Awakening

By E.J. Dawson

From Goodreads

Ayla is a villain. With a gift that allows her to see when anyone will die, she’s remorseless in her profession as the perfect assassin. When she wakes up in a cryo-tank three thousand years in the future, and no idea how she came to be there, all that matters is survival.

Rescued by Leith and the crew of the Nuria, Ayla discovers a far evolved world of space ships and galactic colonization. But everything comes with a price, and though Ayla is no princess locked in an icy tower, she still has to pay for the rescue she didn’t know she needed.

Given over to Leith, a darkly handsome man who reads Ayla far easier than she’d like, they must work together if Ayla is to repay her debt. As the pair come to learn how dangerous one another are, so too grows a lustful bond that comes with rules of its own. Fighting to learn why she was frozen, Ayla’s dragged into Leith’s past with a criminal organization seeking to take over this sector of the galaxy. In order to survive, Leith will need Ayla’s help, but Ayla doesn’t know if she’s willing to pay what it will cost her…

My Review

Thank you so much to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to receive this book. I liked that it was about space and written in the villain’s POV? Color me curious!

Ayla is a likeable enough character. She’s a total badass and super independent. I like how she had to get out of her comfort zone and form relationships with those around her even though she’s never really relied on anyone but herself.

But to be totally honest, this book kind of fell flat for me. I felt like the characters were underdeveloped and that made it difficult for me to connect with them. I mean, Ayla had been locked away for thousands and thousands of years and when she’s finally freed, she just rolls with the punches and gets right back into the swing of things? What happened to her planet and people? And what about Leith? We get nearly nothing of his backstory. This book is packed with action but I felt so disconnected from the characters that I kept getting distracted from what was actually taking place in the story. Overall, I give this book a rating of 3 stars. This series has promise and potential to be really great. But I don’t think it’s for me.