This is the kind of story that leaves me full of adrenaline after I’ve finished reading or listening and I kinda want to end each sentence with an exclamation mark. Because spies! Not spies! Danger! Love! Heartbreak and betrayals!

I usually like to include a short(ish) summary of the plot, with no spoilers, just my take on the premise of the story, but I won’t in this review. Part of what makes it exciting is not knowing what’s happening, who you can trust and who’s a villain. There’s no road trip this time but all sorts of twists still. And an ending that makes me wish May and Loyalty, the third and last (for now?) book in the series, weren’t in so many months…

I’m a victim of terrorism, so I won’t pretend everything in this story was easy to listen to, even if, as the author warns at the start of the book, “This one is fiction too”. And yet the first word that keeps coming back to me when I think about this series is fun. It’s seriously entertaining, the book equivalent of action movies and sure, you’re going to get gore and violence (never for violence’s sake though) and suffering but you’re also going to have a lot of fun. That’s one of the things I love about E.J. Noyes’s books, this sense of humour that keeps the reader engaged even when tragedy strikes, as if to remind us that a person is more than their PTSD. Lexie is such an endearing character, sarcastic, smart, driven, and also tender and vulnerable. For someone whose life is more often than not filled with extraordinary dangers, she’s surprisingly relatable. And as usual, Abby Craden breathes even more life into characters that are already very easy to love. Lexie, of course, but also Sophia, and a third very important character we met in book one, who turns out to be a lot more complex and a lot more interesting than I expected. The relationship between Lexie and this new partner in her latest mission is the best part of Leverage in my eyes.

This book is the second in a trilogy, which is always a difficult position to be in. The novelty factor of the first book has passed and it’s a given that all loose ends won’t be tied since there needs to be something leading to the final book. Yet, while Leverage is a middle book, with a seemingly quieter plot than Integrity, there’s plenty of tension and stakes to hold the reader’s attention, and even if that wasn’t enough, Lexie’s wit and reluctant badassness would make up for it.

Also, bonus points to the author for turning the prologue into something I wish authors who write sequels did more often: a reminder of what happened in the previous book(s) that you very possibly have forgotten since, you know, life can be busy. Just enough to refresh your memory but not so much that you’ll be terribly spoiled if, by mistake, you pick up Leverage before Integrity. It’s still time to go read the first book before getting into this one. It also means you can skip the prologue if the events of Integrity are crystal clear in your mind but why would you? On top of being informative, it’s also amusing (of course it is). And short.

And if you haven’t read or listened to Integrity, you should. 4.5⭐️

Listen to Leverage:

amazon (audiobook)

Bookshop.org (paperback)

Kobo (ebook)

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