Review: Decoy by Michaela Debelius

Posted April 2, 2013 by Sophia Rose in Reviews / 0 Comments

Tags: Decoy, Michaela Debelius, Noel Casey, Sci-Fi Romance

Decoy

by Michaela Debelius

Series: #1 Noel Casey
Genres: Sci-Fi Romance
Published by Indie/Self Published
Released on December 31, 2013
Pages: 230

Oh, this one just grabbed me from the start with its mysterious military installation and odd duty assignment for the heroine, Noel Casey. Everything about the story stayed shadowy and mysterious until well over the halfway point. I love that off-kilter feeling I get when I’m reading a nicely developing plot.

The story opens with Lt. Noel Casey, a scientist, being assigned to a top secret base. She soon learns that her assignment isn’t for her role as a leading germ expert, but in her secondary degree as a psychologist. She’s been brought in to assess the battle readiness of a genetically altered human. It is all odd from the start and the clues are starting to add up that she’s involved in something that goes much deeper than she has been told. The altered human, Killian, first draws her sympathy for the sterile life he has had living in a lab all his life, but there’s something off about him even while she grows more and more attracted. Killian is more than a lab experiment to her and she wants to be his friend and maybe something more if she’s being honest with herself. Then she encounters danger from being in an almost all male environment as well as a distraction in the friendly, but mysterious Lt. Russo. And what’s with the odd dreams and scary creatures in the forest?

I know I was pretty vague with my plot summary, but I didn’t want to spoil it for anyone. Some stories really need to be experienced without undue influence and that’s how I feel about much of this book. Now there were moments once I was let in on the situation that the tension and mystery finally broke and I felt some lag from the need to get the explanation out. At that point, the tension turned in another direction becoming more romance related not that there wasn’t the slow build of romance in the beginning. It just wasn’t the only focal point. I confess that this was a story where I was more enamored with the beginning three-fourths than the last. I have trouble with love triangles so that’s just on me and someone else might not mind so much. I had a hard time shifting gears, but once I got onto the new plot path I was tracking along nicely- well until that startling last sentence. I just sat there at ‘the end’ thinking, ‘No, really? We’re going to end it now?’ It was the good sort of disappointment where I was vested in the story and didn’t want it to end. Definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Those who enjoy Sci-Fi Romances with some baked in intrigue should give this one a go.

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Sophia Rose

I was born and raised near Sacramento, CA. I have read since I was four years old and developed tastes that run the gamut of literature. I went away to college and have a degree in education, a certificate in family history research, and a certificate in social work. I worked for a non-profit agency with low income families for 20 years which included being responsible for the children’s library and promoting/teaching adult literacy. I have lived in Southeast Michigan for the last 18 years and I am currently a book addicted homemaker with a cat and husband who keep me grounded. Recently, I made it a challenge to review each book that I have read as a favor to author friends who said reviews are important. I have done reviews for Good Reads, Amazon, eBay, and Smashwords, but mostly at Goodreads and Amazon.