Book Review – The Regional Office is Under Attack by Manuel Gonzales

In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization—the Regional Office—and its coterie of super-powered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation. At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now, the Regional Office is under attack.

Recruited by a defector from within, Rose is a young assassin leading the attack, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah—who may or may not have a mechanical arm—fiercely devoted to the organisation that took her in as a young woman in the wake of her mother’s sudden disappearance. On the day that the Regional Office is attacked, Rose’s and Sarah’s stories will overlap, their lives will collide, and the world as they know it just might end.

So, I got this as an eARC because female assassins? Yes please! Unfortunately, I was not a huge fan of this book as I felt it focused far too much on action and not enough on the characters themselves. I would have enjoyed seeing more training and more interpersonal relationships but, as seen in the name, it mostly focuses on the attack.

The book focuses between two POV characters – Rose who is one of the attackers and Sarah who is one of the defenders. It shows the history of both characters and how they ended up in the positions they are in, then the outcome of the attack. Interspersed through this are comments from a fictional book detailing the downfall of the regional office. I really enjoyed these sections and felt they were definitely the best parts of the novel as although it was fun reading about Rose sneaking down to infiltrate the office, there wasn’t much depth to it. I feel this is a novel that would work much better as a film because of all the action scenes. I was also not a fan of most of the characters in charge – they were very manipulative of the young women, using them for their own purposes. The book also felt a bit too long – if it had been shorter I probably wouldn’t have minded as much and just viewed it as a quick, fun read but unfortunately, it was a bit too long for that at over 400 pages.

Overall, this is not a book I’d recommend although if you’re a big fan of action scenes then perhaps it might be for you. A lot of the reviews I’ve seen have mentioned that they didn’t even finish reading though, so if you do plan on reading it – I recommend getting it from a library so you don’t end up regretting your purchase!

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google