AUTHOR: Johnny Ray
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
APPROXIMATE LENGTH: 243 pages
Recommended for readers seeking escapist entertainment, especially those who enjoy spy thrillers and romances.
GENRE
Thriller—Romance
For Love and Vengeance
is primarily a thriller, following Royce Cianni around the world as he uncovers
nefarious secrets of international spy rings. But his motivations are purely
romantic; after one night of passion with the mysterious and beautiful
Victoria, he sets out on a quest to learn the truth behind her disappearance.
The scenes right after the two meet are straight out of a romance novel,
involving walks on the beach and a wine tasting.
PACE
For Love and Vengeance
takes its time to set up the backgrounds of and relationship between Royce and
Victoria, and the lays out Royce’s investigative process. The book takes off
around the second half, when the shadowy organizations involved make their
moves.
PERSPECTIVE
Third person limited—the book rotates
points of view between characters. Although the book opens with Victoria’s
perspective, it is primarily Royce’s story. We are given glimpses into the
behind-the-scenes meetings between secretive agencies, creating a sense of
dramatic irony as we know what they’re up to even when Royce doesn’t.
CONTENT REVIEW
For Love and Vengeance
opens with Victoria, a double agent for both the United States and Russia,
contemplating her situation. Trapped between two nations and manipulated by an
international crime syndicate, she seeks a way to escape her dangerous life. As
she walks along the Florida beach, she meets Royce, a handsome ex-spy haunted
by the death of his girlfriend, who was killed due to one of his past missions.
After one evening of romance and
passion, Victoria vanishes, presumed to have been killed in a shark attack. But
Royce is unwilling to accept her loss so easily. Driven both by an infatuation
with her and guilt over his past inability to save a woman he loved, he sets
off in search of the truth behind her disappearance—and whether she is even
dead. His journey takes him around the world as, bit by bit, he uncovers her
intriguing past. Meanwhile, both the American and Russians spy organizations
keep a watchful eye on him as they, too, hunt for Victoria.
In For
Love and Vengeance, Ray has created an appealing blend of thriller and
romance. The book is first and foremost a thriller, involving shadowy
organizations and nefarious characters. And yet the scenes between Royce and
Victoria are purely romance, containing all the staples of the genre: mutual
attraction at first sight, flirty conversation, passion. The setting Ray
chooses—a balmy Florida beach—makes for great escapist reading. Like Victoria,
in those moments, it’s easy to forget about the spies and the crime syndicate
and all those dark elements when the story zeros in on two people who seem
destined for one another.
Both characters are instantly likable.
Victoria comes across as a strong character, a woman who is intelligent and
able and ready to take enormous risks to get her life back. While she does, to
some extent, use Royce as a cover as she plans her escape, she does truly care
about him. Royce is down-to-earth and charming, fully dedicated to whatever it
is he sets his mind to.
As suddenly as she appeared, Victoria
disappears from Royce’s life. While Victoria dominates the first few chapters
of the book, it is primarily Royce’s story. His efforts to track her down are
nothing less than obsessive, as, for all intents and purposes, she might as
well be dead. Herein lies the thriller element of Ray’s novel, the part that
keeps the pages turning. As an ex-spy, Royce is no stranger to the shadowy
world of spy organizations, and he unleashes the full force of his
investigative skills to discover the truth about a woman he barely knew and yet
instantly fell for. The more he learns, the more he realizes just how much he
and Victoria have in common. Both are good people working for not-so-good
organizations, organizations more than willing to screw them over to get what
they want.
It’s not much of a spoiler to say that
Victoria is, in fact, alive, and that she faked her death to get away from
those who were controlling and threatening her. Once she returns, the story
accelerates in a way that makes this a hard book to put down. For Love and Vengeance is a shamelessly entertaining guilty pleasure, the kind of book one reads to escape the doldrums of everyday life and delve into a world of intrigue and passion. Between the
suspense and the romance, Ray has created a very entertaining story, one that
keeps you guessing.
THE NITPICKY STUFF
There are a handful of small typos, but
nothing too distracting.
Some parts of the dialogue are written
in Russian with translations in parentheses.
In terms of sex and violence—they’re
present but not graphic.
AUTHOR INFO
Johnny Ray is a full time writer who loves
to write on the beaches of western Florida. While addicted to coffee in the
morning, he enjoys his friends and wine at night.
He won the Royal
Palm literary award for best thriller and is quickly making a name
for himself as the master of the romantic thriller.Visit his website, Follow him on Twitter, or Find him on Facebook.
RELATED: An Interview with Johnny Ray
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