Review - - WIRED

WIRED
By Julie Garwood
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 4, 2017
Reviewed by Maria Lokken

Allison Trent is in her last year of college. She also happens to be a drop-dead gorgeous computer genius, who models on the side. The modeling gigs allow her to make the money she’s forced to fork over to her lying, cheating, aunt and uncle who raised her. Their beloved son has criminal tendencies, and they need the money to pay top-notch lawyers to keep him out of jail.

Allison spends most nights on campus, in her room with her headphones on, hacking into sites and solving crimes no other government agency can. She’s a modern-day Robin Hood, returning monies to people who’ve been scammed. It’s illegal, but hey, she’s only helping out people who shouldn’t have been robbed in the first place. 

Handsome, sexy, Liam Scott is an FBI agent. Liam needs Allison’s hacking skills to find the leak that’s wreaking havoc at the FBI headquarters and preventing them from solving crimes.

Liam and his partner somehow manage to convince Allison to work for them, but only after they promise they will help keep her good-for-nothing cousin out of jail.  Allison’s desire to help her deceitful relatives is based on a guilt she should have let go of long ago.

The author paints a powerful opening, giving us insight into Allison and creating a strong, independent heroine. However, this heroine had flaws that were difficult to overlook, in particular her continued financial support of a family that had no for regard her. In addition, the romance between Allison and Liam felt thin. Throughout the book, one never gets the sense they are falling in love, nothing builds in their story line.  As a Reader, I had no stake in their staying together.

While the novel starts with a driving pace, it doesn’t keep up and falls short on both the suspense and the romance.