First, I must scream CONGRATULATIONS to Vivien Jackson for her first published book! I've known Vivien via my local RWA chapter and critique group where, yes I'm thrilled for her and have gushed over her work for apox. 2 yrs. She's not only a fantastic person, but a fabulous wordsmith. Vivien let me know it's okay to say her book 'sucks' if it does, but I'm letting you know- I'm one to tell it how it is--no holding back; her book does NOT suck.

With this first book, Wanted & Wired, from the series Tether, I can honestly say if it hadn't been for a bad case of the flu, I would have lost several hours of sleep for wanting to keep turning the page; to see where this journey was to take me. For those wanting to know up front, this book, for me, is Terminator meets Borg in a nut shell.

The reader is first introduced to Mari, a bad-ass, gun-for-fire gal from Texas whose reality bites [big-time]. She's brash, highly sexual and thinks on her feet when the gauntlet is thrown down. The bad, she's insecure and it shows up a little more than I would have liked from chapters 7-14 in mental re-hashes, but I also understand this is the time where a reader needs to see those insecurities in order to see Mari to grow emotionally; so she can move on/forward when the time comes.

The hero, Heron, is where the 'borg' come in. He's a post-human who guides Mari through assignments, has her back and more than a few surprises up his tech-sleeve. If you're looking for a new book-boyfriend and are willing to be open to the idea of someone whose unique- in a OMG fabulous way- like super-geek meets super-hero, Heron's your man. Each time a scene came up with Heron 'taking on the world' to protect Mari I swear my mental synapses and heart beats skipped. I wasn't even 11% into the book and I literally wrote "I want to know more about him; I want to keep turning the page to know more." I think you will too.

Wanted & Wired sub-characters are just this side of fuzzy like a blanket- you just want to surround yourself with a crew like this one; Chloe, a light-emitting, non-human species that doesn't have rights; Kellen, a not so good nature Cowboy with a heart of gold; The Queen, to which I'm not giving this one away and neither is Ms. Jackson as I would assume more information will be coming about her in one of the other two books. Let's just say *spoilers* are there for a reason. The bad guys so far are indifferent fathers, old boyfriends and the general godfatheresque thugs who want to take you out.
Ms. Jackson's writing is a dream. A hypnotizing, time-stealing art which kidnaps your imagination, holds it hostage and you don't even realize it or care as pleasure neurons are being fed something unique that you want to gorge on.
Pre-orders are available and something I would recommend as the Tether series may need to be renamed to something like Magnetic Pull of Mind Gravity once you've read it.

A Sci-Fi Thriller (that’s also a Romance) - and more than a touch of erotic shenanigans.

Mari is a sultry and sensuous hit-lady; mostly human, but with just a touch of technological add-ons. And by the way she’s got some serious Daddy Issues !.

She’s also got a pretty serious yearning to get down & dirty with her handler/partner Heron, following an assassination that goes spectacularly wrong.

Heron started out as a card carrying Human of the Nerd sub-species, but after some riots during the secession of Texas from the United North American Nations (UNAN) he’s now more mech-clone than human. Oh, and he can mesh his consciousness and his senses with his car and his aircraft.

On the run from the UNAN; the Texas Provisional Authority; and the originator of the assassination order, they duck and dive from various augmented mercenaries on their way to scratching their joint sexual itches; and removing a pesky transmission node that’s been implanted in Heron skull.

During some down time, these ‘itches’ do get thoroughly ‘scratched’ – especially while Heron can receive sensory input from his car !

The action fair rockets along, with a nice by-line in humour as well, such as “Nathan wasn’t originally from Texas, but he sure had adopted the yeehaw.”

To sum up, a great SF novel with more than a hint of romance (alright sex) and a pretty good line in lethal action, along with some wry humour.

Hard time getting into this book, a lot of strange names and characters to get straight in my head, but once that happened the story took of and was action packed till the end.

interesting read

a good interesting story. Enjoyed. I liked the plot.

Just not for me could not get into it there was nothing wrong with it just not for me so sorry

3.5 stars

Even though I don't read a lot of sci-fi romance novels the blurb of this book sounded really good. It seemed like it had a very original story-line, which I find very important in my books. I was intrigued as soon as I started Wanted and Wired. The author did a very good job at creating a whole new world that had me wanting to know more about it.

Mari is a gun for hire and she sometimes shares contracts with Heron, who is post-human (someone with implanted tech). Mari's usual contracts involve thieving, demolition, and corporate data smuggling. But this time she took a assassination job. With Heron as her backup this should've been a very easy job, but the moment the hit is done, she realizes something is wrong. They are put on the most wanted list and have to run. Mari had been lusting after Heron for a while now. Heron himself isn't without feelings for her either, but he knows of Mari's dislike for post-humans so he never initiated anything more than a friendship. They normally don't spend any time outside work but know that they are on the run together, they are forced to deal with their feelings.

I really enjoyed them discovering that they both felt something for each other. Mari is a very fierce and strong woman who gets things done. Heron was very mysterious and the more I got to know him, the more interesting he got to me. There are secrets that are revealed and I really loved the twist the author added towards the end, because I didn't see it coming. Things I didn't like were the heavy use of sci-fi terms, they made it difficult for me to get fully into the story. I understand that this is the first book in the series and world-building is very important but it really slowed the pace for me. Also a couple of scenes could've been shorter, this way there would be more room for story and character development. However I am looking forward to the next book in the series, I have no idea if it will focus on the same main characters. There are a couple of side characters that are intriguing and I hope that the next books will focus on them.

I adored this book completely, even reading it while walking the dog in the rain. (Poor lifestyle choide, do not recommend that you attempt to imitate). The world she created is detailed and complex, while not completely improbable. There was probably a hint too much angst in the relationship, but it's not like that doesn't happen in real life.