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Thrillers often make action heroes seem robotic: completely void of feelings and emotions, their only relationships with their equally robotic colleagues. But, in real life, that’s not necessarily the case. So Every Last Breath, the first book in the Final Hour series by author Juno Rushdan, follows a mission that’s filled with both danger and drama.
This romantic thriller introduces Maddox Kinkade, an operative for a super-secret government organization that most people believe is just a myth. But her job is as real—and as dangerous—as it gets. When she and her team are tasked with stopping the sale of a deadly bioweapon, their first task is to recruit a new asset, Cole Matthews. But when Maddox discovers that Cole Matthews is actually Nikolai Reznikov—the love her life, the man she thought was dead because of her—it adds a new complication to an already treacherous assignment.
Every Last Breath takes a critical mission to find a weapon that could potentially kill millions around the world in a horrific way and mixes it with the tension and drama of romance gone wrong to create a story that’s both fast-paced and steamy.
As Maddox and Cole are forced to work together, they’re also forced to face their difficult past: the tragic events that led him to disappear for nearly a decade and the pain that they’ve both endured ever since. Both are conflicted—relieved to find each other safe and successful while also dealing with feelings of betrayal—and it adds a level of complexity to the mission.
Really, though, all of this drama tends to detract from the action of the story. While their lives—and the lives of millions of others—are on the line, they often end up arguing about (or acting on) their feelings. And if you’re really interested in the crime thriller aspect of the novel, all of these lengthy discussions, hashing out a decade of these mixed emotions, can be just plain tiresome.
The story definitely has its share of flaws—from the nagging little issues to the bigger, more frustrating ones. And while it tries to end with a cliffhanger that will compel you to pick up the next book in the series, it gives so many hints along the way that you may end the book feeling like you already know the outcome.
Of course, if you like your romantic guilty pleasures to come with a side of a different kind of action, you may still enjoy the first book in this new series. But, unfortunately, the two parts of this story just don’t seem to mix especially well.
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