Author: AJ Scudiere
Publisher: Griffyn Ink
Rating: WARTY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
Note that there are some serious formatting problems in the Kindle version of this novel. There is no excuse, in this electronic age, for formatting or spelling issues in a novel, not even in a so-called galley proof.
Retribution is quite possibly the worst-ever title to choose for your novel. When I went to get a link to it on BN, it listed thirty four pages of novels associated with that word, and the first page showed me almost thirty novels with that actual name, or some close variation on it. C'mon authors, let's get a distinctive title for goodness sakes! Or if it's the publisher made you title it that way, shame on them! The author is listed at BN, but not this volume for some reason. Retribution is book two of the Sin trilogy, so keep in mind that I have not read book 1 (Vengeance - which I'd guess is also an over-used title!), so that may affect how I view this volume. The third volume, Justice (again overused?!) was due in 2015.
I don't normally say a lot about covers because authors (unless they self-publish) typically have no say in their cover, and the artists who do the covers typically illustrate only one thing for me: that they never read the novel they're covering. I have to say on this occasion what a pleasure it was to see a woman on the cover who isn't anorexic! It was really nice to see someone who looks like she can actually do the things we'll read about in the novel. I don't know who the cover model was, but she looks perfect for this illustration.
Having said that I have to add that as I read this, the cover became the best part of this novel. A J Scudiere was running a 'buy one, get one free' offer on her website when I visited, which isn't the best advertisement for her novels in my opinion, but it's her website. She can do whatever she wants. The trilogy is about two kids raised in the mob, who become rebels seeking vengeance for harm done to their families, and end up finding each other and working together. This volume follows up on that, with the two protagonists from the first volume, Sin (Cynthia) and Lee now living under different names as a married couple. Sin has somehow become a cop, and she hears someone say "Hello Sin" but can't pick out the speaker in a crowd. Despite having the means to quickly disappear and start a new life somewhere else, the two of them have apparently gone soft. They decide to stay and fight it out. This part I found less than credible given who these characters are supposed to be, but the story takes off from that premise.
Sin goes looking for one of the rival family Kurev brothers, whom she somehow fails to recognize when she initially picks him up in a routine drug bust. There's no reason for this other than to move the story, because she does find him by amazing coincidence and then has to kill him. For no good reason, Lee then takes off to that same place to pick up information in a nearby bar, and by another amazing coincidence happens to sit right next to two people who's conversation tells him everything he needs to know to move the story forward some more. I found this less than credible, and that's where I started deciding that I really had no interest in following this story any further. It didn't spark for me. It wasn't interesting, and I couldn't get into it with any enthusiasm. I could neither identify with either of the two main characters, nor did I find them appealing or interesting, and their relationship is as robotic as it is bizarre.
In a way I could rate this novel triple A: for Angst, Anguish, and Analysis, because the author is all about telling, not much interested in showing. Personally I don't mind that as much as other reviewers might, but even for me, screen after screen of dreary, detailed drifts down memory lane or deep into the protagonists analytical but pedantic mind is too much when it happens time after time. Yes, there's some brief action here and there, but it's perfunctory and comes in very short bursts, and even that is analyzed in detail as it happens. This kind of writing has no appeal for me, so I cannot rate this novel as a worthy read.
