The Innocent Assassins by Pema Donyo

Title: The Innocent Assassins

Author: Pema Donyo

Page count: 283 pages, ebook

Publishing date: June 2014

Publisher: Astraea Press Publishing

My rating: 3.5/5 stars!

Blurb:

There are three rules to staying an assassin at the corporation of Covert Operatives: (1) your parents must be deceased, (2) your contracts must remain confidential, and (3) you must be under the age of eighteen. 

After a murder mission goes awry a month before her eighteenth birthday, Covert Operatives assassin Jane Lu finds herself caught by the federal government and forced to spy for the CIA while remaining in Covert Operatives. Once her spying mission is over she will be allowed to live a civilian life without facing criminal consequences, a life she’s only dreamed of having. 

As Jane leaks information to the CIA, she uncovers secrets with enough power to both destroy Covert Operatives and her own boyfriend, Adrian King, who’s next in line to be CEO of the company. When her identity as a double agent for the CIA is discovered within Covert Operatives, she must decide where her allegiance, and her heart, truly lies. 

Okay, guys, I want to apologize to the awkward formatting with the photo and the list of book information. For some reason the picture would not allow me to type anything beside it (it has done this before), so I had to deal with centering the photo and adding the information underneath it. 

I must say that this book is unlike anything I've ever read before. When it comes to assassins/CIA/FBI stuff, I don't tend to read it. I think the last thing that even remotely resembled any of that was the Alex Cross series. Anyways, I had already wanted to get out of my shell a little bit when it comes to what I read and it turns out that Pema Donyo, the author of this title, emailed me asking if I'd like to read The Innocent Assassins. I agreed, and so it begins. 

The plot of this title is rather interesting. I like the idea of Covert Operatives. It's interesting and it kept my attention. I thought it was cool that they used teenagers to end "contracts"... aka: assassinating the target. I also enjoyed the idea that assassins can go off to college afterwards or even become an executive in CO if they're accepted. So, it's not like Covert Operatives is completely evil, which brings me to my point: there are some good things that CO did. They took kids from homeless shelters and adoption agencies and gave them a bed, food, friends, and a way to better the world and themselves. Right? Well yeah, but then there's the fact that they do hone those children to do their dirty work, raising them so that they can one day kill targets. I had to keep reminding myself that CO was not as good as they claimed to be,  and I think that's the point Donyo was trying to make. I believe that she wanted the reader to be torn between CO and the CIA... who has the better people? Who's right and wrong? That's the whole point. I struggled with this for the better part of the book, but eventually came to the conclusion that both agencies have their problems, although CO is quite evil in their ways. You'll find that out in the last couple of chapters. 

My point is, Jane is torn between the two: CO and the CIA. After finding out that CO betrayed her, she's determined to help the CIA bring CO down. But, that also means that Adrian King, her long-time boyfriend, might never forgive her. Adrian King is a big-time shot in CO, thankful for them taking him in as a child. Jane knows that he respects CO and everything that the company does. Betraying CO also means that she's betraying Adrian as well. Can she do it? Or will she double-cross the CIA?

I enjoyed Jane as a character for the most part. Jane is strong, intelligent, and brave. She can stand her own. She doesn't need to be coddled like a princess. If she's ordered to shoot someone in the head, she'll do it. And she doesn't sit down and sob after she does it, either. I think that's what I liked the most about her. She's not a crybaby. She was brought up by CO; how could she afford to be whiny? I liked that she knows what she wants in life and that she's determined to get it. She's a respectable main character for this series. The only thing I didn't like about her was her relationship with Adrian, but I'll get to that later. 

I liked that Jane had become a spy for the CIA. It brought a thrill to the book; the thrill of constantly wondering when she was going to get caught. As the reader, you're looking forward to it but at the same time you're dreading it. I love that feeling, and I was glad that I was able to experience it for most of the book. 

As for the other characters, I didn't find many of them that important to the story. Adrian was important, of course, and Tristan, Jane's CIA informant, but that was pretty much it. I didn't see the CEO of Covert Operatives that important because he really wasn't in the story that much. Sure, he was mentioned a lot, but he didn't show his face until the very end. I felt like he should have been present for more of the book. I think it would have made him more intimidating that way. 

