Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Review: No One Lives Twice by Julie Moffet & Winner of Huddle With Me Tonight

Title: No One Lives Twice
Author: Julie Moffet 
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Carina Press
Number of pages: 295









CONGRATULATIONS! THE WINNER OF HUDDLE WITH ME TONIGHT IS LYNETTE!

I was able to get this novella for free from NetGalley. No One Lives Twice had such potential. The premise was great:

I'm Lexi Carmichael, geek extraordinaire. I spend my days stopping computer hackers at the National Security Agency. My nights? Those I spend avoiding my mother and eating cereal for dinner. Even though I work for a top-secret agency, I've never been in an exciting car chase, sipped a stirred (not shaken) martini, or shot a poison dart from an umbrella.
Until today, that is, when two gun-toting thugs popped up in my life and my best friend disappeared. So, I've enlisted the help of the Zimmerman twins—the reclusive architects of America's most sensitive electronic networks—to help me navigate a bewildering maze of leads to find her.
Along the way, my path collides with a sexy government agent and a rich, handsome lawyer, both of whom seem to have the hots for me. Hacking, espionage, sexy spy-men—it's a geek girl's dream come true. If it weren't for those gun-toting thugs... (from goodreads)


I think if I had been in my late teens early twenties I would have loved this book. The writing was really good, and I found myself wanting to figure out the mystery and keep reading even though  I couldn't relate to the 24 year old heroine at all. One of the things that bothered me about Lexi was that she had everybody else doing the hacking and the espionage. I really wanted to see her doing more James Bond type stuff.

One of the reasons I think I had such a problem with this book was my age. My 20s seems so long ago, that I've forgotten how stupid I was at that age. For instance, how could someone who did top secret security clearance work for the government give out her work phone number to every guy she meets and get personal phone calls from her mom at work all the time? As a manager, I have a huge issue with this, and could not let that trivial piece of info go. It's silly, I know, but I couldn't help it.

While this book was a did not finish for me, I have to say I enjoyed the male characters in this book. They were almost crush worthy and made me smile. I liked how I couldn't figure out what side they were on and how they fit into the mystery.

If you are a fan of romantic suspense, and are looking for something light and fun to read I think you'll really enjoy this book-it just wasn't for me.
I feel like I should add a disclaimer to this review-Ive been in a book funk lately and have had a hard time getting into any book I've started-this was just casualty number 1 of the book funk.

Curran Crush Meter: a very high low (almost a medium)
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Low
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Low
Double Cross Curse Meter: high (because I kept yelling at Lexi)