Okay, first off, it's Natasha Romanoff and I love her. I love her. I love Alexei. I love Ava. The fridging at the end of the book (which isn't really a spoiler if you read the between chapter interviews) cLEARLY did not happen so there is /obviously/ nothing to stop me from including all three of these characters in all of my future fanfics, headcanons, and book reviews. Duh.

As you may surmise, I enjoyed the characters and twisty-turny thriller plot. The dialogue was super on point. Tony Stark & Phil Coulson make appearances too, and they are *bleep*ing delight.

As a writer, this book was a fascinating read mostly because it seems like it was yanked out of editing too soon. Much like a mechanic peeking under a car hood, I can see the gears, the tricks, the devices Stohl used to create her narrative. For example, the hand-wavium science is off the charts out there, with lots of technical jargon thrown in to convince me that it's real. Nope. If I edited this book, I would tell Stohl to keep it simple, focus in on the few technicalities, and tease and sprinkle the science out. Repeat the terms and open up new aspects. Or to research more. Maybe you don't need to have quantum physics, biochemistry, and neuroscience all simultaneously giving each other holy palmer's kisses. Maybe just have neuro in a room by themselves mucking up stuff. Also, spelling. I don't care what Marvel said the deadline was, click spellcheck.

(Also, also, I have a heavy feeling that Marvel execs rushed Stohl through writing because these books are coming out ridiculously quickly. Thus, the lack of developmental and copy edits)

So in sum, brilliant book and especially brilliant if you're a writer looking to learn better writing. The narrative is easy to tear apart, and I say that in the least creepy, least Russian mad scientist way.