Friday, April 12, 2013

Review Day: Assured Destruction

It's Review Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Assured Destruction
Author: Michael F. Stewart
My Rating: 4 stars

Assured Destruction Book Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Jan Rose knows that nothing is ever truly deleted. At least, not from the hard drives she scours to create the online identities she calls the Shadownet.

Hobby? Art form? Sad, pathetic plea to garner friendship, even virtually? Sure, Jan is guilty on all counts. Maybe she’s even addicted to it. It’s an exploration. Everyone has something to hide. The Shadownet’s hard drives are Jan’s secrets. They're stolen from her family’s computer recycling business Assured Destruction. If the police found out, Jan’s family would lose their livelihood.

When the real people behind Shadownet’s hard drives endure vicious cyber attacks, Jan realizes she is responsible. She doesn’t know who is targeting these people or why but as her life collapses Jan must use all her tech savvy to bring the perpetrators to justice before she becomes the next victim.

About Michael:
After crewing ships in the Antarctic and the Baltic Sea and some fun in venture capital, Michael anchored himself (happily) to a marriage and a boatload of kids. Now he injects his adventurous spirit into his writing with brief respites for research into the jungles of Sumatra and Guatemala, the ruins of Egypt and Tik’al, paddling the Zambezi and diving whatever cave or ocean reef will have him. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and SF Canada, and the author of the Assured Destruction series, 24 Bones, The Sand Dragon, Hurakan, Ruination and several award winning graphic novels for young adults.

My Review:
This is the tale about a teenage tech-head hacker working for her mother at a computer shredding/recycling center.  Enough said.  Michael came up with an incredible lead female character who takes you on a journey through her mind and hacking skills  Ms. Janus Rose.  She is extremely talented and witty.  Loved Janus!  If the story had any other lead character, it wouldn't have worked.  Janus is the perfect mix of techy and teen.  The novel mixed in "typical" teenage antics with a not-so-typical teen girl.  Anyone who works in retail/sales, loves computer or just wants a witty novel to read will love this book.

I'm giving this novel four stars because of the humor, entertainment and overall fun.  I thoroughly enjoyed this quick read.  I finished the book in just one day, and barely the whole day at that.  I definitely think this is a great book/series to read when you need something lighthearted and fun.

Pick up a copy of Assured Destruction on Amazon and Goodreads.  Follow the rest of the tour here. Check out the giveaway for the blog tour here --> a Rafflecopter giveaway Happy Reading!

5 comments:

Michael F Stewart said...

Thank you for the review, Hillary! If you have any questions, fire away. :)

Tribute Books said...

Hilary, I flew through Michael's book too! Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the review :)

HilyBee said...

Michael - Do the twitter accounts actually exist? :D

Nicole - Definitely a quick and great read!

Michael F Stewart said...

They do!

Try tweeting at https://twitter.com/heckleena

Or ask a question to

https://twitter.com/gumpssays

If you follow them all you'll get the origin story of Shadownet and soon you'll find origin stories of characters too, like here:

http://janusflytrap.com/gumpssays.html

HilyBee said...

LOVE it! :D Totally following them all. Going to have some fun!