Rating: 4š
I am reading Onley Jamesā Necessary Evils series and thought Iād see what else the author had written.
Bad Habits, co-written with Neve Wilder, seemed like it was in a similar vein with assassins, suspense, computer hackers, and characters with a connection between them.
I enjoyed it but found that while the storyline and action was fast paced, letting me finish it pretty quickly, some of the main characters needed something more to make them adhere to the descriptions or personalities the authors intended.
Jonah is supposedly a cold blooded contract killer. He kills a person easily at the beginning of the novel, in keeping with his profile.
But shortly after, his actions are anything but . Heās appearing to be a man forced to kill because circumstances made him a killer, not because heās a psychopath. Years of professionalism are tossed away.
Same goes for Caspian. Heās , according to the storyline and his description, a genius hacker. The only evidence we have of that being believable is the opening scenes in the book. Those dirty, exhausted, raw scenes felt real.
But everything that occurred afterwards from a hacker standpoint needed more attention to detail.
As someone returning home , yes. As a criminal hacker on the run? No. Too many chances taken , over and over.
The characters that felt absolutely perfect? Sadie, Madigan. Ruthless, brutal, perfectly flawed to the point they might be psychotic. Those characters I got behind. They had everything our main characters were lacking.
The plot towards the end was extremely suspenseful and incredibly entertaining. Great ending and wrap up.
Sending those two off made sense because to me they just didnāt seem very believable in their stated job choices to begin with.
The rest was terrific.
Wages of Sin:
š¹Bad Habits #1
š¹Play Dirty #2
š¹Head Games #3
https://www.goodreads.com āŗ showBad Habits (Wages of Sin, #1) by Onley James – Goodreads
Synopsis:
Jonah taught Cas a million ways to protect his body but not one to protect his heart.
Smart-mouthed hacker Caspian escaped an abusive home at sixteen. Now heās one of the most sought-after black hatters in the world.
Jonah is a ruthless contract killer with only one weakness, the vibrant runaway he took in years ago: Caspian.
But Cas bailed when he turned eighteen, and Jonah has maintained a steady diet of eat, kill, sleep since then.
Jonah had always been the fatal flaw in Casās code, the bug that froze the part of his brain separating logic from emotion.
A threat to Casās life brings him back years laterānot as the boy Jonah remembers, but as a hardened computer hacker with a price on his head and a list of names everybody wants.
The chemistry between them is as undeniable as it is dangerous.
In a world of secrets and murder, trust is a liability and feelings can get you killed. But Jonah let Cas go once, and heās not willing to do it again. Even if it means confronting his past, solving a twisted puzzle, and taking out half of New York Cityās seedy underbelly to keep Cas safe.
Bad Habits is a steamy, action-packed thrill ride of a romance with a HEA and no cliffhangers. It features morally ambiguous men, pancakes drizzled with snark, chosen family, drive-in movies, and the kind of love that drives a guy to murder in order to protect. In short: all the emo, heat, and sarcasm you’d probably expect from an Onley/Neve collaboration. This is book 1 in the Wages of Sin series. Each book will follow a new couple.
