Eve’s Destiny: Mike and Eve Series 1 – Renée Y. Lewis

Published in 2017 and written by American author Renée Y. Lewis.

Lucas Coles is an IT technologist and programmer working for Colby Designs, but also an Internet money launderer working for the Gennaro Family. After a short period of illigaly withdrawing money from Colby Designs' customers' accounts he was finally caught and fired. 

Being kicked out of the company drove Lucas completly mad, and blinded by rage he went on a rampage one day and shot everyone on his path.

Not quite so romantic biginning for a love story, uh? Well... from my point of view that's precisely the most exciting part of the entire book. But.... hold your horses, this is not exactly what the book's about. This is merely the intro, prior of how Eve and detective Michael McGarrett set their eyes on each other and all the affaire began.

Now, let's take a look at Eve and Mike's story: Leaving everything behind in her native San Francisco Eve needed some company to help her get acquainted with her new surroundings in New York city. Circumstances then brought them together; it was love at first sight for both of them and a very loving and passionate relationship surprised them dearly.

My rate:

My thoughts on the book: Got to say that the introductory chapter was incredibly exhilarating (I certainly bit my nails up to my nuckles!), I loved the investigation part and how Lucas was chased by the detectives. I could spot out, a very well constructed plot, the complexity of Lucas Coles character  and his dark business, the Gennaro family and their disrupted relation and felonious activities. Narrative and setting were detailed, fully descriptive and above all engaging. No question, I fell in love with this book!

Several pages later though, a new story took over, and that was the love story between Eve and Mike. At the begining it was heart-stopping and thrilling, but then the novel cooled down perhaps a bit too much, not only because the bad guys were left out and put clearly behind but also because Eve and Mike's story was so steady and predictable it actually became dull at some point. The novel largely revolved on how perfect these two characters were, on both senses: physically and emotionally.

I would have liked these charaters to have some kind of a crisis and struggle before getting together, something that made the reader believe they might not have the happy ending they've been fighting for. But the truth is their realtionship went so smooth they barely had any difference of opinion or anything, instead they were true soulmates in all aspects. I would have expected more turbulence and controversy, it all looks too idyllic for my taste.

From my perspective, intricate issues that were greatly incorporated to the plot right from the beginning of the book deserve to be solved with the same impetus. As a reader I wished I was given further explanations of what happened to the Gennaro family and if they actually paid for their crimes. 

In short, side story was by far more interesting and intriguing than the main one, I felt more fascinated by Lucas and the Gennaro family than the rosy life of Eve and Mike. So, for future readers keep in mind this is a love story principally, so don't get very enthusiastic with the detective side one.

All in all, I'd like to read the sequel and see how the narrative develops in the second part, I'd like to see the story's evolution and how the characters are presented this time.