Deal with the Devil (Mercenary Librarians Series #1)

by Kit Rocha Narrated by Lidia Dornet

Overview

Deal with the Devil is Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author duo Kit Rocha.

Nina is an information broker with a mission-she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America.

Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he's fighting to survive.

They're on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process...

Or they could do the impossible: team up.

This is the first audiobook in a near-future science fiction series with elements of romance.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Lidia Dornet narrates a sci-fi romance set in a postapocalyptic America. Two mercenary groups team up to track down missing Library of Congress material, but they face unexpected challenges and treachery. Dornet is at her best when voicing the two leads, Nina and Knox. Despite having similar backgrounds, they approach life very differently: Nina is optimistic almost to the point of naïveté, while Knox is jaded and rapidly becoming bitter. The chemistry between the two is crackling and immediate, and Dornet nails it. Less successful are her portrayals of the remaining five characters, who are not always easily distinguished from one another. Listeners should be aware of several scenes with extended graphic violence. K.M.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

02/10/2020

Rocha, the pseudonym for writing duo Donna Herren and Bree Bridges (the Beyond series), matches the relentless action of this postapocalyptic thriller (and Mercenary Librarian series launch) with simmering sexual tension. It’s the latter half of the 21st century, solar flares and energy wars have all but destroyed human civilization, and Nina and her team of librarians work as “information brokers” with deadly combat skills. When Capt. Garrett Knox, leader of the Silver Devils, a gang of rogue soldiers who’ve broken off from their former employers, TechCorps, to avoid the slaughter of innocents, approaches Nina with a job for the librarians, they team up to recover the Library of Congress archives from seven underground bunkers scattered across the U.S. As they race to unearth the archives before TechCorps finds them, sparks fly between Nina and Knox, but hidden agendas and looming danger stand in the way of their happiness. Rocha capably deploys found family and forbidden love tropes while keeping readers on their toes with unpredictable action beats. This postapocalyptic tale of espionage and romance will have readers eager to know what happens next. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary. (May)

From the Publisher

A full-throttle read! I can't wait to see what happens next!”—Jeaniene Frost, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Night Huntress series

“Hard-hitting, unflinching, brutally, beautifully written, and surprising even in the last act. It pulls off a few tricks I would have called cliches past redeeming. I am SO impressed.” —Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author

“Compelling characters, white-knuckle action, and deceptively smooth worldbuilding make this first Mercenary Librarians book a satisfying and cinematic escape.” —Booklist, *STARRED* review

“A rollicking good time complete with warrior women, cybernetically enhanced super soldiers and a treasure hunt in a post-democracy United States… like something out of an Avengers flick, [Deal With the Devil] is a solid sci-fi debut with unforgettable characters.” —Bookpage, *STARRED* review

“A roller coaster of nail-biting thrills combined with top-notch world-building, palpable heat, and real emotional stakes. You're going to love it.” —Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling author of Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds

“High-stakes action and plenty of chemistry, DEAL WITH THE DEVIL absolutely crackles!”—Chloe Neill, New York Timesand USA Today bestselling author

“The sizzling sexual tension is simply the icing that makes DEAL WITH THE DEVIL one of my favorite SF reads ever.”—Alyssa Cole, award-winning author

“My advice? Cancel your plans so you can get swallowed up in Kit Rocha’s exciting new world.”—Thea Harrison, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

“An exhilarating start to what promises to be a compelling series... bring on the next Mercenary Librarians adventure!”—Nalini Singh, New York Times bestselling author

“Complicated characters, complex stakes, and worldbuilding on a grand scale, I loved this book. Pre-order—and get multiple copies for friends, too!”—Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series

“Nina is everything I love in a heroine—smart and badass, but with a core of hope and kindness. And Knox is jaded, honorable, and so very conflicted. I loved it!”—Jessie Mihalik, author of Polaris Rising

“An explosive start to a brilliant new series. Tough, gritty, and smart, with sharp sparks of humor, and overflowing with heart and hope. I loved it. I can’t wait for more.”—Suzanne Brockmann, New York Times bestselling author

