Review: Talented

Talented (Talented #1) by Sophie Davis

 

Title: Talented

Series: Talented, #1

Author: Sophie Davis

 

Published: (unknown); 2012

281 pages, kindle edition

 

Source: Amazon Freebie

 
Rating: 2.5 stars
  

Description:

Block it out. Impossible for Talia Lyons. When you’re a Mind Manipulator, it’s hard enough to block the thoughts of others, let alone your own.

Block it out. The pounding, siren-ready world Talia inhabits as she trains with her fellow Hunters, the country's top-secret covert operatives. The physical demands. The emotional toll.

Block it out. The secrets that Talia’s boyfriend is hiding. Talia’s unbidden feelings of frustration and annoyance toward her teammate, the Casanova of the compound. The wondering why she cares what he thinks.

Block him out. Ian Crane. The man behind the bloodshed marring Talia’s memories of her murdered parents. The man she’s determined to kill.

Block it all out. Focus.

 

My Thoughts:

 Talented was not what I was expecting. That seems like such a stupid thing to say, but seriously, this was such a disappointment. It had so much potential and yet none of it was tapped into. An in-training assassin with a heated vengeance for her parents' murderers? That sounds exciting, thrilling, something I would love to read. Talented promised to be all of that and yet it was nothing but a dull tale of our protagonist's melodramatic love life. This was nothing better than a terrible soap opera.

Talia was one the most irritable characters I have ever had the misfortune of reading about. She whinged and whined and cried and was a bitch to her friends. She was naïve and stupid and I wanted to slap some sense into her multiple times. I couldn't stand reading about her.

The other characters were tolerable but not anything to praise over. I didn't enjoy Erik's moody, two-faced nature and Donovan pissed me off to put it frankly. The only relief was Henri who was generally caring, kind, funny and nice. He wanted to help Talia because they were friends, nothing more, and he looked out for his mates. I really wished that the book could have been his perspective instead.

The plotline was just cringe-worthy. We were promised a book about assassins and revenge yet it was only about Talia's pathetic romantic life. The missions and the action were dull and confusing, barely explained and rushed over so we got more time to focus on the development of a love triangle... yawn. I wanted to know more about their society, the range of abilities, the other consequences of the nuclear fallout and just generally more about their society without all the info-dumping. I wanted action, I wanted suspense, I wanted massive fight scenes and superpowers and I got nothing.
 
In the end this was nothing more than a terribly plotted and dull book. I have to say I am disappointed.