Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott

I haven’t read anything by Kieran Scott before now, although I have heard a lot of praise for writing over the years.  I was pretty excited when I started reading Pretty Fierce, because spy thrillers are definitely my thing.  I haven’t read one that I haven’t absolutely loved, so when I couldn’t sleep one night I started reading, hoping to fall in love with this one like I have with so many others in the same genre.

Unfortunately, while the book was mostly a good read, and it kept me entertained for the most part, I couldn’t get invested in the story or the characters the way that I wanted to.  From the very start of the book, I couldn’t connect with the main characters, Kaia or Oliver.   Kaia was a distant character, and I felt absolutely no connection to her while reading this book.  Oliver, on the other hand, was more like a completely cookie-cutter character that I just couldn’t really get interested in.  Together, their relationship felt like it really lacked chemistry, and as though it was staged or forced throughout the entirety of the novel.  I love character driven novels, but for me, this one was more plot driven with characters that didn’t leave much of a lasting impact on me.

The story in Pretty Fierce, on the other hand, was definitely interesting.  The main character, Kaia, is used to being on the run, since her parents are professional assassins.  Because of this, she knows how to spot danger and how to stay away from it – going to extreme lengths to survive and keep herself out of it.  However, after one of her parents’ jobs go wrong, she finds herself living without parents with another couple in hiding.  When something goes wrong one day, and Kaia is attacked by a hit man, she hits the road and tries to get to the bottom of why she is being attacked.  Her boyfriend, Oliver, who caught her fighting and demands to know everything, is along for the ride, causing Kaia to spill all of her secrets to him.  While she tries to keep him safe, even attempting to abandon him so that they won’t be after him as well as her, Oliver seems to have his own secret.

While they are on the road, trying to figure out their next moves, Kaia and Oliver have killers trying to get to them everywhere they turn.  When an interesting message on a cell phone turns up some information that Kaia almost can’t believe, things change for her – and it seems like maybe everything she thought she knew might not be what she believed.

Like I said, the story was pretty good – it definitely had its ups and downs, but all in all, it was enjoyable, incredibly fast-paced (almost too fast-paced at times), and it had its thrills.  I think this book could have been a lot better had the characters been believable and better rounded.  Kaia is the daughter of an assassin with secrets that she guards close to her heart, but honestly, that’s about the only thing about her that’s interesting.  The remainder of her personality is somewhat dull and uninteresting.  Oliver was okay, but nothing memorable here, either.  The plot is what I remembered most about the book.