Killers of a Certain Age (Killers of a Certain Age, #1) in EPBOT Readers

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Killers of a Certain Age (Killers of a Certain Age, #1)

Deanna Raybourn

Start date: January 26, 2024

Finish date: March 31, 2024

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Final Reading Thoughts for Killers of a Certain Age
By Sheri · 9 posts · 39 views

last updated May 14, 2024 08:11PM

Pre-Reading thoughts for Killers of a Certain Age
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last updated Mar 09, 2024 06:55AM

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What Members Thought

Sep 11, 2022 Shilo Quetchenbach rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, from-publisher, arc-review, blog-tour

This book was very good. I wasn鈥檛 sure what to expect, having never read a Deanna Raybourn book, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story whizzed along at a good clip, the characters were for the most part well-developed and interesting. The pacing was breathless as they raced against time to carry out heists and murder the men who are trying to murder them.

I came to really appreciate Billie, as it was in her POV for the most part, but I did feel that the other three women blurred together a b This book was very good. I wasn鈥檛 sure what to expect, having never read a Deanna Raybourn book, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story whizzed along at a good clip, the characters were for the most part well-developed and interesting. The pacing was breathless as they raced against time to carry out heists and murder the men who are trying to murder them.

I came to really appreciate Billie, as it was in her POV for the most part, but I did feel that the other three women blurred together a bit and weren鈥檛 as distinct as I would have liked.

I very much approve of the casual inclusion of LGBT+ characters and relationships. That always makes a book feel much more friendly, and it was done so naturally that I barely even registered it.

I also really really appreciate that the main characters were 'women of a certain age' and (despite being expert assassins) they felt very authentic. There were many mentions of the plans having to be adapted to their older bodies. Despite it, they still kicked ass. They were competent and capable AND dealing with things like hot flashes and muscles and stamina that weren't what they once were. It made for such a nice contrast to the usual teenagers/twenty-something protagonists I usually read about.

I wasn鈥檛 sure at first if I was going to like it. There were a few issues I had with it:

The placement of the 鈥榩ast鈥� sections was sometimes jarring and I occasionally got confused about where and when they were. I did become more used to this as I went along, but it took me out of the flow of the story on more than one occasion.

The action scenes - which, to be fair, were a large chunk of the book - were just a tad too clinical. They read almost like newspaper reports. I don鈥檛 know if this is just a style common to thrillers - I haven鈥檛 read many of them. I feel like the simple language and not-flowery writing are a staple of the genre, but I鈥檓 not sure about the descriptions of fight scenes. As the book progressed this bothered me less and less, however, so it might have improved or I might have gotten used to it.

One thing that did bother me consistently through the book was that it was a tad vulgar for my tastes. I do appreciate the bluntness with which things not normally talked about are discussed among the women, but there were so many instances of descriptions of sexual harassment from their targets (which they had to put up with with a smile which definitely made the targets unsympathetic very quickly). Even more off-putting to me (and more common within the story) was the way that the (many) murders were described. Not just how they looked, but how they felt, how they sounded, how they smelled鈥� I get that they are assassins and yes, they do kill a lot of people over the course of the book, but I just didn鈥檛 want that much familiarity with the deaths.

I did appreciate the very feminist slant to it all, and the way the men鈥檚 casual sexism was used to increase support for the women. Also the way that the four of them used the 鈥榦ld women are invisible鈥� idea to their advantage in order to further their schemes.鈥ㄢ€═he story was very compelling and I found it difficult to put down. I would also probably read it again and will definitely be recommending it to others.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an e-arc for review. ...more

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Feb 25, 2023 Gecky Boz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Killer Killers

Okay, I wanted to read this book because I loved the Red movies about retired assassins and this sounded like it'd be in the same vein.

Love seeing the past and present of the story. All the characters are strongly written. Plus everything has a great cinemagraphic quality to it as you read. You can really feel the history between them all as you read. It was great that they all got moments to shine.

A heck of a great read that has a lot of fun along the way. ...more

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