Review: Crossing the Line (The Raven Files #1) by Meghan Rogers

Crossing the Line (The Raven Files #1) by Meghan Rogers
Publisher: Philomel Books
Release Date: April 12th, 2016
Purchase: Amazon

If Jason Bourne were a teenaged girl…

Jocelyn Steely was kidnapped as a child and raised in North Korea as a spy. When her agency sends her to the U.S. to infiltrate the very group her parents once worked for, Jocelyn jumps at the chance to turn double agent and finish off her kidnappers once and for all. She convinces the head of the American spy agency to trust her, but it’s not quite as simple as that: Jocelyn has to fight the withdrawal symptoms from the drug that the North Koreans used to keep her in line, and her new fellow spies refuse to trust their former adversary. Worst of all, there might be some new information to uncover about her parents - if she even wants to find out.

This action-packed spy thriller is part Gallagher Girls, part Alex Rider, and part Bourne Identity.

My thoughts:
First...
Thank you Meghan Rogers for not only writing a badass heroine (and I mean badass with a capital B) but for letting her stay that way throughout the entire book!  I LOVED this beyond any words I can even think of, I might need an alien language to express my love for this book actually because they might have words we don't in the English language...hm have to look into that...

Anyway this book!!  OMG this book.  Be prepared for flails of all kinds because that's all I've been doing since I started this!!  First the story starts off with a bang!  We are thrown right into the action and my heart started pounding and never slowed down!  I will say when I read the first interaction between Scorpion and Viper I did do an eyeroll because I just knew where that whole story line was going.  Well I wasn't wrong on the basics but Meghan Rogers totally flipped the whole relationship between them upside down and this is where I truly started falling in love with Ms. Rogers.

Let me explain a tad.  Usually in these instances there are forbidden looks, sweaty palms between the two love birds to be, and the guy is always the resident hottie who has a bad ex girlfriend lurking in the wings.  I am not a fan of the overly hot guy who every girl wants, but he only has eyes for the new baddie so imagine my surprise when in this book we get none of that!  Yes Scorpion is first in his class, but I never read one line not a single line that made him sound uber hot.  I want to hug this author because she managed to give these characters an actual relationship that was hard built and not just founded on mutual attraction.  She let these two incredible people hate each other for various reasons and then let them grow to an understanding.  Will there eventually be a romance, I think so and I am totally okay with that.  I love Scorpion and Viper like none other and if they do just remain friends I am okay with that too  because the story is about so much more than just romance and I will take their relationship any way I can get it.

Okay now the story. I again loved every bit of it.  It was complicated and all kinds of spy stuff craziness and it was glorious.  I also want to say that I loved how the author took her readers right up to the brink of total meltdown but then eased up enough to let us breath a sigh of relief.  I like that she knew how far to push and I feel confident enough to read the next book without looking at the ending to see if things blow up.  They might still but Rogers has my total devotion to fix whatever blows up.

Viper was such a great character.  She was impulsive, but totally knew her stuff and could back up whatever she threw down.  I loved that she wasn't TSTL though and could listen to directions when she needed to.  She didn't put herself in anything she couldn't get out of and I felt comfortable letting her take on dangerous actions.  I enjoyed watching her grow and understand what it means to have a partner and I enjoyed watching her totally kick ass!!  From the get go she proved how tough she was and she never faltered.  Not even when she was at her weakest point.

I am curious who the mole is and I am quite sure there is one.  I have my eye on a few people and I am hoping I am wrong because I love these selected characters so much. If she does pick one I have picked then I think it will be brilliant even if I will be mad and want to kick the author.

I think this whole story was exciting, exhilarating, and one that I can't see anybody being able to put down once they get started.  I am so upset I have to wait for a year for the next installment!  This one doesn't exactly end on cliff hanger, but it does end with a WHOA moment that makes me want the next one even more!!

If you love spy type books this is definitely for you and even if you don't love spy books this is still for you!!  GO pick this up now!!!  Meghan Rogers you are a writing GOD!!!  Thank you for Viper and all her badassness, awesomeness, snarkiness, and amazingness!!

This is a definite blizzard read for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!