Nate Donovan has never gone a day in his life without smoke in his lungs and a lie on his lips. The secret to his success has always been his refusal to get involved in his client’s lives. Yet, when a handsome and troubled young man arrives on his stoop cloaked in lies and desperation he can’t bring himself to turn the stranger away. As the truth unravels around him Nate finds his resolve to keep … Nate finds his resolve to keep his client at arm’s length unraveling as well.
One errant comment will drag them both into a web of conspiracy and misinformation spanning decades, and as he breaks every rule of his trade to keep Cooper Hall alive, Nate may find that the truth is far more dangerous than any lie he’s ever told.
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This is book one of The Donovan Chronicles and is set in a future where everyone has a chip in the back of their necks, which records all their everyday conversations, trades, movements and the flow of information that is a very valuable commodity, especially for those in charge of collating such data! Most of the world has supposedly been destroyed and there is a pall of dirty air across the city where the main character lives. Nate (Nathan) Donovan is a fixer and likes to help people. He loans out credits, deals in some mind altering blue pills (not those ones!), helping anyone in desperate need of his skills. He has a best friend, who is like his sister, and the two of them are skilled at computers and can help set up new identities and alter your chip as well. The chips have practically wiped out crime in society, but there is still a huge difference between the rich and the poor.
The rich and elite class, live in a location that is protected by a force field and everyone and everything there is healthy and grows well, unlike in the polluted city where the rest of society live. Nate is only a couple of hours post pill and now suffering from the usual side effects of nausea and vertigo, when a man comes to his building and asks for his help. This man is called Cooper Hall, not his original name, and needs a new identity and his chip altered. But he isn’t anything like his normal customers and his clothing sets him apart. Someone seems to have pushed him to make this decision, is he being blackmailed? Nate should have just pushed him back out of the door and said no, but he is attracted to this handsome man, which should have been another no-no, to working with him! If anyone that Nate has ever helped, tells the truth about what he did for them, he would be executed!
Nate has done this sort of job many times, but this time it is going to get him mixed up in a conspiracy to overthrow those in charge and ensure everyone knows the truth about what their leaders are hiding. But once you involve attraction in the mix, anything you attempt to do can have unexpected outcomes. This job ends with Nate being taken in by a profiler, the most well-known one who frequently carries out executions each week, and taken to the leaders mansion, instead of jail like he expected. It seems that his attempts to erase a trigger phrase from Cooper’s online records, left his own conversations with his friend about an incident and what was said afterwards, on his own records. This leads to them both ending up at the elite leader’s home, as a possible match for marriage with his daughter. The unsuccessful candidate will disappear, ie be killed!
An intriguing story, the further you get into it, which is told over a two year period, before and after events occur and its aftermath. Nothing you want can be actually called by name, if it is anyway illegal or not accepted behaviour, as everything is recorded and the secrets you may have, will be sold to the highest bidder. It is only secret if you don’t actually talk about it! So lots of conversations around about topics and having to come up with other terms to use, or white lies used. To get out of there, Nate will have to come up with his most difficult plan and break all of his own rules, to save Cooper who unfortunately isn’t one to allow another to sacrifice for them. Get past the start and it will grow on you and leaves the two men in a challenging future, which I can’t wait to read more of in the next book! I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above. Book is listed under author name Beth Ryan on some sites and as Jessica Betts on others, but is the same book.