Ais Ais

No.
First, the Spanish was just plain annoying. Turns out there are translations in the back. As if I want to go back and forth all the time, even if I had known that. I looked up a few things in the beginning and then I just skipped it.
Second, Boyd was getting on my nerves. He was ok as a character in the first half of the first book. Then he became annoying. Sure, not his fault he was traumatised and has a weird psychopath for a mother. But my suspension of disbelief was starting to fray towards the end of the first book, and my sympathy went with it. Sin was right, he took charge and never listened, and on top of that he whines and acts irresponsibly out of jealousy.
Sin I still like as a character. At least he's competent, and he starts learning human interactions. But Boyd doesn't really add anything aside from being the lover interest.
Third, did I mention my suspension of disbelief? How much trauma and torture can you cram in one story? And what kind of idiot thinks you can get useful agents by exploiting their phobia and twisting them a little further? Let's try to drive them insane and then expect them to carry out high profile missions and make well-considered decisions. It's too stupid for words.
So, no.
It started out with promise, but it didn't follow through.… (meer)

This was surprisingly good. Towards the end I had a bit of trouble going along with the story. There comes a point when the agency's cruelty is just plain stupidity. Also, all of a sudden the sadistic guards are fired? Really, they couldn't have done that any sooner?
But aside from that, I actually enjoyed the characters. The missions are pretty much background to the characters and their interaction, but that was fine with me, it's not like I'm that interested in counter-terrorism.
Obviously there were some misunderstandings between Sin and Boyd due to lack of communication, which I am generally not fond of. But in this case, both have very good reasons to be bad at communications, since they both have serious trauma and abuse in their pasts and presents, so neither one of them is a well adjusted individual.
On to the 2nd half.… (meer)

RATING REMOVED (only for respect to AIS I removed my rating rather than downgraded it)

https://www.goodreads.com/user_status/show/164624031?comment=177504787#comment_1...
https://ingloriousbitches.wordpress.com/2018/03/04/crossing-lines/
href="https://twitter.com/i/moments/970716633017790464" rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://twitter.com/i/moments/970716633017790464

Statement from Riptide: http://riptidepublishing.com/a-statement-on-sh
Summary of all this sham/fraud/catfishing: https://thesaltminers.tumblr.com/post/171680546960/the-santino-hassell-debacle… (meer)

I think this one read even smoother than volume 1, particularly the latter half of the book-- less navel-gazing, less over-explaining, less of Boyd and Hsin's annoying bickering and misunderstandings. Makes sense, as this volume apparently had a lot of re-written and even entirely new content. There's still some problems with consistent characterization, and I'm not fully convinced as to how or why the two leads fall for each other (outside of physical attraction), but once they are together, their dynamic mellows out a lot and I definitely enjoy reading about it more than when they were always bickering.

Plot-wise, Boyd's portion of the mission was pretty dull and there was way too much Spanish. I had to use Google translate constantly, and only after I finished reading the book did I discover the authors made a list of all the translations at the back of the book! Hsin's undercover work as nightclub security was more entertaining to read about, and more importantly, it gave him the chance to grow as a character, which he hadn't really had much opportunity for so far. He doesn't actually develop that much, or rather, he gains some much-needed social skills but the narrative hasn't really allowed him to fully demonstrate it. Still, this actually makes me accept him and Boyd as a couple much more than before... I had felt previously that Boyd seemed too young and foolish for Hsin, but this volume makes it pretty clear (through both his undercover work and what he reveals about himself to Boyd) that Hsin has a lot of maturing to do himself.… (meer)