BOOK REVIEW: BREAK ME BY TIFFANY SNOW

Title: Break Me

Author: Tiffany Snow
Genre: Romance
Published on: March 14, 2017 by Montlake Romance

Just a few weeks ago, computer prodigy China Mack's typical night in involved Endor Star Wars pajamas and a sensible bedtime. Now she's dating gorgeous tech guru Jackson Cooper--one of Forbes's Top Ten Eligible Billionaires--much to the Twitterverse's delight.

Turns out, going from socially inept hermit to poster girl for geek chic has its challenges. China's relationship gets even more complicated because her role heading the top-secret Vigilance program--where she's partnered with Superman clone Clark Slattery--makes her a target. And when ruthless businessman Simon Lu plans to co-opt Vigilance software to blackmail government and military employees, he'll need China's cooperation--willing or otherwise.

But not every enemy is so easily identified. Some hide in plain sight, in very high places, and mistaking foe for friend could be the last mistake China ever makes...

Break Me is the second installment of the Corrupted Hearts series. The protagonist is China Mack (whose actual surname, according to her, is unpronounceable). She’s a gifted programmer with genius-level intellect. China’s also very OCD and is not good with social interactions. Despite being in her early twenties, China already has an impressive resume. She used to work for Cysnet, a prominent tech company owned by Jackson Cooper. In the previous book, the two became close and are now dating. China resigned from her job, though. She got an offer that she couldn’t refuse.

The aforementioned offer was a bit of a twist in the ending of Follow Me. As revealed, the project that China and Jackson had been working on was a program called Vigilance. It’s a sophisticated tool that can gather data from various sources. Vigilance can then use this data to predict, for instance, whether a specific person is planning a bombing. It’s very Minority Report meets Edward Snowden, so China obviously saw how dangerous and controversial the program could be. There’s nothing she can do about the government using this tool, though. The president issued a special directive (a sort of non-public executive order) to put together a team that will harness Vigilance. And he wanted China to be the leader.

China’s new position came with the freedom to pick her own team members. She (and the Vigilance team) answer directly to a man named Stewart Gammin, the President’s chief of staff. There’s one team member that China was forced to accept, though. He’s a returning character: Clark Slattery, a former black ops agent who went freelance for some time. Clark inserted himself into China’s life and gained her trust by charming her. China wasn’t thrilled when she found out who Clark really was and why he stuck around. They now sort of tolerate each other, but it’s hinted there could be more going on.

Clark’s role in the Vigilance team is to be the muscle. He’s the one who goes after the would-be bomber from the example case I mentioned above. But contrary to what one might expect, Break Me isn’t about the cases that China and her team handles. Much of the book’s main focus is on the relationship between China and Jackson. They’ve fallen hard for each other, the latter much more so. China’s never been in a serious relationship before, which could land her in a tough spot with Jackson. On top of that, two potential main antagonists emerge. One of them has a little fun with China before his/her motives are revealed. The other is a powerful man who’s introduced early in the book, someone who can go toe to toe with Jackson. That’s saying a lot, considering how rich and influential he is.

Although China, Jackson, and Clark have the spotlight, other characters have sizable roles as well. One of them is Mia, China’s teenage niece. Unlike China, Mia is a girly girl and socially adept. She’s probably a queen bee at her school. You’d think Mia and China are too different to get along, but that’s not the case. They love each other like sisters. Jackson’s butler, Lance, has a small but significant role. He’s one of Jackson’s most trusted people and has grown fond of China. A funny thing is that Lance reminded China of Lurch when she first met him!

This second entry in the Corrupted Hearts series was just as thrilling and enjoyable as the first. You get to know the characters quite a bit more. I found them to be just as interesting as the group from the author’s Kathleen Turner series. The exploits they get into were also suspenseful. And the main antagonist proved to be just as menacing as he appeared to be. Even Clark and Jackson may be no match for him. Luckily, China reveals herself to have a surprising and unexpected skill. It’s much rarer than even knowing COBOL, so I hadn’t heard about it. This skill really comes in handy for China. It also makes for quite a…well, I’ll let you read for yourself. If you’ve liked this series so far, you can’t go wrong with continuing it.

My rating: ★★★★ 1/2

4.5 stars - A fantastic page-turner!