[Book Review] Assassins in Love

Assassins in Love (Assassins Guild #1) / Kris DeLake (Powell's Books)

When one killer falls for another

Agent: Misha
Profile: Highly trained in every method the assassins guild has to offer. Always goes by the book.

Agent: Rikki
Profile: Rogue assassin who kills only to rid the world of hardened criminals. Hates organizations. Always does it her way.

Love becomes a matter of life and death

Misha's mission is to get Rikki to join the guild or give up her guns. He completely underestimated the effect she would have on him...and what heat and chaos they could bring to each other...
Sometimes I read well written smutty novels, sometimes I read serious literature, sometimes I read hard science fiction, and sometimes I read fluff.  This novel was fluff, and not even real well written fluff.  It at least doesn't have people in physically impossible poses on the cover (even if the appearances don't match the character descriptions).  We have some plot that exists between marathon boinking that is supposed to be wildly creative but is largely bland.

Kris De Lake is a pen name for Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who has won two Hugo awards for her Science Fiction before.  I haven't read anything else she has written, but I really hope that her writing under her real name is higher quality.  Assassins in Love is not a book I can see winning any awards, even as Romance.As Kris De Lake she loves parenthetical comments more than I do, and that's saying something.  There is rarely a need for parenthetical comments inside parenthetical comments, especially in light fluffy novels.

There are some other issues in this book.  Serious fat shaming (including odd moments like the main character refusing to cry because she isn't a chubby blond).  False rape accusations just to manipulate a situation piss me off.  Rikki is alternately written as incompetent and highly skilled, sort of like how Bella Swan is so clumsy she cannot survive a Physical Education class without serious injury but can skip down stairs.  On the bright side, besides mostly accidental moments of supreme idiocy, Misha is actually a pretty decent love interest.  The closest he gets to super alpha male activities is the way he hunts her down, but then they are trained assassins and it was somewhat work related.  Other than that it was refreshing to have a male love interest who is steadfastly devoted without needing to mark his woman for the world to see.

If you like fluffy romance with a pinch of science fiction seasoning, but don't want to actually read erotica, this book isn't a horrible way to go.  It isn't a book I particularly care for, but it was over quick.

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