Game of Lies

In this book , the story picks up where Shoot The Messenger ended. Trust is still an issue between Kesh, Talon, and Kellee. Along with trust comes the word lies and Kesh can do it quite well but lack of info is just as close to lying. The three will experience the past come to haunt them and some of the things are surprises for them and you! Yes, there is lots of things going on but be expected to realize that some of the hints of things to come are there in the story. The surprises for me were the ending of one of the subplots and the plans for future. Oberon is expected to react the way he does but he is in for an awaking. Will Kesh be able to ignore the conditioning she has endured in the past? Will this conditioning disrupt future plans to help the saru?
Action, yes and lots of it! A bit of humor, at least for me there was. Now the romance of Kesh and who, well that is the question! I know what I would like to happen and I am sure the reader will form their own opinion. But Pippa, you have some very very interesting story lines for the romance parts. Keep up the excellent writing!
Do I recommend this book, that is a big YES!!!! I think if you did not read the first book you will be missing lots of information. Read and enjoy! I started the book Friday and when I woke up at 3am Saturday morning I read until I fell asleep. Such a vicious cycle for me because it happened again Sunday, morning. I really hate to put down such an interesting excellent book!

This book is a set up for the rest of the series. The issue with set up books is that the end is generally unsatisfying, since the point is to create a bunch of things to be addressed later. In this case it felt like I read a few hundred pages just to clarify that all the dudes have a thing for Kesh. Kesh and Kellee just killing time creates the sense that nothing is being accomplished for the first half of the book. The fact that trust was the predominant conflict and wasn’t resolved by the end only adds to this.

There were also a lot of oddities. Kesh said she killed hundreds and indicated she had told Aeon her real name which is contrary to book 1, where she said she’d killed thousands and hadn’t told him her name. Kellee’s elixirs weren’t confiscated from him and Kesh for some reason thought it’d be perfectly fine to assault multiple guards and just as strangely nothing really came of it. Kesh also refers to the whip she had in part 1 of book 1, but since she lost it this should be the one she made in part 2. She also said in book 1 that she is currently 26 and that Aeon was a few years older than her, but here she said he was around fourteen when she killed him and that it’d been ten years since etc.

I would also like to emphasize that the premise of people being genetically engineered to be attracted to another set of people is a very lazy and fan fiction way to get people to bang.

At the end a question is posed:
Should self-induced memory loss be considered self-harm?
Your answer will determine how you view Kesh going into book 3.