New York Times bestselling author Taylor Stevens introduces a pair of wild cards into the global spy game—a brother and sister who were raised to deceive—and trained to kill.
Filled with explosive action, suspense, and powerful human drama ... I was hooked from page one ... fun, violent, fast-paced, and original. The comment, 'I couldn’t put the book down,' is somewhat trite because everyone says that about a good thriller. Except, I literally could not put the book down until I read every page ... You feel immersed in the story because of deep POV while also feeling like you’re watching an intense high-action movie, right up there with the Bourne Identity or the best Mission Impossible. While most action thrillers have men driving the story, we have a family—mother, son, daughter—and it works amazingly well. So well that I can’t wait for the sequel.
Short, hard-paced action chapters cascade, as these overtrained but information-deprived young adults chase down the force that’s attacked their bizarre security. With the pace of a Lee Child thriller, the knife and gun fights and high-tech weaponry flash, again and again, and with each comes a small revelation ... This propulsive page-turner turns modern espionage into a life-stakes race ... Fans of this author’s previous series, with the genderfluid Vanessa Michael Munroe, may find it challenging to accept a switch of protagonists. But the international span of Liars’ Paradox once again displays the fierce and powerful route this author’s already lived, and her determination to bare the horrors of today’s global balance of violence—countered, of course, by skills, and passionate loyalty to family and friends.
If Munroe thrillers are high-octane reads, Liars' Paradox is the next level up. Jet fuel? Stevens pushes the writing maxim 'show, don't tell' to its absolute limit and pares exposition to a bare minimum. So much happens so fast that readers may find themselves scrambling to keep up. One action sequence — set in a nature preserve — was so chaotic that I was a couple chapters down the road before I realized I'd completely missed the identity and motivation of a shooter ... Stevens has always been able to pull off characters who might seem ludicrous in another writer's hands. (Twins trained in espionage from age 5? Really?) Damaged protagonists are her specialty. Readers will find Jack and Jill perfectly plausible. They might also find them exhausting. Or perhaps not. Devoured strictly as a page-turning thriller, Liars' Paradox is a snappy diversion. The Munroe books often evinced more nuance — about the nature of evil, about life on the margins of society — and that doesn't quite come through as clearly in this novel.
