Ten Seconds to Dead by L.A. Clayton

Synopsis:

Ten seconds may be all she has left ...

Kate Edison witnesses her father’s death and, in order to keep his memory alive, decides to follow in his footsteps by joining the CIA. She molds herself into becoming exactly what the CIA is looking for---and captures their interest, both personally and professionally. But before she can finish the CIA process, Kate is offered a position as an espionage agent in another highly secretive government agency, which she accepts.

While completing her agency training, Kate is catapulted into a shadowy world where wealth and power are the ultimate goal, and those in charge will stop at nothing to get it. While on the job, Kate uncovers secrets that, if revealed, would cost her life, but if kept, could bring down a nation. Isolated and unsure of who to trust, she brings in a fellow agent, but pulling him into the web of conspiracy and lies puts a target on both their backs - and it will take every skill they’ve ever learned as agents to stay alive long enough to stop the enemy no one else can see.

My Review: 4 Stars

Holy. Crow! I’m going to preface this by saying I have never read a thriller before and had no clue what to expect. This book was definitely outside my comfort zone. But one of my goals this year is to branch out and find new authors.

Kate had watched her father die at the age of sixteen. From that moment on, she knew she was destined to follow in his footsteps and join the CIA.

Several years later she finds herself interviewing with the CIA. Once the week-long interview process was complete, she receives a letter to join a secret branch of the government that no one knows about.

It wasn’t long before she noticed that things were not adding up. But there wasn’t anyone inside the organization that she could turn to. She does the unthinkable and reaches out to the one and only person on the outside that she knew she could trust.

Together they make plans to uncover all the secrets that the organization had been keeping. They both knew it would be dangerous and, if discovered, Kate could lose her life. But that was a small price to pay if her death could save thousands of lives.

I’m not going to lie, I had an extremely hard time getting into this book. I liked the very beginning of the book, but when Kate went to the training facility, I kind of lost interest. There’s a lot of information in the first half that I didn’t feel was necessary. I was a little over halfway when the book started picking back up and had me at the edge of my seat. There were so many twists and turns that I did not see coming at all. My advice would be to not try to figure anything out. Just go with it.

The romance in this book is very minimal, which is why it’s out of my comfort zone. I’m not used to reading books where the romance is put way on the back burner. I did want a little more of it so it could combat the intensity of this book.

I did enjoy this book and I’m curious enough to read the next book in this series. But now I have my eyes open and know what to expect. I’m looking forward to reading more books by Ms. Clayton.

And of course we can't forget my casting. Not going to lie.. this one was kinda hard. Haha. What do you think?

Content: Attempted rape, mild-moderate violence (depending on the reader), mild romance.