As for Adrian King, I have mixed feelings about him. While he's portrayed as this sexy character, I don't really see it. I couldn't see past his controlling and possessive behavior. He also seemed to be quite obsessive... not just with Jane but with everything. He could be really rude to others and that doesn't do anything for his "sexiness". I did, however, like the mystery about him. I was constantly wondering what he was hiding from Jane. I wanted to know more about his past and why he did some of the things he did. The mysteriousness was really what made me like him. Not his behavior. His actions were not that great.  

The romance:

I just couldn't see the appeal of Jane and Adrian being together. I felt like their relationship was more of a soap opera on TV than a serious, committed relationship. They were constantly arguing, constantly having trouble trusting each other, constantly breaking up. How many times did they break up? Two? Almost three? I don't know, but I do know that it took away from the authenticity of their relationship. I know that people break up and get back together, but I don't need to read about all of their break-ups. I felt like they spent more time broken up or mad at each other than actually sharing their love for each other. It annoyed me. 

Break up #1:

 I   steeled  myself  to  meet  his  own  emotionless   gaze.   Red   shadows  clouded  my  vision  and  my  blood  boiled  at  his  confidence.  "It's  over.  We're  over."

 I  marched  away  on  my  heels,  the  patent  leather  stilettos  I'd   put  on  just  for  him  clipping  against  the  wooden  slats  of  the  dock.   To  think  I'd  worn  this  dress  for  him  too.  I  pulled  down  the  tight   black  material.  Well,  he  wasn't  getting  any  of  this  anymore!    

 I   was   done  with   Adrian   King.   I  was  through.   I  was  an   independent  woman  who  didn't  let  anyone  stand  in  my  way.    

Break up #2:

“You  were  right.  We  used  to  be  closer  than  this.”  Adrian   swallowed  hard,  his  Adam’s   apple  bobbing.  “We’re  done."

Break up #3 for two seconds:

“You  can’t  keep  telling  me  what  to  do.  We’re  done.”

“We’ve  already  broken  up,  what,  two  times  already?  And   we  just  get  back  together  again.”   Adrian   pleaded,  his   voice   straining.  I  heard  his  footsteps  stride   toward  me.  “There’s   something  that  brings  us  back  together,  Janey.”

Yeah, Adrian, it's called stupidity. See what I mean? They just aren't right for each other. I think a lot of it stemmed from Adrian being a controlling robot, but Jane letting him walk all over her might have to do with some of that as well. They fight more than they love. It didn't help that Tristan liked Jane and Emma, Jane's friend, like Adrian. It just made things messier. It was exhausting to watch them get together, then break up, then pretend hate each other, then get back together, then fight, then break up, and back to the pretend-hating. It was too much drama. It took away from the overall plot. They would have been better as good friends, honestly. I would have liked to see them as a dynamic duo, but I got a high school relationship filled with drama. The romance was a disappointment. And it's also the reason why I couldn't give this a higher rating. Without the on-and-off-again relationship, this would have probably gotten a four star, maybe even a four point five. 

I don't have anything else to say in regards to what I didn't like about this title other than I was slightly disappointed in the lack of action scenes in this book. I was expecting there to be a lot more fighting, especially since Jane is an assassin. I wanted to see more chapters with missions and Jane having to fulfill more contracts. I wanted to see gun fights, hand-to-hand combat, anything. Just more.  

Even though I didn't like the romance and the fact that there were little action scenes, I DID like the way it was written. Donyo has a special talent. Her writing style is unique, beautiful, and flows brilliantly. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing. I don't think I saw any grammatical errors at all! Yay!

The ending:

Seemed to me that Donyo left it open for a sequel. I looked to see if anything in regards to a second book had been put up on Goodreads, but I didn't see anything. If there is a sequel, I'll give it a shot. Maybe knowing what happened at the end, the romance will be much better for a sequel if there is one. Besides that, I think it'll be even better than its predecessor! 

Until next time,