My Five Word TL:DR Review : Dystopia with sexy badass characters

Okay, to be straight to the point, Deal with the Devil is not my typical sort of read but, to be honest, I did know what I was picking up before I started reading it so was well prepared, in fact, it was exactly the sort of read that I fancied and so in that respect it worked an absolute treat.

Jump forward to the year 2086.  Let’s just say that things haven’t gone well.  The place, is practically a wasteland following a catastrophic event known as the Flares.  We have a group of three women, looking after their community.  These are women who can look after themselves to be honest, they all have their own particular skills, but, headed by Nina, who is something completely different, they are capable and at the same time caring.  They help people in their community to survive is the top and bottom of it and on top of that they try to provide them with reading material.  Come on now.

Now we have a group of mercenaries.  Hard core ex solidiers who have gone rogue (for reasons that you will discover).  These mercs have cut the ties to the Big Brother Style Corporation that controlled them but unfortunately this leaves them vulnerable in terms of their own modifications and keeping them updated in order to survive.  Unfortunately, their hacker Luna has been taken captive, and the abductor wants Nina delivering in order for an exchange to take place.  Knox, the leader of the mercs has the task of roping in Nina and her companions into a double cross, the bait, some sort of fantastic library, the ultimate goal, to deliver Nina over to who knows what.

Now, look.  I’m not going to try and say that this book is reinventing the wheel.  There is plenty of sexual tension here – mainly between Knox and Nina who are both two hard ass characters with plenty of battle scars and a hard outer exterior to match.  There’s also lots of set up – you can already see the pairings for future novels clicking into place.  And, I won’t deny, there was a little bit of eye rolling here.  Everybody is superfit, they’re all dangerously gorgeous and you stand an equal chance of having your throat cut as having your day made.  But, like I said above, I was well aware of that fact when I picked this book up.

Don’t go into this expecting heaps of world building or unique ideas though – the setting and, to be honest, the plot, are more backdrops for the eventual coupling that will inevitably take place, but, I did like some of the storylines and each of the characters have their own personal set of skills which makes them unique.

In terms of criticisms. Instalove. I don’t need to say more.

So, to round up.  If you fancy a road trip with a bunch of sexy, hard hitting, muscle wielding, tough talking, ‘my dad is bigger than yours’ characters that also have hidden depths (that are not really so very hidden in fact you could dig them out with a teaspoon if you had a mind to do so) then here you go.  And, did I mention there is some smouldering sexy times – because there are, and I suspect there will be more to come in future instalments.

There you go then.

Also, brief mentions of libraries – which always makes my day (is that weird?)

Okay, to be fair, this isn’t my go to style of book but I can’t deny that it was fun and, okay, you dragged it out of me, sexy.  I wouldn’t go for this type of story as the norm and to be honest I’m not sure I’d reach for the next in series but this was a very easy book to get along with and it was a little bit of what I fancied at that moment in time.  I suppose, it just felt easy to get along with and I have no quibbles with that at the moment.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars