ARC Review of “Search & Destroy” by Julie Rowe

~ savsandy

What’s not to like about a romantic thriller with a bit of a Sci-Fi twist? Theoretically, it should be a blue ribbon winner but sometimes the recipe results don’t match up to the description, which was pretty much the case with “Search and Destroy” by Julie Rowe. The plot premise of a possible pandemic of a new and virulent strain of measles is reasonably believable and definitely stirred my interest. The male and female protagonists are each strong characters in their own right, with enough weaknesses and imperfections to let them be more than cutouts. And while the writing is syntactically correct, throughout the first 10 – 12 chapters, it was devoid of any real emotion and I was sorely tempted to DNF it all the way up to about chapter 16. The problem was short, choppy sentences with little to no continuity between dialogue and actions of the speakers and the action scenes were lacking in detail and authenticity. Emotions were alluded to, and even described, but I couldn’t get caught up in it. Instead I felt like a disinterested observer. The good news is, once the action got into high gear, the pace picked up and I was able to engage with the story and the characters.

While this book is advertised as a standalone, it IS book #4 in a series and as such, the conclusion leaves lots of dangling loose ends to whet the appetites of those who’re yearning for more of John Dozer and Dr. Carmen Rodrigues, Director of the CDC Outbreak Task Force. My preferred rating would be three and a half stars but since Net Galley doesn’t give us that option, I’ll round it up to four stars.

My thanks to Net Galley for providing an ARC (Advance Reader’s Copy) in ebook format. “Search and Destroy” is scheduled for publication on 26 August 2019 by Entangled Publishing LLC. While it is advertised as a Romance, in my opinion it is more of a Romantic Thriller.

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Published by savsandy

I’m an avid reader and an RYT 200 certified yoga instructor. My reading is mostly for pleasure; thrillers, adult, historic, literary and women’s fiction, romance, and the occasional non-fiction, usually political in nature. My book review blog is http://ReadMyLips.home.blog. As always, I welcome your comments on my book review blog, be they positive or negative. I also regularly post reviews on Facebook as SandraGarlandHardy, Goodreads as Savsandy, on Twitter@savsandy and occasionally on Instagram as sandragarlandhardy.