Unraveling: Killing Sarai by J. A. Redmerski

Title: Killing Sarai

Series: In The Company of Killers Book One

Author: J. A. Redmerski

Publication Date: June 18, 2013

Sarai was only fourteen when her mother uprooted her to live in Mexico with a notorious drug lord. Over time she forgot what it was like to live a normal life, but she never let go of her hope to escape the compound where she has been held for the past nine years.

Victor is a cold-blooded assassin who, like Sarai, has known only death and violence since he was a young boy. When Victor arrives at the compound to collect details and payment for a hit, Sarai sees him as her only opportunity for escape. But things don’t go as planned and instead of finding transport back to Tucson, she finds herself free from one dangerous man and caught in the clutches of another.

While on the run, Victor strays from his primal nature as he succumbs to his conscience and resolves to help Sarai. As they grow closer, he finds himself willing to risk everything to keep her alive; even his relationship with his devoted brother and liaison, Niklas, who now like everyone else wants Sarai dead.

As Victor and Sarai slowly build a trust, the differences between them seem to lessen, and an unlikely attraction intensifies. But Victor’s brutal skills and experience may not be enough in the end to save her, as the power she unknowingly holds over him may ultimately be what gets her killed.

This is their story…

 

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My Thoughts

Oh boy, this book...I have been seeing so many amazing reviews for it everywhere. Actually I have yet to come across a rating of 3 stars or less, which is saying something. Usually there is always the odd person with the low rating but apparently not for this one. This time I'll be the odd one.

I read Killing Sarai when I was in the mood to read books about assassins. I read multiple series and started and didn't finish others, all about assassins in various settings. All of which I loved, except this one. Here is the thing. After reading so many books about assassins, my expectations were high. I had already found great books dealing with the subject so I wasn't going to settle for anything less. And that's exactly what happened here. Killing Sarai didn't measure up to any of the numerous assassin books I had already read.

I shouldn't really be drawing such close comparisons but I just couldn't help myself in this case. They were so similar that when I first came across the book I thought it was a spin-off series of the other series I had loved and somehow missed it's announcement. I then double checked and that's when I realized it's from different authors. What's so similar you ask? Killing Sarai's series name is called In The Company of Killers, Evenfall is called In The Company of Shadows. They are both about equally messed up people one turns assassin the other one already is, and "this is their story". I adored In The Company of Shadows so of course I was expecting great things for Killing Sarai, unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Killing Sarai ended up being a very water downed assassin book. After all the messed up crap I had read about in the other books and how the characters dealt with it reading Killing Sarai was very meh. I couldn't connect to the either Sarai or Victor. I couldn't really care about Sarai's predicament much, nor Victor's for that matter. But my biggest issue was with the romance. I would have been fine if it had stayed as just sex, because that's what Sarai needed at the time and well Victor was just there, but it didn't just stay as sex. It somehow changed into a budding relationship and I just don't see how that's possible. First of all this all develops in a few days, then there is the problem with the characters personalities. I just don't see them having any kind of relationship without some major issues and how could they possibly just develop one that quickly? It was all just too unbelievable for me. And that was ultimately the problem.

The book in and of itself isn't bad, the writing was great. I mean I did actually read the whole thing and not just mark it as DNF, but it wasn't that great either. I guess if you aren't into books about assassins and thefore haven't read much about them, you will more than just like this book. If on the other hand, you do read quite a bit about assassins, this one isn't anything special.

So...

Would I Recommend it?

P.S. I wasn't the only one who thought this was somehow a spin-off of In The Company of Shadows.

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Other books in the In The Company of Killers Series:

1. Killing Sarai
2. Reviving Izabel

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