Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsTwo characters who are full of imperfections but perfect for one another
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2019
Ever see the 1980s movie Something Wild? The protagonists of Wild Card reminded me of the Ray Liotta and Melanie Griffith characters—if they had been the intended lovers of that story instead of antagonists.
After they killed her father years ago, Caitlin finally had her revenge against the Tacone family by using her amazing hacker skills to steal their money and in so doing fund her and her brother’s college education. But as we know by this point in the Vegas Underground series, very little gets past the Tacones, and they will make Caitlin face Tacone justice—sent in the form of Paolo Tacone.
What makes this book stand out is the unique characters of Paolo and Caitlin. He’s always been quirky, silent, and driven, but it isn’t until he encounters Caitlin’s particular form of crazy that he meets his match. Caitlin has a disassociation disorder (no spoiler here as this is revealed right at the start of the book), and she uses movement and extreme sensation to keep herself from falling into a dissociative state. So when the irresistible force that is Caitlin meets the immovable object that is Paolo, sparks fly in all sorts of ways.
I love the way Caitlin knows she isn’t like everyone else, and her unique perspective on life and what she needs from it turns out to be the perfect match for Paolo. Wild Card intensely focuses on them, with only a couple of other characters playing a major part in its plot. There are some moments where the all-powerful nature of the Tacones strains credulity, in terms of what Paolo can do to protect Caitlin after he’s forced her into a situation where she’s exposed to the Feds and at her school. But those are relatively minor quibbles in a story where you’re suspending a bit of belief anyway, and there were a number of other plot twists that truly surprised me.
I loved the way that these two characters are full of imperfections but perfect for one another. It’s a fitting end to the Vegas Underground series.
