Made to be Broken

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Liked this a lot; didn't want to put it down, got caught up in Nadia Stafford's concerns and passions and dilemmas. I hope the love angle doesn't stay too torturously unresolved in future books; I can see that Armstrong could keep it up in the air for a while if she carries on as in book 1 and 2. ( )

While I like the premise of the series, I didn't think this was particularly strong. The villains, other than the initial one who was dispatched early, were bureaucrats - faceless and not all that compelling. The "love" "triangle" just isn't holding up for me, and the main character's deep dark subconscious secret was so obvious that it took me a book and a half to realize that it was supposed to be a secret. It is nice to read a noir-ish thriller written from a feminist perspective, but I certainly hope any sequels are more like the first book and not this one. ( )

I enjoyed Exit Strategy, the first in this series about Nadia Stafford, a former policewoman turned contract killer, but only so long as the jobs she's paid to do fit within her own principles. I suppose the fun was in the little details, like the professional courtesies between characters who were thrust together, but had a vested interest in their real identities remaining hidden; and the interactions between characters whose safety depends on maintaining a certain degree of professional paranoia.

I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much. It's about Nadia's investigation of the disappearance of a young unwed mother and her baby from her small town community. The lack of concern from locals about the disappearance and ongoing investigation trigger some traumatic memories from Nadia's own past. But I wasn't really a fan of the mystery element to the story.

I almost never complain about characters who vocalise their self-doubts (and indeed, I often quite like them), but Nadia’s constant feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt started to grate on me for some reason, and the relationship arc of the novel felt depressingly bland and predictable. Not as enjoyable as I had hoped. ( )

In "Made To Be Broken", the second of the Nadia Stafford series, we finally get inside the head of this hitwoman-with-principles. I found this book much more compelling that the first, which had that Series 1 Episode 1 fell to it.

This book reads alound much better than the first, the theme has more emotional impact and the backstory gets some real depth.

I hope that there will be a third in the series soon ( )