“A risky and frisky adventure.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Rocha capably deploys found family and forbidden love tropes while keeping readers on their toes with unpredictable action beats. This postapocalyptic tale of espionage and romance will have readers eager to know what happens next.”—Publishers Weekly

“Rocha slide into traditional publishing with a high-action, high-stakes sf romance. Intriguing characters, tragic backgrounds, and a few twists comprise a strong launch to this new series.”—Library Journal

“[Deal with the Devil] has identified a pressing need: information may want to be free, but it also wants to kill us.” —The New Scientist

“There are not enough positive words in the dictionary for how I feel about this book. Kit Rocha’s DEAL WITH THE DEVIL has great worldbuilding, lovely angst, post-apocalyptic mayhem, gripping combat scenes, and a lot of romance. With competent women, soldiers with a burgeoning conscience, and friends supporting friends, this is a happy and diverting book we all need right now.” —Fresh Fiction

Library Journal

12/01/2019

In postapocalyptic Atlanta, many are scrounging for their lives. This includes Nina, who not only leads a small team that finds artifacts to make money, but discovers lost information and digitized works to help her community. When Captain Garrett Knox offers her a lead on a bunker containing backup of the Library of Congress servers, it seems too good to be true. Especially since Knox is the leader of the Silver Devils, an elite squad of super soldiers who cut loose from the Protectorate. Yet the temptation is too great to resist, so Nina, Knox, and their teams join to hunt the bunker through treacherous outlaw territory. The treachery is not just outside, however. The Silver Devils are trying to recover their kidnapped biochem hacker—and the ransom is Nina. VERDICT Rocha (coauthor, Ivan) slide into traditional publishing with a high-action, high-stakes sf romance. Intriguing characters, tragic backgrounds, and a few twists comprise a strong launch to this new series.—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Lidia Dornet narrates a sci-fi romance set in a postapocalyptic America. Two mercenary groups team up to track down missing Library of Congress material, but they face unexpected challenges and treachery. Dornet is at her best when voicing the two leads, Nina and Knox. Despite having similar backgrounds, they approach life very differently: Nina is optimistic almost to the point of naïveté, while Knox is jaded and rapidly becoming bitter. The chemistry between the two is crackling and immediate, and Dornet nails it. Less successful are her portrayals of the remaining five characters, who are not always easily distinguished from one another. Listeners should be aware of several scenes with extended graphic violence. K.M.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-03-15
Enhanced supersoldiers, hot romance, and a dangerous rescue mission make this SF series opener a post-apocalyptic roller-coaster ride.

In the near future, a wave of solar flares has rendered the world’s power grids useless. People have found a way to survive, though: by supporting a mysterious scientific conglomerate, by selling important information, or by acting as hired muscle. Despite his biomedical enhancements, Capt. Garrett Knox of the Silver Devils, a squad of supersoldiers, is in a race against time to rescue one of his team members. The ransom: a mercenary librarian named Nina. After doing some reconnaissance, Knox suspects that Nina is not a typical human, and his team’s plan to snatch her off the street is quickly ruled out. Instead, Knox hopes to lure Nina and her squad of information brokers into a trap. Knox insists he knows the location of the rumored Rogue Library of Congress, a motherlode of confidential documents and records that were saved by federal employees when the original Library of Congress was shut down. Nina can’t resist a score like that and agrees to assist Knox in locating the RLOC bunkers hidden across a decimated America. Nina and Knox feel a lot like superheroes with their enhanced abilities and altruistic feelings toward ending corruption through the freedom of information. Readers may be craving an action-packed good-triumphs-over-evil story right now, and this book delivers a hopeful ending in the midst of a bleak setting. Rocha’s trademark trope of found family is very much present, and the chemistry and tension between the romantic leads has never been better plotted or paced. The primary shortcoming is the constant repetition of background information, which creates frequent hiccups in an otherwise thrilling page-turner.

A risky and frisky adventure.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169847123
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	07/28/2020
Series:	Mercenary Librarians Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged

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