Review by JodyVamp -- Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren

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JodyVamp
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Latest Review: Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren

Review by JodyVamp -- Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Twisted Threads" by Kaylin McFarren.]
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2 out of 4 stars
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When reading the summary for Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren, I assumed this novel was about an assassin doing one last job to regain her freedom if she survived. Since they're all adults spending 10 days on a cruise ship with alcohol, that there would be a little romance and sex wasn't surprising. You know what they say about someone assuming and it was correct. The sex and romance promised at the end of the summary wasn't part of the plot, it was practically the whole book. If you like explicit sex and love that's really instant obsession, this is the book of a lifetime for you. If you want an action packed murder mystery or even just a romance with some depth, is will likely end up a vomit-inducing did not finish. Since it's my own fault I ended up with a distasteful book to review, it was fairly well edited, and I did actually enjoy the plot when it was there, I give this 2 out of 4 stars.

The main assassin, Akira, is tasked with killing some English citizens who killed her boss's sister when they were vacationing in Mexico. If she succeeds, she's free from her obligation to the yakuza. If she fails, it won't be just the Brits that die. How Akira ended up an assassin is probably better explained in one of the preceding novels as this is the fourth in the series, but we are given tidbits along the way that help explain some of her annoying contradictions. Somehow, Akira's brother is killed and she blames Mitsui, the leader of the yakuza, for his death and tries to kill Mitsui in return. She fails and Yuki, Mitsui's daughter-in-law, convinces him to take Akira on and train her as an assassin instead of killing her outright. Why Yuki behaves this way is never explained, but it does explain Akira going from "I'll kill you all!" to "Oh, my god! Are they dead?!" immediately after. This conflicting attitude is the first thing we see from Akira. The book opens with her crying and trying to scrub her skin off as if this will bring her victim back to life. The next scene has her quickly dispatching her victim's pair of bodyguards without batting an eye until she has to dispose of the bodies.

Flash forward and we get to the meat of the story. Yuki tells Akira that she's to go on a cruise and kill an elderly couple if she wants to stay alive, and keep her mother that way, as well. As soon as she sets foot on the boat, Devon sees her across the room and is immediately fantasizing about her. While he's supposedly a 30 something male, he comes across as a mix between a lab puppy and a teenage boy. Whether Akira is in the room, glanced at him, or said a single word determines just how hard he is. Yes, we're told on almost every page that Devon is hard, it's just to varying degrees. There's no blood flow to his brain, except when he's asleep. After one dinner conversation, he no longer just wasn't to throw her down and have his way, but is figuring out whether he has to move to Japan or bring her and her father to California because he can't live a single moment without her. Finding out she was a geisha, which he thinks is code for exotic prostitute, does nothing to deter him. It does make me wonder about his sanity, however. Despite thinking Akira was a hooker, he still thinks she's a porcelain virgin that would be scarred for life if he so much as kissed her cheek. At least, that's the constant inner monologue we get from him when it's not "I hope she doesn't see how hard I am with her father and my uncle across the table glaring at me!" This is one of the many annoying contradictions that made it difficult for me to finish this book.

Akira is constantly creeping up his thigh or under his clothes while they're with family and promising him the best sex of his life, but Devon is still convinced she's the most innocent virgin on the planet. To prove his obsession, he even buys her a ring after about 5 days. It's only right, since he was telling her he loved her and didn't want to be apart from her after that first dinner. He also tried to invite her to his bed while being afraid to even hug her. This goes on until about the last 80 pages, with a few other easily hated characters, including the ones Akira was sent to kill, thrown in just so we don't forget she's on the cruise for a better reason.

Finally, at the end of the book we get what was promised in the summary. Akira figures out who the guilty party is and sets out to do the job. Pushing aside romantic turmoil over her besotted puppy lover being upset that she's actually a killer and he wasn't her first lay, she gets her sword and hunts the ship ready to draw blood. There's a few intriguing revelations in this fast paced end that would actually make me buy the next book if I thought I wouldn't have to skip 2/3 of the material to get to the interesting part. I'm actually intending to try to find a cliff notes version because the revelation at the end was so shocking and intriguing.

There are a couple typos and small passages that need a second read to make sense of. These are few and far between, so this may have been professionally edited. When Akira wasn't crying over being an assassin and Devon wasn't behaving like a horny puppy, the story was amazing. If you like explicit sex and bondage, or think the beginning of Frozen was the epitomy of great story telling, pick up this book and you will never want to put it down. If sex, or a romance that reads like a teenage fan fiction about some kid's life with their ultimate celebrity crush, turns you off from a book, run far away.

Given that the good parts were an amazing rush, and the parts that weren't my style were well edited, I recommend it with extreme caution to a very specific group and give this 2 out of 4. I hope this helps you decide on your next read!

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Twisted Threads
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