasionally funny and the sexual tension and banter were good.
I liked Mason and Jameson as characters, though the other two didn't really register for most of the book. There was little to no background or depth to their interactions.
But after a while I just couldn't keep my interest. There wasn't enough world building or background info to give context. Too many plot holes and inconsistencies, things that didn't make sense. I reread several sections, thinking I must have missed something.
As the story went on I was less impressed with the FMC and just full of unanswerable questions.
It was like there was a potentially great story to be told here, but it got hopelessly jumbled and hijacked by shallow erotica that didn't even have all that much sex in it.
April 21, 2020
Didn’t quite meet my expectations for these 2 authors
To start with, I think the storyline involving assassins and these mysterious powers such as time control, lightening, and telekinesis is a great start to what could be an action packed and exciting book. I have read books by both of these authors and they were great but this one did not impress me. My main complaints are with the execution of the storyline and Alexa as a character. I think if they revamped it and added more depth, this would have easily been a 5 star review.
Certain aspects of this story seemed rushed while other parts just lacked explanation. So Alexa goes to eliminate her targets in the start of this book. These targets just so happen to be 4 assassins from her assassin league she works for so she is shocked and caught off guard and doesn’t fulfill her assignment. The introductions between Alexa and the men actually don’t make much sense to me. It seems as if she has already made up her mind within a couple hours and without ANY explanation to trust these guys. I just expected Alexa, “the great assassin”, to have more questions and be more wary of these 4 unknown assassins. Then once she determines that her mentor plans to kill her when she completes her mission, she just puts all faith and trust in the 4 men who left the League. I just expected her to react differently to the whole scenario and not be so indifferent with blind trust.
Now on to Alexa as a character... I must say I was pretty disappointed with her as a female lead. I was expecting a bad a** femme fatale but what I found was a woman who couldn’t focus when it mattered and made rookie mistakes. She never once had a scene or an encounter where she destroyed or outsmarted her opponent...except maybe the final scene but she still had to heavily rely on these mysterious powers and still managed to practically die in the process.
Now, these enigmatic powers that I’ve mentioned a couple times need to be explained more. How are these powers given to the assassins or is it something they are born with? What is the deal with the markings they have? The fact that Alexa has what seems to be a powerful ability and apparently much of the series will revolve around this, I just expected more detail and depth about these magical abilities all assassins have.
Overall, this book just lacked a lot of depth, details, character development, and the development of the relationships weren’t great either. I hate to say it, but I was rather disappointed with this book. 😕
To start with, I think the storyline involving assassins and these mysterious powers such as time control, lightening, and telekinesis is a great start to what could be an action packed and exciting book. I have read books by both of these authors and they were great but this one did not impress me. My main complaints are with the execution of the storyline and Alexa as a character. I think if they revamped it and added more depth, this would have easily been a 5 star review.
Certain aspects of this story seemed rushed while other parts just lacked explanation. So Alexa goes to eliminate her targets in the start of this book. These targets just so happen to be 4 assassins from her assassin league she works for so she is shocked and caught off guard and doesn’t fulfill her assignment. The introductions between Alexa and the men actually don’t make much sense to me. It seems as if she has already made up her mind within a couple hours and without ANY explanation to trust these guys. I just expected Alexa, “the great assassin”, to have more questions and be more wary of these 4 unknown assassins. Then once she determines that her mentor plans to kill her when she completes her mission, she just puts all faith and trust in the 4 men who left the League. I just expected her to react differently to the whole scenario and not be so indifferent with blind trust.
Now on to Alexa as a character... I must say I was pretty disappointed with her as a female lead. I was expecting a bad a** femme fatale but what I found was a woman who couldn’t focus when it mattered and made rookie mistakes. She never once had a scene or an encounter where she destroyed or outsmarted her opponent...except maybe the final scene but she still had to heavily rely on these mysterious powers and still managed to practically die in the process.
Now, these enigmatic powers that I’ve mentioned a couple times need to be explained more. How are these powers given to the assassins or is it something they are born with? What is the deal with the markings they have? The fact that Alexa has what seems to be a powerful ability and apparently much of the series will revolve around this, I just expected more detail and depth about these magical abilities all assassins have.
