Friday, November 4, 2016

#Saturday Review - The Operator by Kim Harrison #Mystery #Suspense #Thriller @BurningBunnies @Pocket_Books

Series: The Peri Reed Chronicles # 2
Format: E-Galley, 496 pages
Release Date: November 22, 2016
Publisher: Pocket Books
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Genre: Science Fiction


On-the-run ex-agent Peri Reed returns bigger and bolder than ever in this second highly-anticipated installment in #1 New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison's new suspense trilogy, The Peri Reed Chronicles.

Peri Reed’s job eats her mind, but for a special task agent in hiding, forgetting the past can be a blessing.

Betrayed by the man she thought she loved and the agency who turned her into the very thing she fought against, Peri abandoned the wealth and privilege of Opti for anonymity riddled with memory gaps and self-doubt. But when a highly addictive drug promises to end her dependency on those who’d use her as a tool for their own success, she must choose to remain broken and vulnerable, or return to the above-the-law power and prestige she once left: strong but without will—for whoever holds her next fix, will hold her loyalty.

Yet even now as then, a love based on lies of omission might still save her life.





The Operator is the second installment in author Kim
Harrison's The Peri Reed Chronicles. The story picks up a year after Peri decided to go into self imposed exile. She runs an upscale coffee shop catering to those she used to spy on, and steal secrets from. She is happy that nobody is around to attempt to erase her memories, but something is definitely off. It doesn't help that both Silas, and Allen both appear seemingly out of nowhere to warn her that she's being tracked. This is the time that the life she left behind decides to toss her back into the fray once again. 

This is the time that everything she worked hard for becomes cannon fodder to others whims and desires. Let's start with the arrival of Bill, her former handler at Opti who she worked for since graduating from Opti Tech. Bill appears and attempts to lure her back with the idea of never again losing any of her memories when she drafts. Never again needing an anchor to help fill in her missing memories. As one of the best drafters in Opti's impressive arsenal, Peri has the ability to skip draft, and draft for longer distances than anyone. 

But, the idea of taking a drug that can be highly addictive, just doesn't settle Peri's consciousness. Plus, Bill is the man who pushed her, the man who directed Peri's loss of three years of her memories with her former partner Jack, in order to keep her under his thumb, and he can never truly be trusted to do as he promises. For Peri to give up her freedom and trust Bill, means means once again being under the control of the man she loathes with ever fiber of her being. This means never having free will again, and the awful feeling of being scrubbed if she steps out of line just once.

Peri has some serious competition with Michael, a drafter who is nearly as impressive as she is, but 100 times more psychotic. They are both competing for the right to be the one to take the drug that will allow them to keep their memories after they draft. They compete against each other in who can draft the longest. They compete for the attention of Helen, the woman behind the money that helps Bill and his organization. The woman who has the desire to keep her drafters at her beck and call and not let them roam around freely.

Peri also has to deal with those that could be allies, but perhaps they are much more than they appear. There are those like Harmony, an agent who works for WEFT. The World Enumeration Federal Task Force is responsible for cleaning up Opti's messes. Harmony, like her boss, believes that Peri is a security threat, but she also comes to learn to respect Peri in ways that can't be spoiled. There is also Silas, the man who she may have once loved, Allen, the man she perhaps can never truly trust again, and of course, the hallucination known as Jack who appears whenever Peri is stressed out.

After everything that has happened to Peri over the course of this series, she has the right to some freedoms. She has the right to act in certain ways, even if that way means being a little bit more complicated than is necessary. She has a love for her cat Carmac which is kind of cute. She has a love for her impressive car that can change colors, and she has a love for staying alive, and not having anyone, especially Bill, control her, or use her, or dictate how she wishes to live her life. I dare say that I am one who truly feels so many different emotions for Peri. This girl needs a happy ending. She needs to find happiness. She needs to find a way to understand her past so that she can put it all to rest once and for all.

As a temptation to read this book, Harrison has a first look at her prequel to the Hollows series called The Turn. A story that I am already looking forward to reading in January 2017. The Peri Reed Chronicles is being marketed as The Bourne Identity meets Minority report set in a futuristic Detroit.






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