Review: Retribution

Retribution by A.J. Scudiere

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Book Info: Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of suspense/thrillers
Trigger Warnings: murder, violence

My Thoughts: “What does not kill me had better start running.” After five years, just as Sin and Lee are starting to relax into their roles as Diana and Will, it all starts to unravel. Personally, I had trouble with this on a suspension of disbelief level, because Sin and Lee were so deeply buried, I don't know how anyone managed to figure out who they were, let alone find them. However, I didn't have a lot of time to think about it, because...

The story is fast-paced and relentless. There is also a bit of despair evident, especially in Will/Lee.

“We aren't clean... We won't ever be clean again. We're as dirty as they come, and our reasoning and our beliefs never changed our willingness to pull the trigger. We were judge and jury on those souls and—while I still think we were in the right—even 'vigilante' is too tame a term for what we were. We'll never truly scrub that off. You have to know that.”

The plot is full of twists and turns, and there are a lot of discoveries made regarding family through the story. I have to wonder if the author had planned this from the beginning, or if she decided later to turn this into a trilogy and added in all the wrinkles to help move the pace along.

The editing on this is really quite good. The only spelling error I noticed was the use of “discrete” when “discreet” should have been used. There are some issues with punctuation and capitalization, but nothing the average reader would necessarily catch. I was very happy to see the improvement over earlier books. The only thing that hit my “pet peeve-o-meter” was the use of the phrase “another thing coming.” This should be “another think coming” and is something that just drives me nuts.

This is another fabulous book from A.J. Scudiere, and one which I can recommend to anyone who enjoys thrillers and suspense novels. There is a lot of violence, so keep that in mind, and of course there are murders. There is also an extremely twisty plot and lots of revelations to be seen, so if that sounds like your sort of thing, definitely check this out.

Series Information: The Sin Trilogy
Book 1: Vengeance, review linked here
Book 2: Retribution
Book 3: Justice, release date TBA

Disclosure: I purchased this book for myself as I'm a fan of the author. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Will and Diana Kincaid have left their pasts behind. They've even discarded their identities as Sin and Lee, but the past will never leave them.

When the body of mafia leader Ivan Kurev turns up in her district, Diana is forced to take a hard look at how well she has—or hasn't—covered her tracks. It turns out, no matter what she does, it isn't good enough. A stronger generation of Kurevs is growing out of the wasteland she left behind and the Kurev sons have a memory that is long . . . and angry.

In the past, the fight and the choices that go with it would have been easy. But now there are friends to protect, a home she doesn't want to leave, and a boss she likes, even if she's more than a little suspicious of him.

It's hard to choose sides when Diana can't even determine what the sides are anymore. She can't run, she can't stay and she can't protect what she fought so hard for, not when a newer, more dangerous breed of assassin waits around every corner . . .



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