I was lucky enough to
receive an advance reader copy of VanOps The Lost Power by Avanti Centrae. I
would like to say that the story is well written, and there were very few
points where I had to go back and re-read something, and the grammar was also
well done. I could see the link between the two comp titles, “The DaVinci Code”
and “Tomb Raider,” but I also felt like VanOps was a story of its own and did not
warrant the comparison to those particular titles.
As far as my personal
tastes go, I honestly hate switching between perspectives, but I can understand
why the writer had to make that choice for this book. The writer also did a
good job of staying within a perspective once it was presented for the duration
of a chapter. Though I did think there were far too many perspectives—again,
personal preference.
Where the characters
were concerned, sometimes I liked them, sometimes I hated them. There are some
aspects of the characters that seemed forced at times. I did not especially
like Will’s choices, and they seemed to not fit who he was as a husband,
brother, son. Some of the decisions he made just didn’t make sense to the story
at all. But that happened with the other characters a couple of times as well.
So perhaps I missed some detail that I should have picked up on that would make
those things make sense.
The story did have a lot
of action in it. It moved forward at a good pace. I did like the time and date
stamps at the beginning of each chapter, which gave it the feel of “Mission
Impossible” for me.
I would say if you enjoy
spy thrillers, you could enjoy this novel as well.
