Oh my gosh?! I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did, and I am so thankful for Fantastic Flying Book Club for allowing me to be on this blog tour! Stay tuned for a review and my playlist. Be sure to click on the banner to see the rest of the stops on this tour, and as always, I love hearing your thoughts so be sure to comment!

Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world.

Athena operatives are never supposed to shoot to kill—so when Jessie can’t stop herself from pulling the trigger, she gets kicked out of the organization, right before a huge mission to take down a human trafficker in Belgrade.

Jessie needs to right her wrong and prove herself, so she starts her own investigation into the trafficking. But going rogue means she has no one to watch her back as she delves into the horrors she uncovers. Meanwhile, her former teammates have been ordered to bring her down. Jessie must face danger from all sides if she’s to complete her mission—and survive.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

Born in the UK, Shamim is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and director. 

Her next book, The Athena Protocol, is an all-female YA contemporary action thriller that is published by Harper Teen in September 2019. 

Her debut novel, The World Unseen, won a Betty Trask award and the Pendleton May First Novel award. 

Shamim has adapted and directed the films of three of her novels including, most recently, Despite the Falling Snow. The book was published by Headline in the UK and St Martin’s Press in the US. The movie stars Rebecca Ferguson and Charles Dance in a story of love and betrayal in cold war Russia. Her films have won 47 awards internationally. 

Shamim’s third novel, I Can’t Think Straight, formed the basis of her cult hit film of the same name. 

Shamim’s book festival appearances include Hay-on-Wye, Cheltenham and Edinburgh. 

An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events worldwide, at the INK Conference in India and DLD in Munich. Corporate speaking events have included Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Disney. 

Shamim lives in London with her wife, Hanan, and their two sons.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Edelweiss, Fantastic Flying Book Club, and HarperTeen for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Human Trafficking, Death, Violence

LGBT, Arab

Like I was mentioning above, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got this one, but I am so thankful that I read it. I was in love with this novel from the beginning – you know, besides the bad stuff that happened but it worked so well – and the premise was really enjoyable to read.

This totally gave me Charlie’s Angels vibes, and I was so happy to see that the Athenas were created to save girls from human trafficking, by most means necessary. They are experts in combat and espionage, and that was honestly so hot. I love what their mission is all about, and honestly there needs to be something like that in real life, if there isn’t already. I think this was even cooler than the missions I’ve seen in Charlie’s Angels, but I’m not about to girl on girl hate for a silly reason like that.

I was so upset about what happened with Jessie, our MC, because I feel like it wasn’t really something she should have been faulted for. I understand that the Athenas never kill, but sometimes if they have no choice, can’t they make an exception? I don’t know what that says about the kind of person I am, but if Jessie is able to kill someone to save the lives of so many girls from being trafficked, mistreated, and even murdered, then why should that be punished so harshly?

It always kills me when someone ends up being hunted by those they were initially close to, and they have to think out of the box in order to save their own lives from being snuffed out by their former partners. Those kinds of story-lines hurt me to my core, but it makes me wonder which ones of the former partners will end up doing what is right, versus what their orders are. Is it better to be the good soldier who doesn’t question orders, or to be cognizant of the decisions we have to make, and do what’s actually right.

Decisions, decisions.

I’d totally love to see this as a movie or something. The imagery was just great, and I was so rooting for Jessie to prove herself again in the Athenas’ eyes, even though I knew that she was worth way more than she believed.

Go read this, friends!

Playlists galore, fam! I love this one, and ugh do you see this cover though? Perfection.

Thanks again so much, friends for enjoying this ride with me! I can’t wait to see what you guys think, and if you have read this book as well, let me know your thoughts! See you soon!