Reviewed by Dee
TITLE: No Normal for Us
AUTHOR: Alessandra Ebulu
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 40 pages
BLURB:
Raquel is the daughter of a popular don, and a member of the Blanchard mob. Secrets, lies, and evasions are a way of life. Ogaga is a killer for hire, beautiful and deadly. Secrets, lies, and murder are a way to stay alive. Neither expects the attraction between them to turn into something they can’t live without—but to do that they each have to tell the truth about who they are, and risk destroying the fragile, normal life they’d been building.
REVIEW:
I have to pre-face this review by saying, there is no erotic content in this story, for some silly reason I thought there was! I guess that ones on me.
What it did have was a kick ass heroine, a hired killer no less. I was down with that, well until she took out a man in front of his five-year-old daughter. And is if that wasn’t bad enough, the first thought that went through her head after taking the shot, was what she was going to wear on her date. That turned her from kick-ass heroine to an unfeeling human being in my eyes. I never quite came to grips with how she came to be an assassin, due to the shortness of the story. Further on I was a little confused when she stated to her King-pin Grandfather– “I won’t be taking a shot, I’ll be throwing a knife. You know I don’t do guns.” Not sure what I missed there, or if it was a plot hole, as I was digesting the trauma the wee girl must be going through after seeing her father shot dead.
Raquel was a mixed bag for me, almost an airhead you could say. The minute she lays eyes on Ogaga, she is gaga for the girl, cue insta-lust. When she doesn’t hear from her for a few days she has a tantrum. Like a spoiled child she hurls a vase across the gym room in her parents home. They come in and mollycoddle her, how old was she 20 something? And they’re like what’s up baby? No reprimand over the vase, just a reminder from her father to sweep up the mess.
Not long after that, there’s a four month time jump, and at that point Ogaga confides in her friend, aka fellow assassin, that she needs to come clean and tell Raquel what she really does for a living.
After deciding not to reveal herself just yet, Ogaga is sent on another mission, which brings us to the conclusion of the story. Something that took a huge amount of suspension of belief for me. In fact I would have probably enjoyed this story more had it been Urban Fantasy as it had that kind of feel to it.
With that said, this was an action packed short story, that didn’t require too much brainpower to follow. I’d definitely read more by this author.
RATING: 
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