Overall, this book just lacked a lot of depth, details, character development, and the development of the relationships weren’t great either. I hate to say it, but I was rather disappointed with this book. 😕
August 22, 2018
I was undeniably pulled into An Assassin's Death; starting with the sample, I couldn't stop myself from needing to read more.
Alexa Hart is the star of this new urban fantasy, new adult adventure. She's an assassin with a less-than-fairy tale past; there are secrets about her that she only begins to realize. Without being raised by her mother, she didn't have the advantage of guidance in who she is and what she's capable of. At her heart, Alexa's vulnerabilities are ones that really anyone can relate to- wanting, without even truly realizing it, a place to belong, a real family/home.
After getting caught up in a dangerous web of lies, Alexa is forced to look at the man who has "raised" her in the Lifeless League. Joining forces with the assassins that Armond seeks to destroy, her world is widely opened past her previously-monotonous existence: assignment, research kill- rinse & repeat.
But really, who could blame her? Tylin, Rory, Mason (Mouse), and Jameson make up a delicious team: the authoritative commander, stoic strongman, alluring techie, and the shameless flirt. Each men fills one of the roles that bring some diversity to the team and their dynamic. In this first book, we get a few hints that they're each more than what they seem- a little of Tylin's backstory, a glimpse beneath Jameson's flirty facade; however, I wish that there was more, a deeper look.
Although there's no fated "mating" or anything like that, Alexa does feel an instant draw to each of the men. I'd definitely agree with the classification of An Assassin's Death as a slow/medium burn. There's some definitely some steamy action, but only as she develops a stronger connection to the men; so, there's no immediate physical relationship with ALL of them. That, I think, is going to rightfully grow as they get to know her more.
I did like the way that Alexa's role started to develop and change as a team member. At first it seems like they may be skeptical of her usefulness and trustworthiness, but there are some sweet moments that show her starting to become a bit of a missing puzzle piece.
Overall, I'd give this new opener a 3.5. It drew me in, and it was definitely worth the time reading, but I just wanted a bit more; maybe I'm a little bit greedy. However, the magic that Wylde & Koonce has created makes it a no-brainer that I will continue to follow the team's next adventure.
Alexa Hart is the star of this new urban fantasy, new adult adventure. She's an assassin with a less-than-fairy tale past; there are secrets about her that she only begins to realize. Without being raised by her mother, she didn't have the advantage of guidance in who she is and what she's capable of. At her heart, Alexa's vulnerabilities are ones that really anyone can relate to- wanting, without even truly realizing it, a place to belong, a real family/home.
After getting caught up in a dangerous web of lies, Alexa is forced to look at the man who has "raised" her in the Lifeless League. Joining forces with the assassins that Armond seeks to destroy, her world is widely opened past her previously-monotonous existence: assignment, research kill- rinse & repeat.
But really, who could blame her? Tylin, Rory, Mason (Mouse), and Jameson make up a delicious team: the authoritative commander, stoic strongman, alluring techie, and the shameless flirt. Each men fills one of the roles that bring some diversity to the team and their dynamic. In this first book, we get a few hints that they're each more than what they seem- a little of Tylin's backstory, a glimpse beneath Jameson's flirty facade; however, I wish that there was more, a deeper look.
Although there's no fated "mating" or anything like that, Alexa does feel an instant draw to each of the men. I'd definitely agree with the classification of An Assassin's Death as a slow/medium burn. There's some definitely some steamy action, but only as she develops a stronger connection to the men; so, there's no immediate physical relationship with ALL of them. That, I think, is going to rightfully grow as they get to know her more.
I did like the way that Alexa's role started to develop and change as a team member. At first it seems like they may be skeptical of her usefulness and trustworthiness, but there are some sweet moments that show her starting to become a bit of a missing puzzle piece.
Overall, I'd give this new opener a 3.5. It drew me in, and it was definitely worth the time reading, but I just wanted a bit more; maybe I'm a little bit greedy. However, the magic that Wylde & Koonce has created makes it a no-brainer that I will continue to follow the team's next adventure.
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