Killing Sarai by J.A. Redmerski

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My rating: 4 stars

Book summary:

"Sarai was only fourteen when her mother uprooted her to live in Mexico with a notorious drug lord. Over time she forgot what it was like to live a normal life, but she never let go of her hope to escape the compound where she has been held for the past nine years.

Victor is a cold-blooded assassin who, like Sarai, has known only death and violence since he was a young boy. When Victor arrives at the compound to collect details and payment for a hit, Sarai sees him as her only opportunity for escape. But things don’t go as planned and instead of finding transport back to Tucson, she finds herself free from one dangerous man and caught in the clutches of another.

While on the run, Victor strays from his primal nature as he succumbs to his conscience and resolves to help Sarai. As they grow closer, he finds himself willing to risk everything to keep her alive; even his relationship with his devoted brother and liaison, Niklas, who now like everyone else wants Sarai dead.

As Victor and Sarai slowly build a trust, the differences between them seem to lessen, and an unlikely attraction intensifies. But Victor’s brutal skills and experience may not be enough in the end to save her, as the power she unknowingly holds over him may ultimately be what gets her killed."

      Nikita meets Captive in the Dark. And I am not talking about new version of show about female assassin, it's all old school Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis. I was obsessed with that show, so it is not hard to guess how much I enjoyed reading Killing Sarai. (Also, I owe big chocolate to my girl Azra who made me read it.)

      There is still hope for J.A. Redmerski. One of the reasons why I avoided this novel for so long is my bad experience with The Edge of Never.  I don't remember the last time that I was so annoyed with story and characters. I even tried to read sequel, but I gave up after ten pages. That is probably why I was so surprised with In the Company of Killers novels - I even had to check few times that it was really written by J.A. Redmerski. What a difference! Topic, writing, plot... I was completely blown away.

      Dark, twisted and... a little bit like a fairy tale. About killers. I know weird, but it worked out perfectly. Sarai is a girl who had really hard teenage years, everything she does or says is not unexpected - her understanding of "normal" is not same like yours or mine. Victor had "special" upbringing - he was groomed for the job he's doing and in many ways he is similar to Sarai. My favorite thing about this novel is lack of pathetic romance story. There are a lot of epic scenes, but it's all so... Appropriate. You will understand what I mean if you decide to read it, I don't want to reveal too much. This is one of those books that are best to read without even reading blurb.
My initial fangirling doesn't mean that I haven't noticed few cracks - there are things that could have been better. Second half of the book had several lose ends, some aspects of the fictional world could have been explained better - especially whole thing with The Order. That was the most confusing part of the story.

      Should you read it? If you want to read something different, you have to. Be aware that Killing Sarai is a book intended for older readers, over eighteen years old, there might be few things that you can find uncomfortable to read about, but compared with much darker reads like Captive in the Dark, this book could be more appealing to larger number of readers.

Happy reading,