Piracy is a Game
What Are You Worth?
Since she was a little girl, everyone - from her father to the Great Creator himself - told Lyssa Peate the same thing: she's worthless. But when she becomes the pirate bounty hunter Razia, she can see the price tag on her own head. Employed by one of the four pirate syndicates, she uses bank transactions and her considerable wits to capture rival members. At least, she would be if Razia's boss ever gave her a chance. It's a man’s world, and all she’s allowed to hunt are purse snatchers while she languishes on probation.
To pay the bills, she's stuck in her old life as Lyssa, discovering and analyzing distant planets and selling them for cash. She's doing just enough to stay out of trouble, pretending to be continuing her father's mysterious research while away for long periods of time. Her slimy boss is always asking questions and even assigns one of her younger brothers, Vel, to intern with her. Already struggling to keep the balance between her double lives, she tries everything to rid herself of the kid...
...until the universal police mistake Lyssa’s intern for Razia's hostage.
Danielle Hanna on Danielle Hanna wrote:It didn't take long to decide that this book is driven far more by its characters than the sci-fi elements. You could have put Lyssa in any number of settings, and her personality and struggles would have resonated just as strongly. Her sass captured me early on, but by the end, there was so much more to her character that makes her a strong main character.
Zach Tyo on Indie Reviews wrote:This book rekindled some long-lost feelings I had when I was young and steeped to my eyebrows in adventure novels. Lyssa – or Razia, as she prefers to be called – was a real kick. At times, I wanted to punch some sense into her, but usually I was laughing too hard at her red-hot temper or sympathizing too deeply about what it felt like to be trapped between a rock and a hard spot. I enjoy kick-ass heroines, and she was one of the best.
There's a certain laid back nature that comes across in Evans' writing. While the story gets deeper and more thrilling, there is a certain easiness to her writing that keeps you in that moment without being overwhelmed. There are a few places where the calm writing affects some of the places where you would expect some more emotion from either Lyssa or Raiza, but both characters lean towards anger and Evans has no trouble portraying the fiery anger that emanates from this character.