Pursuit, or Why Romantic Heroines aren't Drips

 

Legendary hacker, Dimity Pond, is on the run from the law.

Her landlord’s sold her home, her money has disappeared along with her two-timing husband, a cyber-terrorist named Nemesis is forcing her to wreak havoc with a nasty virus and she’s developing a vile migraine.

Six years ago, Nemesis framed Dimity for the collapse of one of Europe’s biggest banks. The money was never found, and the bank’s failure caused untold damage to its customers. She’s been living under the radar ever since. The only way she can clear her name and live a normal life is to uncover Nemesis’s identity, but he’s always one step ahead.

Since Lord Richard Summerhayes left the Special Forces he’s built the best disaster-recovery network in the world, known as The Bunker. Banks, militaries, airports and other major systems around the world rely on him as the last unshakeable digital fortress in the face of disaster. Richard has been keeping an eye on his neighbour who has a dubious hacking past. He doesn’t like hackers, and when someone nukes his network with an intriguing new virus he knows exactly who to blame. But when he confronts her, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.

When Nemesis commits an unthinkable act of terrorism, the last hope is an encrypted file that only Dimity can crack. Will Nemesis manipulate Dimity into helping him wipe out the world’s biggest financial centre? Or can Richard and Dimity take Nemesis down once and for all?

I’m quite fussy when it comes to romantic suspense.  I genuinely can’t deal with heroines who sit around and get rescued continually; if you’re going to have your main two characters at the heart of a thriller-type plot, then the woman needs to kick-arse.

And kick-arse Dimity does.

She’s super intelligent – no matter what mistakes she’s made in the past, and her determination to keep going is more than commendable.  And her narrative is far from a bed of roses; after Nemesis is revealed there’re some fairly harrowing scenes that you wouldn’t usually see under a romance imprint.

Loved the edginess of it though (that’s something that Momentum Moonlight seems to provide a space for really well) and it’s so nice to see a heroine who’s an expert in a male dominated field!

And to give Nicholas her due, she’s done her research.  There’s hacking technicalities references used, but not in a way that prohibits understanding of the plot, and by the end of the novel I had a pretty decent understanding of how some drives work.  (Code on the other hand, still eludes me).

As for the romance itself, Richard and Dimity clash quiet a lot and the chemistry between heightens pretty quickly – though considering their situation, it’s hardly surprising.  I also liked the way the two of them had to slowly come to comprehend the other’s hang ups.  For a novel that had fast-paced action at its centre, it did a remarkably good job of highlighting why it’s hard when you start going out with someone.  All their hang ups and all your own have to be revealed and that’s not always the easiest of conversations!

So yes.  LOVE Dimity Pond.  More heroines need to have her no-nonsense-kick-arse attitude.  And more heroines need to be computer-savvy!