No Exit by Lena DiazNo Exit by Lena Diaz
Series: EXIT Inc. #2
Published by Avon on January 26, 2016
Genres: Contemporary RS
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Source: Advance Reader Copy
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two-stars

Lena Diaz returns to the thrilling world of EXIT Inc., with two enemies who become unlikely allies—and discover that only through love can they save each other...

As an agent of the Equalizers, Jace Atwell will risk everything to destroy EXIT Inc., the corrupt antiterrorist group, before more innocent lives are lost. The only way to infiltrate EXIT is by getting close to the CEO's beautiful daughter, but when they get a little too close, Jace finds himself falling for the woman he is duty-bound to deceive.

Whatever clandestine activities EXIT is involved in, Melissa Cardenas refuses to believe that her father is responsible and is determined to prove it. So when sexy, smooth-talking Jace comes clean about his motives, Melissa drops a bombshell of her own: she's been investigating too—and she wants to help him find the truth.

The chemistry between Melissa and Jace is undeniable, but their opposing views of justice make teamwork tricky. With their lives on the line—and the truth something neither of them expected—the only way to survive will be to trust their hearts and each other . . . if they can.

The first book in this series really caught my attention. It was full of intrigue, twists, turns, and hot romance.

This second book starts off just as fast, with the mission going south. But the hero Jace doesn’t know the half of it. The plan is to have his partner run the daughter of their enemy off the road, and Jace will save her, gaining her trust. Of course, it doesn’t go to plan.

Part of the problem with this book is that it doesn’t stand alone. If you haven’t read the first one, you won’t get caught up until midway through. I mean, you’ll know what’s going on in the plot for this actual book, but you won’t know why Cyprian Cardenas is the bad guy, what he did last book, or why his actual (original) purpose wasn’t terrible.

EXIT Inc. is Cyprian’s business. It’s a tour guide company where they take you on extreme vacations. But there’s another side to EXIT Inc. It’s a secret government department that takes out bad guys. So EXIT Inc. starts out as the good guys. In the last book Exit Strategy, we found out that Cyprian has been using it to take out innocent people. So the good guys have become his personal assassin team.

In this book, Jace is using Melissa to get close to her father. The idea being that the guys who broke away from EXIT Inc. are trying to prove what’s going on and get the government to shut down Cyprian’s operation.

Melissa is trying to figure out what’s going on as well. But on her own, she isn’t able to do what Jace can do. Although she’s made some progress. Melissa hires him for protection as her bodyguard, and the two of them dance around each other. This is where it starts to fall apart for me. (and it’s still like only the first quarter of the book).

Melissa obviously doesn’t know what’s going on, but she knows Jace isn’t just her bodyguard. Everything was too coincidental. So she starts to push him for info. And he tells her almost everything! I was so mad at that. The guy’s a former SEAL. He can keep a secret from everybody but this chick?! Seriously? And his backup decided since he couldn’t keep his trap shut, that he was out of their club. It was just such a weird scene. In general. It really sticks out as where I almost DNF’d the book.

Melissa veered into TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) territory a few times. She kept talking about how she needed to protect him. Anytime something bad happened, she acted as if he’s incapable of doing anything, and ruins his plan. He’s not a martyr, he’s a SEAL. Give him some credit that he’s not going to go down without a fight, or a plan. At one point she brought a knife to gun fight-she doesn’t know what she’s doing! She tried to protect Jace, but got in the way, and got shot for her troubles.

Overall, the plot is there, it’s a full and exciting plot that she did so little with! I was so disappointed that this book didn’t hold up to the first.

***ARC courtesy of AVON books

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two-stars