The first book in the follow-up to Kit Rocha’s bestselling BEYOND series…
Gideon’s Riders, Book One
Lieutenant Ashwin Malhotra is a Makhai soldier–genetically engineered to be cold, ruthless. Unfeeling. His commanding officers consider him the perfect operative, and they’re right. Now, he has a simple mission: to infiltrate Gideon’s Riders, the infamous sect of holy warriors that protects the people of Sector One.
He’s never failed to execute an objective, but there’s one thing he didn’t anticipate–running into Dr. Kora Bellamy, the only woman to ever break through his icy exterior.
When Kora fled her life as a military doctor for the Makhai Project, all she wanted was peace–a quiet life where she could heal the sick and injured. The royal Rios family welcomed her like a sister, but she could never forget Ashwin. His sudden reappearance is a second chance–if she can manage to touch his heart.
When the simmering tension between them finally ignites, Kora doesn’t realize she’s playing with fire. Because she’s not just falling in love with a man who may not be able to love her back. Ashwin has too many secrets–and one of them could destroy her.
I love these authors and what they can bring to paper or to the ebook is incredible. Now after experiencing the rise and fall of Eden and the ups and downs of the O’Kanes in Sector 4 it is now
So my fellow fans & friends
Now for my thoughts on this gem of a book.
“Revolution was supposed to make things simpler, but here we are. Things might be better, but they’re not simpler.”
Ashwin Malhotra is a Makhai soldier a genetically modified human being that has been programmed not to feel. If they start to destabilize and fracture or in layman terms become more human they are reconditioned.
After six months of reconditioning to forget Kora Bellamy he is sent to Sector One to get rid of the deserters but also to infiltrate and get closer to Gideon Rios the leader of Sector One. All is going according to plan. But Gideon Rios is not a stupid man. He offers something Ashwin has always wanted.
The Base also miscalculated his loyalty his one loyalty will always be to Kora and as Kora has a loyalty to the Rios family. Ashwin has already broken so many rules when it comes to Kora amongst them treason.
Kora Bellamy doctor extraordinaire. The Base doesn’t know that she is there. She has been made to heal one of the last ones of the Project Panacea the sister project to the Makhai soldier. She is the last one and she somehow managed to compartmentalise. Kora mourned Ashwin after the last battle for freedom and then she finds out that she is alive.
They are perfect for one another. There is no point in fighting it.
Placing his hand between her shoulder blades was dangerous. Guiding her onto the mattress was reckless. Stretching out beside her was foolish.
After a night full of sex, passion and letting go is psyche is broken beyond repair.
The plot has everything I love and need in a story. Action-packed full of suspense, deception and subterfuge. Ashwin does what is the most important for Kora and no one else even if that means hurting her by accident although that was never his intention. But it will take a strong woman with compassion and understanding to deal with it for a life time of hurt. Nevertheless Ashwin goes above and beyond. He becomes a rider.
“Welcome to the ranks of the damned. Fun never stops.”
But what I loved as well as the sense of belonging what they both gained and that Sector One became their home.
Fights with Reyes. Glares from Ana. Threats from Deacon. He was actually starting to like the perverse, irrational things that soothed him. Being irrational made him feel human.
Sector One and Gideon Rios is subtle but it is a good subtlety. They love just as hard as Four but there is a stronger sense of worship of a different kind of loyalty of trust of belonging. It is the same and yet different. The introduction to so many new characters, the world building of sector One the detail, the story, the comraderies of the Riders. All of it is just brilliant. Sector One every moment to the fullest, wide open, because every moment could be your last. It was fact, something to be mourned and revered in equal measure.
My adjustment problem was that Sector One can’t be compared to Sector Four in any way and I had problems at the beginning. Sector Four is raw, gritty, filthy and lead by a barbarian J I also found the worship and the religious aspect to get used to but that also in the end was smooth sailing.
Icing on the cake? We get to see Rachel, Ace & Lorenzo. Rosalie & Isaac.