By: Shannon Pemrick
The Blurb: Narissa is a physician, considered a major pioneer of cybernetics. She lives to help people, allowing her love of gaming to help her unwind after a long day.
Outside of work, she keeps herself busy with her favorite addiction—a popular massive multiplayer online role-play game her friend and client Ajax immersed her in. After a disastrous marriage that almost destroyed her, she's good with keeping her life simple. Work—play—no need for love. But the more time she spends with Ajax, the more she wonders if she should give romance a second chance.
Only one problem—the past has a habit of rearing its ugly head.
Ajax's life revolves around gaming, and his passion paved the way to the revolution of virtual reality gameplay. With his looks and money, he could have any woman he wants, but he's got a new addiction. Narissa is sexy, intelligent, and so not interested in a relationship. When he finds out the truth behind her divorce, rage and a primal need to protect her takes over, and he vows no one will hurt Narissa again.
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
There were a few reasons why I thought this book would be a perfect addition to my Autumn reads. First, this story is set in the future where role-play gaming is fantastical and paranormal characters come to life. And second, cybernetics is at the heart of the entire story. Our hero is basically a cyborg. So, I was happy and excited to give it a go.
This book is the second in the Looking for Group series and revolves around Ajax and Narissa. Narissa is a brilliant doctor and a cybernetics genius. She is a workaholic who has devoted her life to helping people. Ajax is a self-made billionaire and adrenaline junkie whose life revolves around revolutionizing the way people play virtual reality games.
I didn't read the first book, but it seems these two might have made an appearance. Ajax is essentially one of Narissa's patients. He lost his arm in a rock-climbing accident years ago and he was referred to her. Through their mutual love for gaming, a friendship (and attraction) has grown.
Ajax is intent on taking their relationship to the next level, but Narissa has some deep scars from a past relationship. When her past comes back to haunt her, Ajax is determined to protect her and win her heart.
I think this book has good bones and Ms. Pemrick has a great imagination. I think anyone who follows the gaming world will really enjoy how in depth she goes to describe what's happening and why.
If I could sum up this book with just a phrase, it would have to be "less is more". The plot was creative, the writing was good and the characters were well-developed. There was just a lot more of all of these things than there really needed to be. There are so many secondary characters, I had a hard time keeping them all straight. And because Ms. Pemrick wanted to develop the majority of them, we got a lot of information. I think at least 3 additional books could have been carved out of all the tangent information we gather while getting to know the couple better.
As far as our main characters, I really liked Ajax. He was alpha yet sensitive, bad-ass yet kind, and rugged yet gentlemanly. He would do anything for the woman he cares about and handled Narissa with kid-gloves when necessary.
Narissa on the other hand, sometimes rubbed me the wrong way. I know we were supposed to see how kind and giving she is, but she sometimes came off as pompous, annoying and clueless. For such a "genius" who went to college when she was 15, she sure couldn't take a hint about how Ajax felt about her.
I understand that she's been through a traumatic experience and a tragic relationship but sometimes her ignorance didn't come off as very genuine. And her reactions to some circumstances were really juvenile. But, the heart wants what it wants, so I fought through it to watch Ajax fight for his girl.
There were a few twists, a little intrigue and some really steamy romance. Kudos for that!
This is the first book that I've read of Ms. Pemrick's and I wouldn't be opposed to reading any others.
What did you think?
