maybe I'm just tired. I wasn't going to add this book on Goodreads but I have thoughts™️. The plot was so draggy and I am bothered.

— overall thoughts: 1.5 —

I am just going to put it out there that I did not read the first book in this series because I made a mistake thinking that this was the first book in the trilogy, having already agreed to review this book. I found it weird that the title “Brink of Life" is the second book in a series called “Brink of Life Trilogy” but that is neither here nor there. I do want to make it clear that I did not have any prior knowledge of the world.

It didn’t sit right with me that 15 minutes into the audiobook and a brown skinned woman was described as “exotic”, I can already tell that this was written by a man. I have never read a female author write ”smooth, pristine, pink skin” to describe a woman's body like what was done multiple times here. I understand how it plays into the plot but that set a bad tone for me for the rest of my reading experience.

I feel like the author didn't mean for what they wrote to be taken in the wrong way (hopefully) but I don't think that it was the best execution either. There were a lot of lines that I wish were given more than a second thought because as a woman and a person of color, this felt very prejudiced.

"asian looking except for his blue eyes”
This is written with the preconceived notion that all asians look the same. As an asian person, I can assure you that we don't. There are so many different skin tones, eye shapes, etc. across the whole Asian continent and this sounded like an extremely Western perspective. It unnerved me even more because the author was writing about people of color. The book could have benefitted a lot from some sensitivity reading.

With that said, the book has merits for the attempt at diversifying their characters' appearances but the way it was executed was off-putting.

“this man was about to own her, he already owned her”
I am just going to let you decide what that sounds like to you. Taken out of context, you might say that there might be more to the conversation... and there is but there are so many ways to write out the scene without saying like this man "owned" her., in my opinion.

I do admit that the Science Fiction aspect was interesting and you’re left piecing together what was happening with the main character. It's violent and full of assassins, with a focus on mystery. Unfortunately, I could see the “plot twist” coming from a mile away so it did not surprise me. I felt like it was fairly obvious with the cover of the book and what was happening but it took so long for the plot to get there. I was willing to look past that if i was enjoying but there was so much “telling” in the writing rather than "showing". I understand how it works into the story but I just found it infuriating to read about and lazy. I did not agree with the writing style. There was more explanation later on but it just felt like an info dump. The whole background of the world building was literally explained by one character to another character in a single scene.
* “she recruited her into the agency and became her mentor”
* “they became lovers”
* “love nest”
* “used her extraordinary agility”

Additionally, I found it so weird that this random woman that she met, rushed in to save her life and offered to teach her how to do.. martial arts? self defense? with no explanation why. It was just said that that’s what happened. She never questioned anything and it did not sound believable to me for someone who is supposedly a professional at this organization.

There was an F/F romance present but it did not feel well-researched. The narrator of the audiobook sounded robotic for the most part, especially towards the end. Though, I think the actual narration was done well and the speed was just right for casual listeners.

It is a mysterious and action packed book but I do wish that certain choices in the writing were given more thought.

*I received a copy of this book from Audiobookworm Reviews in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*