OMG...OMG...OMG...I did not see those twists coming from 50 miles away. I was completely blindsided.
So now that I have stopped hyperventilating, let me start by saying that this book is definitely worth a read despite the cheesy dusk jacket. I initially thought this was going to be like "The Collector" by Victoria Scott but it was completely different. It had action, romance, political intrigue, and even some high school drama, but surprisingly these disparate elements mixed in to make a great read. It was very refreshing from the typical YA genre. Honestly, the only aspect that's YA about it is that it has a 17-year old character. The themes are far more darker, and the story is much more complex than I had given this book credit for.
We have a "soldier" aka hitman in the form of Zach Abram, currently posing as Ben for his latest mission. His mission is to kill the mayor of NY, and his target (the way to accomplish his mission) is to get close to Sam, the mayor's daughter. I honestly thought nothing of Sam when we were first introduced to her. I thought she was going to be like every other YA MC: beautiful, feisty, emotionally vulnerable, and rearranges her whole life for the boy she insta-loves. Sam was none of those things (except the beautiful: no ugly people exist in the YA world), but more importantly, she was intelligent, strong-willed, had a voice/ opinion on political matters (what? YA characters read the newspaper?), and surprisingly cunning and manipulating. She was so flawed, and made the hitman in the book seem less dark/ disturbing. For me, she stole the show. She reminded me of Vesper in "Casino Royale." You'll get the reference once you read the book. Now that I think about it, there were quite a few similarities between the James Bond series and this. But I don't care because it was presented so well.
There were so many jaw-dropping moments. Mother/Father are not evil (like we initially suspect), Gideon is not just some crazy stalker ex but Sam's liaison, Sam is working for an Israeli terrorist organization, and Ben kills her in the end because she betrays her father and country and leaving her alive would make her life worse than better. In that moment when he thinks he might not have killed her, I was still too dazed and then thought, that's exactly what must've happened because she can't die. I mean, this is a YA book. I am still reeling from her death/ assassination/ murder. I even liked the peripheral characters in this book, primarily the Mayor, Howard (and seriously ewwww for what he did in the library), and Erica (if there ever comes out a sequel, I would love to see more of a role for her).
So all in all, go get it! You won't regret it!
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